Berkeley’s precious historic fabric is eroding before our eyes, and the City is doing nothing about it.



Designated landmarks, legally protected by the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, are routinely mutilated with no official scrutiny or counter-measures.



Take the case of the John Woolley House at 2509 Haste Street. Built in 1876, this Italianate-style Victorian is the second oldest structure on the Southside and a City of Berkeley Landmark.

After many years of neglect, the Woolley House found guardian angels in John Gordon and Janis Mitchell, whose plan to preserve and relocate it to their lot at Dwight Way and Regent Street was approved by the City. Acquired from Ken Sarachan, the Woolley House is to be moved this Saturday and will join the landmark Blood House, which was moved from 2526 Durant Avenue in mid-August.

John Gordon, of Gordon Commercial Real Estate Services, is known for having rescued many historic structures in Berkeley. He spent over seven years waiting for the Woolley House and hired architectural firm Siegel & Strain to document it. Preservation architect Burton Edwards created the plans for restoring the two houses at the new site, and Kaufman Construction, experienced in rehabbing old structures, is the general contractor.

Gordon is away until December 1; his supervisor tells us that the firm took care to save all the trim from the Woolley House. Nevertheless, nobody was on site to observe when Sarachan’s crew dismantled the large west-facing bay window—an important character-defining feature—and discarded the materials on the ground as trash.

It’s not clear whether Gordon or his consultants ever photographed the Woolley House or made detailed drawings that would enable them to replicate the lost window. When the Blood House was delivered without its roof, Gordon confessed to not having any drawings of the discarded roof.

Meanwhile, contractor Marty Kaufman determined that the tiny Bonnet Box shop building at 2506 Dwight Way could not be moved whole to its intended new location behind the Blood House. It is not clear whether the City was alerted before Kaufman’s crew dismantled the Bonnet Box, saving only the siding. When reconstructed, this 111-year-old (or older) structure will be brand new. If all goes well, it will wear an old coat, but I wouldn’t place any bets on this happening.

The City of Berkeley has a lengthy and costly permit process. On paper, at least, it requires projects involving historic properties to apply the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the treatment of such properties.

The Secretary’s second standard states: “The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The replacement of intact or repairable historic materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.”

Very laudable, but it means nothing when nobody is watching and crews are left to their own devices.

The Woolley-Blood-Bonnet Box case is hardly unique. Designated landmarks all over Berkeley are routinely mutilated with no permit and no followup enforcement.

Kingman Hall (the historic Theta Xi Chapter House, 1914) replaced its wooden windows with ugly aluminum ones. The shingled William E. Colby House (Julia Morgan, 1905) lost its front garden and acquired a stucco playpen that disfigures its façade. On Regent Street, across from the Blood House, the recently designated Mary J. Berg House (1901) and Lucinda Reames House No. 2 (1903) lost character-defining features singled out for preservation by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. In all those cases, City staff was notified after the fact, but nothing has been done to enforce a remedy.

No historic building should be dismantled without the presence of a preservation official. Berkeley needs to appoint such a person if it hopes to keep its historic character.