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Building History

Brothers Carlton Hobbs and Edward Wall broke ground for a new hotel on the former site of the William E. Knowles House. Knowles was real estate developer who had struck it rich in Alaska, who built a large Neoclassical residence on the northwest corner of Telegraph Avenue and Durant Street in 1900. He moved his house to 2521 Durant Avenue in 12/1904. The Wall Brothers originally planned to build a smaler mixed-use residential/retail building on the site, but the extreme need for housing in Berkeley after the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-19/1906 convinced them to build a large hotel instead. Berkeley was a major destination for San Francisco refugees after the disaster.

The San Francisco architectural firm of Meyers and Ward designed this $125,000 hotel that stood four stories tall and had walls of clinker brick.

PCAD id: 21372