Berkeley_Faculty_Club

Berkeley Faculty Club

Berkeley Faculty Club

Historic place in Berkeley, California


The Faculty Club of the University of California at Berkeley,[2] or Faculty Club at UC Berkeley, is a private members' club located on the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California.

Quick Facts Location, Coordinates ...
The Great Hall

In 1982, The Faculty Club was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NPS-82000960). It is also a California Historical Landmark and it is listed in the California Register of Historical Resources.[3] Historical and contemporary artwork can be found in the meeting rooms and main corridor of the club from artists such as Ray Boynton and Jacques Schnier.[4][5][6]

Architecture

The Faculty Club was originally built in 1902 to designs by noted Bay Area architect Bernard Maybeck in the American Craftsman style as what is now the Great Hall.[7][8] Subsequent additions such as architect John Galen Howard's lounge with double fireplace to the south, and kitchen and dining rooms designed by Warren Perry and remodeled by W. S. Wellington, significantly expanded the building's footprint.[8]

It is located on Faculty Glade, adjacent to Strawberry Creek.[8] While excavating what is now Faculty Glade before construction, a variety of Ohlone artifacts and skeletons were uncovered.[8]

Membership

The Faculty Club started as a dining association and then a gentleman's club. The club permitted women only as honorary members or visitors until 1972, (women were restricted from the main dining room until 1969)[9] when members voted to "eliminate all discrimination against female membership in the club".[10] It is located west of the Women's Faculty Club, which opened its doors in 1923 and maintains reciprocity with the Faculty Club today.[11]

Today, active membership is available, upon approval by the board of directors, to current or retired faculty, "researchers, administrators and career staff" associated with the University of California (UC), and associate membership is open to UC alumni.[2]

Paranormal activity

Over the years, many stories have circulated about The Faculty Club – and specifically Room 219 – as the site of reported paranormal activity.[12][13] According to A History of the Faculty Club by James Gilbert Paltridge, students reported hearing history professor Henry Morse Stephens, who lived in the west wing for over two decades until he died in 1919,[12] reciting lines of poetry from his window.[14][12]

In March 1974, Keio University professor Noriyuki Tokuda told The Berkeley Gazette that he had seen a "very gentlemanly" man sitting on a chair watching him while he was half asleep, while staying in Room 19 of The Faculty Club.[15][16] At the time, he was told that the room had been occupied for 36 years by a professor who died in March 1971.[16] A copy of the Gazette article was framed and hung in the club's offices.[12]

In 2009, a psychic medium visited the Spirit Tower of The Faculty Club with a journalism student.[12][17] While he failed to "connect" with the ghost of Professor Stephens, he claimed to interview a ghost affiliated with the 1920 football team – either the captain, the coach, or both – who purportedly shared that he had died of pneumonia and criticized modern football, but nevertheless "ended ... the interview with a hearty 'Go Bears!'".[17]

Facilities

Today's facility includes lodging,[7] dining, conference rooms, and event facilities which are open to members and non-members.[18][19]

As a venue, the club has hosted weddings, receptions and special events.[20][21][22][23]

The Club has been the meeting place of Berkeley's Arts Club,[24] Folk-lore Club,[25] and the exclusive History of Science Dinner Club at Berkeley.[26][27][28]

Notable members

See also


References

  1. "National Register Information System  (#82004641)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "Constitution and By-Laws" (PDF). BerkeleyFacultyClub.com. Faculty Club of the University of California at Berkeley. 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
  3. "Alameda". CA State Parks. Archived from the original on October 23, 2017. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  4. "Unsual [sic] Art Collection Awaits at Faculty Club". Berkeleydailyplanet.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  5. "Unsual Art CollectionAwaits at Faculty Club. Category: Page One from The Berkeley Daily Planet". www.berkeleydailyplanet.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  6. "University of California: In Memoriam, 1988". CDLib.org. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  7. Maybeck, Bernard Ralph (October 22, 1902). "Faculty Club". MIT Dome. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2023 via dome.mit.edu.
  8. "NPS #82004641: Approved NRHP nomination of the Berkeley Faculty Club". Nps.gov. Archived from the original on July 24, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  9. Kessel, Cathy (2022). "Tenured Women at Berkeley Before 1980" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 69 (March 2022): 433. doi:10.1090/noti2448. S2CID 246755695. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 5, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2023 via ams.org.
  10. "03.13.2002 - Faculty Club reaches century mark". Berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  11. "History". The Women's Faculty Club. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  12. "Faculty Club: UC Berkeley's very own haunted landmark". The Daily Californian. March 10, 2014. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  13. Hauck, Dennis William (1996). Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books. p. 32. ISBN 0140257349.
  14. "10.30.96 - Halloween Tale". Berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  15. Ramella, Richard (March 19, 1974). "A haunting at the faculty club". The Berkeley Gazette. p. 1. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  16. Ramella, Richard (March 19, 1974). "A haunting? (Continued from Page 1)". The Berkeley Gazette. p. 1. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  17. Peden, Charles (October 27, 2009). "Ghost "Hunting" at the Faculty Club at UC Berkeley with a Journalist for a Radio Story". Psychic Medium & Animal Communicator Charles Peden. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  18. "Visiting the Faculty Club". Berkeleydailyplanet.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  19. Peterson, Lucas (July 27, 2018). "Berkeley on a Budget". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 12, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023 via NYTimes.com.
  20. "Rina Pal, Jan Götzen". NYTimes.com. August 6, 2017. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  21. "Popular restaurant Delhi Diner to open Telegraph Avenue location". The Daily Californian. April 14, 2020. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  22. "Celebrating the life of David Hodges". Berkeley Engineering. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  23. "The Faculty Club East Bay Wedding Location Berkeley 94720 Bay Area…". Here Comes The Guide. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  24. "Philosopher, Professor, and Berkeley Chancellor, 1961-1965". CDLib.org. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  25. Hahn, R (1999). "Berkeley's History of Science Dinner Club: A Chronicle of Fifty Years of Activity". Isis. 90 (Supplement). University of Chicago Press: S182–S191. doi:10.1086/384613. JSTOR 238012. S2CID 143713045.
  26. "Philosopher, Professor, and Berkeley Chancellor, 1961-1965". CDLib.org. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  27. Dowd, Katie (July 19, 2023). "The real Oppenheimer's stranger-than-Hollywood love life". SFGATE. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  28. Furio, Joanne (July 19, 2023). "Wiretaps and martinis: A tour of J. Robert Oppenheimer's Berkeley". Berkeleyside.org. Archived from the original on July 24, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.

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