Berkeley Veterans Memorial Building
Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Marker Inscription
CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1985. VETERANS MEMORIAL BUILDING Henry H. Meyers, Architect, 1928. In the early 1920s Alameda County voters approved a special tax to construct buildings that would honor war veterans and provide a meeting place for their organizations. The City of Berkeley contributed the land for this building. Designed in the Classic Moderne style by county architect Henry Meyers, it is an important part of the large and harmonious array of civic facilities around the park in Berkeley’s Civic Center. Display cases in the lobby contain mementos of veterans’ organizations. The building has been the site of many historic events, including one of the first indoor Grateful Dead concerts in 1966. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998
Erected by Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
The Story
In the early 1920s Alameda County voters taxed themselves to build halls honoring the veterans of the Great War and to give their organizations a home. Completed in 1928 to county architect Henry Meyers's Classic Moderne design, Berkeley's Veterans Memorial Building anchored the city's harmonious Civic Center around the park. Decades later it even hosted one of the first indoor Grateful Dead concerts, in 1966.
Why it matters
It reflects how American communities in the 1920s translated wartime sacrifice into permanent civic architecture, giving veterans a public place of honor and assembly.
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Related people
- · Henry H. Meyers
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