PRIMARY RECORD Page 1 of 6 *Resource Name or #: (Assigned by recorder) Nish & McNeill Men s Furnishings P1. Other Identifier: Cloud Building *P2. Location: Not for Publication Unrestricted *a. County Alameda and (P2b and P2c or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5 Quad Oakland West Date 1993 Township & Range No data c. Address 2017 Shattuck Ave. City Berkeley Zip 94704 d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone 10S; 564426mE/ 4191842mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, etc., as appropriate) Assessor s Parcel Number: 57-2034-9; East side of Shattuck Avenue south of University Avenue. *P3a Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) *P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) NRHP Status Code Other Listings Review Code Reviewer Date Constructed during the second decade of the twentieth century, the commercial building at 2017 Shattuck Ave. has a frontage on Shattuck Avenue of about 35 feet, and initially was split into two sections, serving as a clothing store and newspaper store. The framework of the building is brick; the walls and rear addition enclose about 3,000 square feet. At the rear of the building, which aligns Terminal Place, the brick facing of the original rear wall is evident at the parapet, but most of this rear wall is now concealed within a wood-framed plywood-clad addition that extends the building to the perimeter (rear) property lines. The original appearance of the façade of this building was not determined as a part of this recording. The current front elevation is a ca. 1945 modern-styled façade replacement that is recognizable for its distinctive light green vitreous marble pigmented glass tiles. HP6. 1-3 story commercial building *P4 Resources Present: Building Structure Object Site District Element of District Other (Isolates, etc.) P5b. Description of Photo: (View, date, accession #) View facing northeast, January 2015. *P6. Date Constructed/Age & Sources: Historic Prehistoric Both 1915/ca. 1945 façade remodel, 105 years old, *P7. Owner and Address: De Z. Xue & Jian X. Zheng 469 47 th Ave. San Francisco, CA 94121 *P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation, and address) Franklin Maggi Archives & Architecture, LLC PO Box 1332 San Jose CA 95109-1332 *P9. Date Recorded: March 30, 2015 *P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive *P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter none.) Archives & Architecture LLC: Shattuck Avenue Commercial Corridor Historic Context and Survey, 2015. *Attachments: NONE Location Map Sketch Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling State Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List) DPR523A
Page 2 of 6 *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Nish & McNeill Men s Furnishings *Recorded by Franklin Maggi *Date 3/30/2015 Continuation Update DPR523L
Page 3 of 6 *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Nish & McNeill Men s Furnishings *Recorded by Franklin Maggi *Date 3/30/2015 Continuation Update The starkness of the façade is reflective of emerging design sensibilities during the midtwentieth century. Urban centers seeking to modernize during the late-depression years and after World War II encouraged covering or replacement of older classically designed façades with modern skins. Beginning in 1936, the Federal Housing Act provided low interest loans, partnering with Builder s Exchanges and Merchants Associations in a program called Modernize for Profit, or Modernize Main Street. The remodeling trend continued through the 1950s, and along Shattuck Avenue a number of early twentieth-century buildings obtained new façades during this twenty-plus year period. The tiled upper façade of this commercial building is evident in early photos of this portion of Shattuck Avenue, although the storefront was modified in more recent times to provide a thematic design for Ichiban, a Japanese cuisine and sushi bar restaurant. The tile, sometimes referred to as Carrara Glass, is wrapped inward where it drops downward at the outside edge of the storefront, with the lower portions clad with a mosaic of large applied stone shapes. The pigmented structural glass veneer is an opaque material popularized by the Vitrolite Company that has been manufactured by a number of companies during the twentieth century, including the Penn-American Plate Glass Company who named it Carrara Glass. Used on facades from the 1920s onward, it is closely related to the Art Moderne movement which emerged in the decade before World War II. Vitreous marble has not been manufactured in the United States since 1947. Two new exposed steel I-beams are equally spaced to support the upper façade, and a Japanese styled storefront topped by a blue-tiled mansard curves inward to a gated entry. A centered pole at the front property line supports a modern cantilevered and angled sign, set at the base of the marble tiles above and to the side. The rear addition appears to be wood-framed and is clad with T1-11 plywood siding. The roof of the original building is flat with brick parapets. The addition is low-slope to flat and is trimmed with flat wood boards. It has openings, both rear entry and windows at the west side of Terminal Place. The building appears to be in excellent condition. Rear view of building from Terminal Place, viewed facing northwest. DPR523L
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD Page 4 of 5 *NRHP Status Code 5D3 *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Nish & McNeill Men s Furnishings B1. Historic Name: Nish & McNeill Men s Furnishings B2. Common Name: Ichiban Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar B3. Original use: Retail Commercial B4. Present Use: Commercial Restaurant *B5. Architectural Style: Modern *B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alterations, and date of alterations) Constructed 1915 (COB permit 4776, August 1915). Façade remodel ca. 1945. *B7. Moved? No Yes Unknown Date: n/a Original Location: n/a *B8. Related Features: Terminal Place adjacency at rear. B9a Architect: John Hudson Thomas b. Builder: Unknown *B10. Significance: Theme Commerce and Architecture Area Downtown Berkeley Period of Significance 1915-1958 Property Type Commercial Applicable Criteria A (1) (Discuss importance in terms of historical or architectural context as defined by theme, period, and geographic scope. Also address integrity.) Originally built to expand the retail center around Berkeley Station along Shattuck Avenue, this one-story commercial storefront building remains intact excepting for a replacement façade constructed just after World War II, and a later expanded rear at Terminal Place. Although the façade is not original to the building, it has a distinctive character, and the primary vitreous marble-clad feature was added during the period of significance for Berkeley s downtown Shattuck Avenue historic commercial corridor. The building itself is an important part of the fabric of the core area associated with the period of growth during the early twentieth century, and has value as a contributing feature to the historic downtown. The building was constructed just after the building boom experienced by Berkeley during the first decade of the twentieth century, which is partly be attributed to the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and subsequent exodus of people from San Francisco to neighboring communities. The early twentieth century was also an expansion period of the University of California, and the site was near the railway station on Shattuck Avenue, which contributed pedestrian traffic for commercial uses in the area. B11. Additional Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) None *B12. References: Guinn, J.M., Oakland and Environs, V.I., 1907. Polk-Husted Directories, 1916-1943. Oakland Tribune, Obituary, 12/6/1917 and 12/7/1917. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, 1894, 1911, & 1929. B13. Remarks: Proposed historic district *B14. Evaluator: Franklin Maggi *Date of Evaluation: May 8, 2015 (This space reserved for official comments.) DPR523B
Page 5 of 5 *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Nish & McNeill Men s Furnishings *Recorded by Franklin Maggi *Date 5/8/2015 Continuation Update The property is within the area first recorded as the Map of the Ranchos of Vicente & Domingo Peralta, Plat 79. Within this area, a 26 lot subdivision called Terminal Tract was first populated by residential structures. According to the 1894 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, the subject property was the rear portion of a residence set back from University Avenue, and the 1911 Sanborn shows the property with a small store and office building facing Shattuck Avenue, with the residence gone and commercial development taking its place at the corner of Shattuck and University Avenues. The building located on the subject property covers the rear portions of Lots 14, 15, and 16 that had previously contained houses that faced University Avenue. To the rear of the current parcel is Terminal Place. The building was constructed in 1915 by owner Ernest Alvah Heron. Heron began construction on his building at 2136-2140 University Ave. to the north of this building a month earlier in July of 1915. Ernest Alvah Heron was a prominent East Bay businessman in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Illinois in 1852, Heron arrived in California at the age of 21. Initially employed as a bookkeeper for a land speculator, Heron later worked as a customs house inspector, and then as the personal secretary of E. C. Sessions, a banker and real estate dealer. In 1876, Heron, alongside Sessions, was one of the organizers of the Highland Park and Fruitvale Railroad. The company operated a line of 10.5 miles between Oakland and Hayward using several double decker motor cars. Heron also began investing in East Bay real estate at this time as well, and in 1889, he helped to organize the Piedmont Cable Railroad Company, of which he became President. Heron was also one of the key investors and organizers of the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose Consolidated Railway (later the Key Route), which was one of the later lines with an alignment on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley s Downtown. Heron had many other investments, including the Realty Syndicate and the First National Bank of Oakland. He founded the firm of Heron and Holcomb, a real estate partnership. He died in 1917 shortly after the subject building on University Avenue was constructed. The building was designed by architect John Hudson Thomas. Thomas is recognized as an architect of the San Francisco Bay Tradition; however little remains of his design that is evident today. By 1916 Nish & McNeill Men s Furnishings were located at the building at an address of 2021 Shattuck Avenue, and Robert Fisher operated a newspaper dealership. Fisher was advertised as the local source for the San Francisco Chronicle during this early period. Prior Surveys This property has not been previously surveyed by the City of Berkeley. Integrity The building at 2017 Shattuck Ave. has integrity of location and setting in Downtown Berkeley, design integrity of the outer layers of the façades and integrity of much of the remaining building. The building continues to have visual associations with commercial Berkeley during its period of significance (1915-1958) and remains identifiable as an historic building within the greater downtown core. Evaluation The building is historically significant due to its association with important patterns of development in the downtown core. The property is a contributor to the establishment of a commercial historic district in the greater Shattuck Avenue area corridor. The building continues to represent, at the street, commercial forms and materials that were prominent in the downtown during the period of historical significance for this building; from 1915-1958. The form and detailing of the building maintains an important link to the past of downtown Berkeley. The property is not individually eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or California Register of Historical Resources, due to the substantial modifications to the façade of original structure. The remodeled façade has distinctive character-defining features in its own right, however, additional changes at the storefront during more recent times reduces its ability to convey its important mid-century design. DPR 523L * Required information