Site of John Hinkel Livery Stable
Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Marker Inscription
CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1998. SITE OF JOHN HINKEL LIVERY STABLE. BERKELEY FARM CREAMERY COMPLEX. 1900. F.E. Armstrong, Contractor, 1910. By 1900, downtown Berkeley had developed around Shattuck Avenue, its main street. On this site, owned by John Hinkel, stood a brick livery stable run by John Fitzpatrick, the early operator of the Ocean View Trolley. In an era of horse-drawn transportation, the centrally located livery stable was advertised to “Furnish at all the hours Hacks, Carriages and Coupes.” The stable had 16-foot-high brick walls and an arched entry. A complex of shops and a warehouse were later built around the stable. In 1910, the Berkeley Farm Creamery (not to be confused with Berkeley Farms of south Berkeley) occupied the site. The creamery sold dairy products from nearby farms, including the Such Ranch in Strawberry Canyon. Berkeley’s Red Cross, the first on the West Coast (organized in 1898 to aid in the Spanish-American War), purchased the site in 1936 for its headquarters. Although most of the complex was demolished in 1998, segments of the 1910 brick warehouse remained on the adjacent site. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998
Erected by Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
The Story
By 1900 downtown Berkeley had grown up around Shattuck Avenue, and on this site stood a brick livery stable run by John Fitzpatrick, an early operator of the Ocean View Trolley, offering hacks and carriages at all hours. In 1910 the Berkeley Farm Creamery took over the site, selling dairy from nearby farms including Strawberry Canyon's Such Ranch. In 1936 the West Coast's first Red Cross chapter — organized in 1898 during the Spanish-American War — bought the property for its headquarters.
Why it matters
The site's shift from livery stable to creamery to Red Cross headquarters traces the American transition from horse-drawn transport to a modern service economy within a single city block.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Hinkel
- · John Fitzpatrick
Related events
- · Spanish-American War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Whaling Out of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
By the late nineteenth century, San Francisco had become a major whaling port even as the industry grew ever more perilous. With whale populations dwindling, crews had to sail farther into the frigid Arctic and stay at sea longer, risking ice and isolation in pursuit of oil and baleen. The city's wharves outfitted and sheltered this hard, fading trade.
Pulgas Water Temple
San Mateo County, CA
This elegant Greco-Roman temple on the San Francisco Peninsula celebrates one of the great feats of early-20th-century engineering: the arrival of Sierra snowmelt, carried across California by the Hetch Hetchy system, to slake the thirst of the growing Bay Area. The Isaiah verse carved here — of rivers given "in the desert" — casts the aqueduct's completion as an almost biblical delivery of water to a dry land. For decades the flow surfaced dramatically at this very spot.
Santa Clara Interlocking Control Tower
Santa Clara, CA · est. 2013
Built in 1926, this control tower governed one of California's key rail junctions around the clock until 1993, one of only two Harriman Standard No. 4 towers in the state. Its upstairs interlocking machine coordinated switches and signals where lines from San Francisco and Oakland converged. When the line's control passed to a computer at the San Jose Depot in 1993, sixty-five years of hands-on operation came to a close.
Santa Clara Tower
Santa Clara, CA · est. 2002
Opened by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1927, the Santa Clara Tower stood at the busy junction of the Coast and Western Divisions, its operators throwing switches and signals to guide trains in and out of the Newhall Yard. From here, storied passenger trains like the Coast Daylight rolled past, and high-priority freight was marshaled for the road. A 48-lever electric interlocking machine let a single operator route traffic safely through the crossing.