Berkeley, a Look Back: Council OKs site for new library branch in 1925

""A century ago, Berkeley's City Council voted Sept. 29, 1925, "to purchase a site on the northwest corner of Grove and Woolsey streets for the contemplated South Berkeley Library branch," the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported. "The property consists of two lots which will give ample room to erect a structure the size of the Claremont branch. It will cost $8,040.""

""The police were called and "Officer H.P. Lee speeded to the house. When he arrived he found Templeton (the firefighter) sitting on the box which contained a growling, snappy, fox terrier. Lee shot the animal. Before being caught, the dog ... wrecked the interior of the house, tipping over the chairs and plants. The animal will be sent to the University laboratories for examination.""

""Police officer Gene Woods narrowly escaped falling from the roof fire escape of the Brasfield Apartments, 2520 Durant Avenue, at 2:15 this morning while attempting to catch supposed burglars who proved to be college students playing a prank." The apartment manager had called in the police, thinking burglars were on the fire escape. Woods managed to catch three men "between 24 and 25 years of age."

In 1925 Berkeley's City Council approved purchase of two lots at Grove and Woolsey for a South Berkeley Library branch, sized like the Claremont branch and costing $8,040. The original one‑story Spanish Revival library building still stands, though the branch later moved north on present‑day Martin Luther King Jr. Way; the 1925 building became Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in 1968. The same period recorded local mishaps: Officer Gene Woods chased prank students on a fire escape, and a firefighter subdued an aggressive fox terrier that was subsequently shot and sent to university laboratories for examination.

Read at The Mercury News