Morse Block
Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Marker Inscription
CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1979. MORSE BLOCK Dickey and Reed, Architects, 1906. Charles Dickey, whose firm designed the Claremont Hotel and who practiced architecture extensively in California and Hawaii, designed this building with two residential floors above commercial storefronts. From 1921 to 1935 the ground floor was occupied by Donogh Drygoods, one of Berkeley’s leading downtown retailers and a competitor of Hink’s department store one block to the north. The store was a “daylight store,” lighted by windows, skylights, and french doors that opened onto a rear garden. Mrs. Donogh, one of the first woman graduates of M.I.T., introduced a popular “Basement Grocerteria” — the first of its kind in the state. The appearance of the ground floor has been changed many times, but the buff brick and classically detailed facade of the upper floors are original. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998
Erected by Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
The Story
Designed in 1906 by Charles Dickey — architect of the Claremont Hotel — the Morse Block set two floors of apartments above ground-floor shops. From 1921 to 1935 it housed Donogh Drygoods, a leading downtown "daylight store" lit by windows and skylights, run in part by Mrs. Donogh, one of MIT's first women graduates, who introduced California's first "Basement Grocerteria." The buff-brick, classically detailed upper floors remain original.
Why it matters
The building preserves the texture of an early-twentieth-century downtown and, in Mrs. Donogh, an early example of a college-trained woman shaping American retail innovation.
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Related people
- · Charles Dickey
- · Mrs. Donogh
Themes & tags
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