Telegraph Berkeley History Tour Preview

1

Free Speech Movement

Can you imagine the University telling students that they were not allowed to be politcally active on campus? That was the norm before the mid-1960s. What caused this to change?

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2

Community Memory/Leopold’s

Can you imagine a world without social media, smartphones, and the internet? That world was experimenting to create ours...

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3

Street Artists

Far out! Groovy. Out of sight...This might have been how you reacted to finding some cool hand-crafted item on the Avenue in the 1960s or 70s.

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4

Architectural stop 1: Berkeley City Club

The Berkeley City can be viewed looking down Durant Ave. from the corner at Dana. This imposing six-story structure is a hotel, event space, restaurant, and social club. Opened in 1930 as a women’s activity center, The Club, also known as the “Little Castle,” was designed by famed California architect Julia Morgan. In its heyday, the Berkeley Women’s City Club had over 4,000 members. In 1963 the Club opened to all genders and in 1975 was designated as a city landmark. Two years later, the Berkeley City Club was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

5

Japanese Internment

Can you imagine the US Government forcing you the leave your friends, possessions, and livelyhood behind to send you off to a primative camp in the Mojavie desert? It happened.

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6

Counterculture, Teeny-boppers, Drugs

Through the 1970s Telegraph Avenue was known across the US as a place to escape conformity. From the Summer of Love to People's Park, it was the definition of counterculture.

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7

The Cinema Guild and Studio

Before streaming, DVDs, and VHS tapes (remember those?), it was really hard to see a flim not made in Hollywood. People came here from all corners of the Bay Area to see the avant garde.

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8

Satanic Verses at Cody’s Books

We've all heard of a book burning...but a book bombing?

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9

Moe

Moe was comfortable upsetting people. If you were middle class, conformist, and a rule-follower, be prepared for a jab.

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10

Race, Discrimination, and the Shop-In

If you were black and around in the early 1960s, you could not work here. There were no laws prohibitng this.

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11

People’s Park and the Riots of ‘69

How did beautifying a parking lot turn into a clash that helped define the late 1960s?

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12

Curb Cuts and the CIIL

What if you used a wheelchair to get around and you needed to cross the street. If it was before the 1970s that was really tough. What changed?

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13

Architectural Stop 2: First Church of Christ Scientist

According the the Berkeley Architectural Heratige Association, the First Church of Christ, Scientist is the only building in Berkeley that has been designated a National Landmark. It is the highest honor that can be given a structure or site in the US. The church, located on the northeast corner of Dwight Way and Bowditch Street, was designed by Bernard Maybeck in 1910.The Church is considered Bernard Maybeck’s masterpiece. In the words of Kenneth Cardwell, Maybeck’s biographer, “no other building demonstrates so completely Maybeck’s imaginative architectural genius [...] with its masterly handling of space, structure, color, and light.” Others have remarked that it is one of the Bay Area’s greatest architectural monuments, a monument of inner beauty and strength, an inspiration for unique formulations of space, light, and texture and perhaps simply one of the great buildings of the world. Indeed, most anthologies on American architecture include this church.