United States Post Office (Berkeley)
Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Marker Inscription
BERKELEY HISTORY CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1980. UNITED STATES POST OFFICE Oscar Wenderoth, Architect, 1914. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Berkeley’s elegant Main Post Office is representative of the Second Renaissance Revival style, also called Neo-Classical Renaissance Revival. Government buildings constructed in this era were designed to “educate and develop the public taste and eventually elevate it to a higher plane.” Classical motifs decorate the building’s exterior and interior. The exterior terra cotta arches that are supported by plain tuscan columns are repeated on the inner wall of the loggia and again in the wall between the lobby and the main workroom. The mural over the door of the original Postmaster’s office, which depicts figures from California’s Spanish and pioneer periods, was painted in 1936–1937 by Suzanne Scheuer for the Treasury Relief Art Project during the Depression. Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 1998
Erected by Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
The Story
Berkeley's main post office, designed by Oscar Wenderoth and completed in 1914, is a refined example of the Second Renaissance Revival style, its terra-cotta arches and Tuscan columns meant to elevate public taste through civic architecture. Above the original postmaster's door hangs a mural of California's Spanish and pioneer past, painted in 1936–37 by Suzanne Scheuer under the Depression-era Treasury Relief Art Project. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Why it matters
Grand federal post offices expressed an era's faith that public buildings could ennoble citizens, and its New Deal mural ties the site to the government's remarkable effort to keep artists working through the Depression.
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Related people
- · Oscar Wenderoth
- · Suzanne Scheuer
Themes & tags
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