Berkeley, a Look Back: Church members urge stores’ closure on Sundays

These days local businesses often push for the opportunity to have extended operating hours So something of a surprise was in coming across a Berkeley Daily Gazette item from a century ago on Aug that the Berkeley Downtown Association had decided to make every effort to have every store close by o clock each evening and stay closed on Sundays and holidays The impetus came from local church members pressuring merchants but not a scarce of the merchants seemed very supportive Mrs Jessie White secretary of the association declared the she had located that it is practically impossible to legislate against stores staying open Those present at the meeting felt that the best and perhaps the only way to have early closing is to use residents opinion and propaganda as a means to reach this end Old hotel On Aug construction was publicized for a Class C commercial building feet high and containing up to eight storefronts at the northeast corner of University and Shattuck avenues This will replace the old hotel structure which was just now vacated by stores and a rooming house This was in its day one of the finest buildings of the city the Gazette shared The old Acheson Hotel is known to pioneer residents of Berkeley as one of the the greater part significant buildings in the city s early history the paper continued Aug The lobby of the hotel was the scene of numerous political confabs and at the time it was considered one of the finest hostelries in the East Bay The papers of that year were full of reports like this of new developments It was the Roaring Twenties and money was pouring into real estate New lodge Berkeley s Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows revealed July that James Plachek had been selected as architect for the new lodge building that would be built on the northwest corner of Bancroft Way and Fulton Street This is now across the street from Edwards Track Stadium but a century ago it was a full block from the smaller campus Learner hurt A UC Berkeley trainee and swimming star Sidney Glasson had been seriously injured in Yosemite in late July when he was working at Camp Curry He had been cleaning out an empty swimming tank and was knocked down by the hose fracturing his skull Summer classes Cal s summer session came to an end at with final exams July It was called one of the preponderance flourishing in the history of the University More than students more than of which were from California from every U S state and foreign countries had taken classes that summer on the Berkeley campus Hill fire A serious grass fire threatened homes on Vincente Road near the Berkeley line on the afternoon of July This was the first serious grass fire of the season the Berkeley Fire Department published to the Gazette Two engine companies successfully extinguished the blaze with wet blankets and chemical lines Bryan funeral On July a thousand people including political leaders and other dignitaries attended a rainy memorial facility and burial ceremonies for famed U S statesman William Jennings Bryan at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D C Previously people had paid their respects at his coffin when it stood in a church with an honor guard of veterans of the Spanish American War The coffin stand was surrounded with flowers including an arrangement sent by President Calvin Coolidge made of rose buds from the White House gardens Bay Area native and Berkeley neighborhood historian Steven Finacom holds this column s copyright