Ennor's Restaurant Building
Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Marker Inscription
CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 2006. Ennor’s Restaurant Building. James W. Plachek, Architect. John P. Brennan, Builder, 1923. This reinforced concrete building with its articulated brick facçade and simple classical detailing was built for Harvey and Marie Ennor at a time of energetic downtown development. They expanded a small sandwich shop into an elegant restaurant, banquet room, grocery and butcher shop, bakery, and confectionery. From 1933 onward, the building successively housed the True Blue Cafeteria, World War II government agencies, a furniture store, and the Act One & Two Cinema. Builder John Brennan later established his own popular West Berkeley restaurant, Brennan’s. The sidewalk-level storefront was replaced and the building renovated in 2008, but the second-story front remains intact. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 2009
Erected by Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
The Story
Built in 1923 for Harvey and Marie Ennor during a burst of downtown Berkeley development, this reinforced-concrete building with a brick facade grew out of a small sandwich shop into an elegant restaurant, banquet hall, grocery, butcher shop, bakery, and confectionery. Over the following decades it housed a cafeteria, World War II government offices, a furniture store, and a cinema. Its builder, John Brennan, later opened his own beloved West Berkeley restaurant.
Why it matters
The building's ever-changing tenants read like a social history of an American downtown across the twentieth century, from Jazz Age dining to wartime bureaucracy to postwar retail.
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Related people
- · Harvey Ennor
- · Marie Ennor
- · James W. Plachek
- · John P. Brennan
Themes & tags
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