First Unitarian Church
2401 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA
West elevation (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)“The First Unitarian Church of Berkeley was founded on Sunday, July 12, 1891, in space rented from the Berkeley Odd Fellows Temple, then on Shattuck Street, a couple of blocks south of its present location. Some have said that this first meeting was held in a saloon on the first floor, but if so, suitable quarters were found for subsequent meetings.”
Thus begins Chapter 2 of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley: A History, which goes on to say:
On that great Founders Day, 32 charter members signed the book. A few more signed the following week, and by the end of the year, membership was 50. Then, as now, there were as many who didn’t sign the book as did, so that the total church family was approximately 100.On the origins of the idea to establish a church in Berkeley, the History speculates:
It is quite possible that Thomas Starr King, second minister of the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco, 1860–1864, and Western Unitarians’ great hero, looked across the Bay and envisioned a large and influential Unitarian church standing there beside a magnificent institution of higher learning. [...]
The silken interplay of golden-hued textures
(photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)If Starr King didn’t envision this church, he at least inspired the man who did: Charles William Wendte, a young man in Starr King’s congregation. Twenty years later, Wendte, aided by Dr. Horatio Stebbins, successor to Starr King in the San Francisco pulpit, advocated the establishment of the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, along with a seminary in Berkeley, at the September 1890 meeting of the Pacific Unitarian Conference. Their proposal was accepted unanimously and enthusiastically and they proceeded forthwith.
In its first six years, the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley underwent numerous difficulties, including financial hardship. There was a great deal of borrowing and “refinancing” from members, funds, and banks. Straitened circumstances notwithstanding, from 1893 on the congregation diligently pursued its goal of purchasing a desireble and affordable site for a church, which it managed at last to accomplish in 1897.
South elevation (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)According to Richard Longstreth in his book On the Edge of the World: Four Architects in San Francisco at the Turn of the Century, a San Francisco Chronicle article dated 18 November 1894 indicates that Joachim Mathisen had drawn up plans for the church that were never built, apparently owing to cost considerations. The final design commission fell to A.C. Schweinfurth, who had built Weltevreden (his only other Berkeley building) for the Moody family in 1896. The church representative who asked Schweinfurth to prepare the plans even before an architect had been officially chosen was Edmund S. Gray, Volney D. Moody’s son-in-law, who had been involved in the building of Weltevreden.
The church’s official history makes no mention of Mathisen’s design:
The Beloved Church at Bancroft and Dana, 1898
The new church was of unique design and, like most Unitarian churches built since, symbolized this faith’s difference from orthodox faiths. It was the creation of architect A.C. Schweinfurth of the office of A. Page Brown & Co. of San Francisco and New York. He had been instructed to use only the best materials for each purpose. Bernard Maybeck, then a young member of the congregation and eventually a famous California architect, worked in the same offices and may have helped with the church’s design. It was an excellent early example of the Bay Area Shingle style. The building was 40 feet square, with a basement. A member gave the redwood pillars that graced the two front entrances and there were other gifts.
Dedication was November 20, 1898, at 3:30 p.m., with four Unitarian ministers and a rabbi participating. Opinion was divided as to its architectural beauty. One passerby was heard to say “It looks like a powerhouse,” to which the pert answer, of course, was “It is a powerhouse.” Cost, as an interesting comparison, was as follows: Building proper, $5,130.00; Furnace, $167.21; Furniture, $600.00; Insurance, $27.60—a grand total of $5,924.81.
The front walk and stone facing of the low embankment would come later. To pay for the church, $3,500 was borrowed from AUA on a no-interest, pay-back-one-tenth-each-year basis. The second largest amount was from mortgaging the lot, right after the final payment was made on it.
The “powerhouse,” east elevation (photo:Daniella Thompson, 2004)One of the most original American architects of the late 19th century, A.C. Schweinfurth is little-known today, having died at the age of 36. Most of his buildings succumbed to fire or demolition over the years, leaving a much reduced legacy.
Albert Cicero Schweinfurth (1863–1900) received his introductory design training at his father’s architectural ornament business in Auburn, N.Y. His three brothers also became architects, Charles Frederick (1856–1919) and Julius Adolph (1858–1931) gaining national reputations. In 1879 Albert moved to Boston, sharing an apartment with Julius Adolph, and worked for a year at J.R. Osgood & Co., printers of the American Architect, before securing a position as draftsman in the architectural office of Peabody & Stearns. From 1885 until 1888 he was employed by A. Page Brown (1859–1896) in New York. While in that office, he was responsible for the design of the Museum of Historic Art at Princeton University (1886–92).
A.C. Schweinfurth in A. Page Brown’s office, Room 238 of the Crocker Building, c. 1892 (California Historical Society, Photography Collection)In 1886, Schweinfurth left Brown’s office to work with his brother Charles in Cleveland but returned within the year. In 1888 he opened an independent practice in New York, but that, too, proved unsuccessful. His obituary in The American Architect and Building News informs:
Here excessive application to his profession brought on illness, and he was obliged to remove to Denver, Col., where he soon felt the benefit of the climate. In Denver may be seen many examples of his work, distinguished by its peculiar simple dignity and refinement. In 1890, having recovered his health, he removed to San Francisco, where he assisted Mr. A. Page Brown in the erection of many large and important works; he, being entrusted with their design and execution, thus rendered valuable service in beautifying the city.
As chief draftsman in A. Page Brown’s San Francisco office, Schweinfurth would work alongside Willis Polk, Bernard Maybeck, and Joachim Mathisen. While in that office, Schweinfurth was the lead designer of the San Francisco Ferry Building (1893–98) and Trinity Episcopal Church on Bush at Gough Street. Schweinfurth and Brown are credited with having been the first to introduce the Mission Revival style, in the California Building they designed for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. Although Schweinfurth’s role in the design of Joseph Worcester’s Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco has been disputed by some architectural historians, the National Historic Landmark Nomination for the church makes a case for Schweinfurth’s involvement.
In 1894, Schweinfurth left Brown for the last time, establishing a successful practice under William Randolph Hearst’s patronage. His first commission was a country estate in Pleasanton, Hacienda del Pozo de Verona (1895), which was appropriated by Hearst’s mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, before its completion. Drawing on Hispanic and Pueblo traditions, the Hacienda was called “The greatest California patio house” in the October 1904 issue of Country Life in America, while The California Architect and Building News (Vol. XX, No. 9) opined:
Mrs. Hearst’s house was designed by Mr. Schweinfurth, one of the most talented architects of the United States. He stands to this style somewhat as Norman Shaw does to Queen Anne. The one using a creamy colored stucco where the other employs a deep rose brick work. The one style in clear California light being as happy as the other is in the thick grey atmosphere of London.Other important Schweinfurth projects commissioned by William Randolph Hearst or spurred by him were the San Francisco Examiner building at Third and Market Streets (1897, burned in 1906) and the circular brick Little Jim Ward (1895) and matching Eye and Ear Pavilion (1896–97) of the San Francisco Children’s Hospital on California Street at Maple. All evidence points to the conclusion that until his death, Schweinfurth was to the Hearsts what Bernard Maybeck and later Julia Morgan would come to represent. In 1898, Schweinfurth embarked on a two-year study voyage through Europe. On his return, he suffered an attack of typhoid fever while spending the summer with his wife’s family in Dryden, N.Y. He died there on 27 September 1900, leaving his widow with a daughter.
The church circa 1915 (Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley)The expanding University of California acquired the Unitarian Church property in 1960, and the congregation moved to Kensington the following year, where a new church was built on land donated by Maybeck. The Berkeley parish house and auxiliary structure were razed in 1965 to clear land for the Zellerbach Auditorium and Playhouse complex. The church building was retained and has been converted into the Dramatic Arts Department’s dance facility. In 1998, the building underwent seismic, life safety, and ADA upgrades at a cost of $778,000.00, a far cry from the original construction costs a hundred years earlier.
The building today: U.C. Dance Facility (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)The First Unitarian Church is Berkeley Landmark #48, designated in November 1981, and #81000143 on the National Register of Historic Places (added in 1981).
Copyright © 2004–2008 Daniella Thompson. All rights reserved.
