Nate is an East Bay community papers editor for the East Bay Times and Bay Area News Group.
A century ago the Berkeley City Council approved purchase of a lot at this corner of what is today Woolsey Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way for a South Berkeley branch library. The building that resulted still stands but became the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church’s new home in 1968.
A century ago, Berkeley’s City Council voted Sept. 29, 1925, “to purchase a site on the northwest corner of Grove and Woolsey streets for the contemplated South Berkeley Library branch,” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported. “The property consists of two lots which will give ample room to erect a structure the size of the Claremont branch. It will cost $8,040.”Berkeley, a Look Back: City marks two years since its calamitous 1923 fireBerkeley, a Look Back: U.S. veep Dawes, wife planned 1925 visit to townThe little one-story Spanish Revival-style library built there still stands, but the South Berkeley Library site moved several blocks north on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way. In 1968, the old library building became the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church’s new home.On Sept. 29, 1925, “Police officer Gene Woods narrowly escaped falling from the roof fire escape of the Brasfield Apartments, 2520 Durant Avenue, at 2:15 this morning while attempting to catch supposed burglars who proved to be college students playing a prank.” The apartment manager had called in the police, thinking burglars were on the fire escape. Woods managed to catch three men “between 24 and 25 years of age. They were brought to the police station and allowed to go after being told not to be naughty little boys again.” On that same day, a Berkeley firefighter entered a city resident’s house to help her escape “a dog which appeared to be mad.” The resident was standing on a table, and the fireman trapped the dog in a box and sat on it. The police were called and “Officer H.P. Lee speeded to the house. When he arrived he found Templeton sitting on the box which contained a growling, snappy, fox terrier. Lee shot the animal. Before being caught, the dog … wrecked the interior of the house, tipping over the chairs and plants. The animal will be sent to the University laboratories for examination.”On Friday, Oct. 2, 1925, the Berkeley police were preparing for a home football game the next day, using lessons learned from traffic problems the previous week. The police had arranged for the California Schools for the Deaf and Blind to allow residents near the stadium to use an internal road to cross from Derby Street to Dwight Way to avoid game day traffic.On that same day, the Berkeley Planning Commission unanimously decided that “College Avenue is not ready to become a strictly-business street and Grove Street from Berkeley Way to Rose Street should not be reclassified for business until the street is widened from 60 to 80 feet.” The Gazette noted that residents and property owners along College Avenue had clashed three times in the previous year-and-a-half, with some wanting retail reclassification, while others wanted to prevent expansion of stores on what was then a largely residential street.Finally on Oct. 2, 1925, the Gazette reported that 110 “auto owners discovered yesterday that the new traffic ordinance is being enforced. The discovery cost each of them $2, and the city treasury was enriched by $220. Few protests were registered by the defendants, most of whom had been ‘tagged’ for parking more than one hour in restricted territory.” The regulation had been put in place, partially at the request of business owners who were “greatly pleased with the efforts of the traffic officer, as it is now possible for customers to find parking space where once they were blocked by cars that filled all available space during shopping hours.”Originally Published:A Concord police officer collided with preschool teacher in a marked crosswalk. The city’s left paying the bill.East Bay man gets probation for trafficking teens who fought each other at Oakland hotelHe was a West Oakland church deacon who allegedly had a secret life. Now the murders have come to light, police say. He was a West Oakland church deacon who allegedly had a secret life. Now the murders have come to light, police say.Map: Starbucks in the Bay Area that are on the closure listLatest line: A good week for Jimmy Kimmel, a bad week for Pamela Price
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