Berkeley, a Look Back: Pacific School of Religion dedicates new library
A century ago, the Berkeley’s Pacific School of Religion held a Feb. 4, 1926, gala dedication of its new Holbrook Library building atop what is now called “Holy Hill.”
The building, designed by Walter Ratcliff, Jr. was declared one of “the most beautiful and chaste buildings in the Bay region” according to the Berkeley Daily Gazette. “Heavenward pointing in its Gothic lines, the architecture, said Dr. Swartz (President of the PSR) was of the most inspiring character.
“Final plans call for a central tower as the crowning feature of the architectural scheme. Among the structures to be built in the future are a chapel, a dormitory for women and an edifice for missionaries on furlough.”
The Gazette also noted in its Feb. 4 story that the “the institution is preserving the edge of the hill just west of the school as a belvedere, ‘a place where all people for all time to come may come and enjoy the glorious scene,’ was Dr. Swartz’s declaration.
This is in the form of a concrete platform with handsome balustrade and stairways leading to the street below. The evening view, especially, from this point, is declared to be one of the most inspiring in the world.”
Ferry plan: On Jan. 27, 1926, the San Francisco Chronicle editorialized against the state Railroad Commission denying a permit for a new car ferry from the Berkeley waterfront to the northern San Francisco waterfront.
The paper argued that “traffic congestion in the lower part of San Francisco is in a bad way” and that having a car ferry docking would make sense at Hyde Street on San Francisco’s northern waterfront, not around the Ferry Building, where most of the cross bay traffic landed. The Gazette approvingly republished the editorial, along with several articles about Berkeley groups joining in the call for a re-hearing of the ferry petition.
Indian prince: On Jan. 28, 1926, the Gazette reported that “attracted by the work in agriculture offered at the University of California, Prince Madhav Singh of India is enroute to Berkeley where he will enroll for graduate studies.”
The Gazette noted that “he will be welcomed by other students from India who are doing graduate and undergraduate work here.” Singh was described as “the nephew of the ruler of the Indian state of Janragar.” After some online research, this would appear to refer to the then princely state of Nawanagar in British colonial India. Jamnagar (not “Janragar”) was its principal city.
From the late 19th century onwards the Berkeley campus attracted a steady stream of scholars from South Asia, East Asia and South America in particular, often financed by their regions or governments to study practical subjects like economics or agriculture that could then be applied back home.
Social service: The Jan. 28, 1926, Gazette reported on studies “of what is being done in Berkeley in the fields of health, relief work, work with children and character building among young people.” Mrs.Beatrice Williams, “made an earnest and stirring appeal for a more adequate attempt on the part of Berkeley to meet the social needs of the southwest part of the city.”
“We are a favored community, yet there exists along our Western shore a section peopled by 22 nationalities where there is a crying need for social work of every variety,” she said. “The Hawthorne School is the center of this interesting community.”
She urged that the school be provided with a “gymnasium with shower baths” and that “there should be a community center near the school with a resident social worker in charge. Southwest Berkeley is at present our neglected step-child.”
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.