City Hall | |
Berkeley Landmark
No. 1 | |
Location | 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, California, U.S. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°52′09″N 122°16′24″W / 37.8691°N 122.2733°W |
Area | 0.4 acres (0.16 ha) |
Built | 1907 |
Architect |
John Bakewell Jr., Arthur Brown Jr. |
Architectural style | Beaux-Arts |
NRHP reference No. | 81000142 |
BERKL No. | 1 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | September 11, 1981 [1] |
Designated BERKL | December 15, 1975 |
Old Berkeley City Hall, also known as the Maudelle Shirek Building, [2] is a historic building in the Civic Center neighborhood of Berkeley, California, U.S.. It was originally located at 2134 Grove Street (now 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way). [3] It has is listed as one of the National Register of Historic Places under the name "City Hall" since September 11, 1981; [4] [3] and listed as a Berkeley Landmark by the city since December 15, 1975. [5] It is one of the contributing buildings to the Berkeley Historic Civic Center District. [6]
The design of the Berkeley City Hall was derived from the Town Hall at Tours, France, designed by Victor Laloux. [3] The building design by architects John Bakewell Jr., and Arthur Brown Jr. for the old city hall was selected as the winner of a 1907 competition to replace the original Town Hall which had burned to the ground in 1904 (designed by Samuel and Joseph Cather Newsom, 1884). [3] The old city hall building has a grand marble entrance, a cupola, a spire and a curving staircase with wrought-iron banisters. [2] A few years later in 1915, the same two architects designed San Francisco City Hall, which has similar features. [2] The Old City Hall is also the keystone of the Berkeley Civic Center, which was inspired by the concepts of the " City Beautiful movement", emphasizing broad vistas and important public buildings grouped around a central open space or park. [3]
In 1977, the city offices were moved to 2180 Milvia Street, which resulted in the name "old city hall". [3] The fate of the old city hall building has been in limbo since 2002, when Berkeley voters rejected a bond to repair it. [2] In 2007, the name of the building was changed to the Maudelle Shirek Building, after the former former Vice Mayor and eight-term City Council member Maudelle Shirek. [2]
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service.