"A century ago, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that Berkeley's City Council, acting in response to a request from the city of Albany, voted to cooperate with Albany in extending Santa Fe Avenue as a parallel highway to San Pablo Avenue. Berkeley Councilmember Elmer Nichols said he favored making the extension, stating he believed it would tend to bring Albany residents to Berkeley's shopping center, where now they continue down San Pablo Avenue into Oakland."
"Real estate: Home sales were booming in Berkeley a century ago, and photographs of houses for sale in the Gazette were increasingly common. Many Berkeley houses built then survive today. The photo accompanying this column shows a house ad on San Lorenzo Avenue, just west of Berkeley's street known as The Alameda, that was offered by real estate agent William Erving in the Aug. 29, 1925, Gazette."
"The newspaper ad described it as a beautiful 7-room house It has three bedrooms. Dining and living rooms are finished in gum. Wood or coal furnace and automatic water heater. Double garage. The house very much appears to be 1858 San Lorenzo Ave., a house that still stands today with a very similar exterior appearance except for a gable added since then to the second floor along with solar panels and newer garage doors."
Berkeley's City Council agreed to cooperate with Albany to extend Santa Fe Avenue as a parallel highway to San Pablo Avenue to attract Albany residents to Berkeley's shopping center. Councilmember Elmer Nichols supported the move, saying it would redirect shoppers who otherwise continued down San Pablo into Oakland. An Aug. 28, 1925, council meeting drew no citizens, the first such instance under the city-manager system, attributed to no zoning items and fair weather. Home sales were booming and house photographs were common. A San Lorenzo Avenue ad described a seven-room house with gum-finished dining and living rooms, furnace, automatic water heater, and double garage; the property likely corresponds to 1858 San Lorenzo Ave., which largely still stands.
Read at www.eastbaytimes.com
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