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Building History

The prestigious Beta Theta Pi Fraternity chapter made plans as far back as 1891 to build a new house near the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Campus. UCB fraternities, during the 1890s into the 20th century, competed with one another to build the grandest and most well-appointed frat houses to attract new pledges. This group rejected its 1891 plan and instead commissioned the talented English architects Ernest (1863-1933) and Almeric Coxhead (1862-1928) to design them a new residence in either 1892 or 1893. The Coxheads had relocated from Los Angeles to San Francisco by about 1890, and the firm became a key proponent of a free new approach to residential design, one based on traditional styles but reflecting site-specific and idiosynchratic ideas of massing and planning.

Architectural historian Daniella Thompson has said of the residence: "As designed by Coxhead, three of the chapter house’s four parts were clad in wood shingles (as were the roofs) above an exposed brick foundation. The building is an early seminal example of the First Bay Tradition, built around the same time as Maybeck’s residence at Grove & Berryman Streets and two years prior to Keeler’s house." (See Daniella Thompson, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).com, "Beta Theta Pi Chapter House 2607 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA," published 2004, accessed 06/19/2019.) The building's four components housed functionally distinct spaces, each individualized to create a diverse appearance suggesting that its parts had been erected and accreted over a long period of time.

Several additions were made before 1940, while it functioned as a fraternity house. By the 1950s, the Beta Theta Pi UCB Chapter, composed of mostly upper-middle-class, white "jocks," developed the reputation for intolerance toward ethnically diverse students housed next door at Cloyne Court, and decided to move to a new residence at 2621 Ridge Road. They didn't stay there long, moving in about 1970. They obtained new quarters at 2782 Channing Way.

In 1966, the UCB bought the residence for its use. Three years later, the new Graduate School of Public Policy (GSPP) became its new occupant. The philanthropic entity, the Richard and Rhoda Haas Goldman Fund, endowed by the owners of Goldman Insurance and Risk Management, donated funds to the GSPP to upgrade the building's seismic resliience and ADA accessibility. This work proceeded between 07/1997 and 01/1999. As a result of this generous donation, the GSPP was renamed for the Goldmans in 1997.

Building Notes

Thompson suggested that renowned architect Bernard Maybeck (1862-1957), who worked for the Coxheads at about this time, may have had a hand in designing this residence. (See Daniella Thompson, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).com, "Beta Theta Pi Chapter House 2607 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA," published 2004, accessed 06/19/2019.

Alteration

In 1909, the noted San Francisco architectural firm of Bakewell and Brown attached a three-story dormitory addition to the house's east side. John Bakewell, Jr., (1872-1963) and Arthur Brown, Jr., (1874-1957) were both members of the UCB Beta Theta Pi Chapter. This firm also appended a new dining room onto the house's northwest corner in 1921. A final addition occurred in the early 1930s, although it is not known who its architect was. Bakewell and Brown dissolved in 1928, and so it is possible that one of the two successor firms, either Bakewell and Weihe or Arthur Brown, Jr., and Associates, Architects, worked on this last alteration. According to Thompson, this remodeling effort included: "A one-story flat-roofed block was added in the 1930s east of the dining room addition. At the same time, some of the wood shingle exteriors were replaced with clinker-brick veneer on the ground floor and stucco with wide boards simulating half-timber construction on the upper floors." (See Daniella Thompson, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).com, "Beta Theta Pi Chapter House 2607 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA," published 2004, accessed 06/19/2019.)

The Architectural Resources Group (ARG) supervised the renovation of the former Beta Theta Pi House to accomplish seimic repairs and accessibilty improvements when it became the Goldman School of Public Policy in 1997-1999.