“A bank building to house the Elmwood branch of the Mercantile Trust Company will be erected at the northeast corner of College and Ashby avenues at a cost of $65,000, F.H. Thatcher, manager of the Berkeley branches, announced today,” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported a century ago on June 12, 1925. “Ground will be broken within the next few days for the structure.”
That handsome building designed by Walter Ratcliff Jr. still stands at the same intersection, housing a Wells Fargo Bank branch today.
Waterfront clams: Here are two vignettes about local nature from the June 4, 1925, Gazette.
First, a report that “Flemings Point is attracting many fishermen and clam diggers these days, especially on Sundays. Last Sunday clam diggers were especially numerous, big catches being made.
“Several parties enjoyed the outing with clam bakes on the beach, while others made clam chowder as a part of their outing lunch. The bass fishing was also good during the high tide period, a number of specimens weighing as much as 8 and 10 pounds being taken by the fishermen.”
Flemings Point was later developed as the now-defunct Golden Gate Fields race track. Up until about 1905 it had also been the site of plants that manufactured explosives.
Another brief item said “a tree stump measuring 18 feet in circumference is being removed from the northeast corner of Hopkins and West streets, on land owned by W.J. Schmidt, local contractor. The tree was of such size that it would furnish political speakers a good stand from which to talk, according to Schmidt.”
The intersection of Hopkins and the former West Street is covered by part of Cedar-Rose Park and the Ohlone Greenway now. A stump of 18 feet in circumference would represent a trunk nearly 7 feet wide, though. What species? My guess would be a live oak or possibly a bay laurel (if there was a stream nearby), or maybe even a eucalyptus planted early in Berkeley’s development history.
Hopkins shopping: Speaking of Hopkins Street, today’s neighborhood commercial district around that street’s intersection with Monterey Avenue took a step toward creation a century ago when the city of Berkeley Planning Commission reviewed a proposal to reclassify “the whole block on Hopkins Street between Carlotta and Monterey avenues to allow retail businesses.”
Though the petition to reclassify was “favored” by the commission, it “was not accompanied by plans for buildings, as required by the commission, so the petition was referred back to the petitioner either to be changed to take in the entire block or to be submitted with plans for the proposed improvement.”
Clockworks: The June 11, 1925, Gazette reported that “The Pacific Electric Clock Company has brought its equipment from its San Francisco plant to the new factory in Berkeley at Ninth and Parker streets, and machinery is being installed … this is the only plant of its kind on the coast.
“Electric clocks for schools, clubs and larger institutions will be manufactured at the plant here. An additional piece of land south of the present structure is being graded for future buildings and additions to the plant.”
Suicide: “Despondent because of continual ill health, Dr. Frederick D. Haldeman, of 2525 Durant Avenue, formerly a prominent Berkeley physician, leaped to his death from a window on the third floor of the University of California hospital in San Francisco yesterday, where he had been a patient,” the Gazette reported June 12, 1925.
“According to details of the suicide, Dr. Haldeman sent his nurse from the room for several minutes on an errand, removed the metal screen from the window and leaped out. Dr. Haldeman had been ill for the past six months.”
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.