{"nrhp_refnum":"81000142","name":"City Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2134 Grove St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Berkeley","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.86960579600003,"lon":-122.27343758499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1981-09-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Berkeley's former City Hall at 2134 Grove Street, Berkeley, California, a two-story Beaux-Arts civic building of stucco-finished reinforced concrete, designed in 1907 and completed in 1909.","why_significant":"It is an outstanding East Bay example of Beaux-Arts design and an early work of the firm Bakewell and Brown. Its original scagliola and trompe l'oeil stairwell decoration is well preserved. It also served as the seat of Berkeley government from 1909 to 1977 and anchors the Berkeley Civic Center.","narrative":"Berkeley's Old City Hall, at 2134 Grove Street, is a two-story Beaux-Arts building of stucco-covered reinforced concrete, topped by a 60-foot lantern and spire. Bakewell and Brown won a 1907 competition with a design derived from the town hall at Tours, France, to replace the 1884 town hall that burned in 1904. Construction began in 1908, and the building became City Hall in 1909. It housed city government until 1977. The east facade is symmetrical, with giant Ionic columns, balconies and urns. The interior has a grand U-shaped stairway whose apparent stone, leather and tapestry are painted plaster, and whose columns are scagliola imitating marble. This decoration is original and unaltered. A 1950 rear extension and replacement of the window sash left the main facade's character intact. The building also inspired the Berkeley Civic Center, and its spire remains a visible landmark. It now holds school district offices.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"BAKEWELL BROWN (John Bakewell and Arthur Brown, Jr.)","architectural_style":"Beaux-Arts, French Renaissance tradition","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Condition rated good and altered; leased to the Berkeley Unified School District, whose administrative offices occupy it, and City Council and School Board meetings are still held there.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.115434-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/81000142.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000142/00021be5d5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000142/00021be5d5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_City_Hall_(Berkeley,_CA).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_City_Hall_(Berkeley,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858183","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Berkeley_City_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20727671"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/city-hall-81000142/"}