{"nrhp_refnum":"98000963","name":"Berkeley Historic Civic Center District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by McKinney Ave., Addison St., Shattuck Ave., and Kittredge St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Berkeley","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.86945793900003,"lon":-122.27139253899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-12-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture","Social History","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A civic center historic district in Berkeley, Alameda County, California, built mainly between 1909 and 1950 around Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. It includes thirteen buildings, one site and one structure, with city, county, federal and community buildings.","why_significant":"The district is significant as a cohesive civic center that took more than three decades of planning and land acquisition to complete. Its buildings, park and fountain reflect City Beautiful planning ideas, Berkeley's progressive local government and policing, and New Deal era federal programs such as the Federal Land Bank. Its Beaux Arts, Classic Italian Renaissance and Moderne architecture retains a high degree of integrity.","narrative":"Berkeley's Civic Center district covers parts of a five-block area around Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, bounded by McKinley Street, Milvia Street, Allston Way and Center Street. It contains nine contributing buildings, a park and a fountain, built between 1909 and 1950. The earliest are \"Old\" City Hall (1909), designed by John Bakewell and Arthur Brown Jr. in Beaux Arts style, and the 1914 Post Office in Classic Italian Renaissance style. Later buildings, including the 1928 Veterans Memorial Building, the former Federal Land Bank building and the Berkeley Community Theater, are largely Moderne. Four main buildings sit on a cross axis centered on the Moderne concrete fountain in the park, which was completed in 1942. The district matters because decades of City Beautiful planning, local progressive government and New Deal funding produced a cohesive ensemble. Its buildings share a compatible palette of pale colors and have kept a high degree of integrity.","period_of_significance":"1909-1950","architect_builder":"John Bakewell & Arthur Brown Jr. (City Hall); Henry H. Meyers (Veterans Memorial Building); Henry Gutterson, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan and John Gregg (park design committee)","architectural_style":"Early 20th Century: Beaux Arts Classicism, Moderne, Art Deco","criteria":[],"status_note":"General condition of the buildings is described as good to excellent, with no significant alterations to the park or contributing buildings; the Veterans Memorial Building is still in use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.044079-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/98000963.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000963/5178923d10-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000963/5178923d10-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King_Jr_Civic_Center_(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:Martin_Luther_King_Jr_Civic_Center_(Berkeley,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858157","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Historic_Civic_Center_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120142874"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/berkeley-historic-civic-center-district-98000963/"}