A century ago this month, the new Tupper & Reed “music house” opened Sept. 1, 1925, at 2271 Shattuck Ave. Mme. Raegan Talbot, a singer soloist, and the Horace Heiet Orchestra from the Hotel Claremont provided entertainment in the new building that featured “the best of everything musical.”
Berkeley’s new Tupper & Reed music store opened Sept. 1, 1925, on Shattuck Avenue. The building still stands as a Berkeley landmark. (photo courtesy of the Berkeley Historical Society and Museum)
“The beautiful new store of Tupper & Reed, Berkeley music dealers, will be formally opened this evening between the hours of 8 and 10 o’clock,” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported Sept. 1, 1925. “The public is invited to visit and inspect this unique and artistic store and building.
“Tupper & Reed have ventured into a most startling departure in the beautiful and artistic building. … They have departed widely from the stereotyped style of store building, the structure having more the appearance of an old-world dwelling than of a modern place of business. … W.R. Yelland, the architect, describes the building as rural European. It has all the appearance of northern Europe.
“A steep and pointed gable roof of imported English slate is capped with a little dove cote. A huge chimney 45 feet in height dominates the whole structure. On top of the chimney a life-size figure of a piper stands. The building is erected of selected brick(s) … treated with paint and acid and plaster to make it look old.”
The music store itself was at street level and part of the second floor, while an exterior staircase led to “a tea room on the second floor, which will be known as ‘The Sign of the Piper.’ ” That space was leased to Mrs, Diana Henderson and Mrs. Marguerite Taylor, who were to “serve lunches, teas and dinners.” The music store featured rooms where phonographs and radios for sale could be listened to, and a small upstairs concert hall.
Veep visit: Vice President Charles Dawes, mentioned in last week’s column, made his private visit to Berkeley on Sept. 9-10, 1925, staying at the home of his sister-in-law. Intrepid reporters tracked down two boys playing in the yard and elicited the vital information that the Dawes was still asleep “and snoring” at 11 a.m.
In the afternoon he was up and about, meeting Berkeley’s Helen Wills, who dropped by, fresh from her tennis singles win at what is now the U.S. Open. He also made a quick, private, trip by automobile to the Dwight Way studio of William Whitney Manatt, a “noted local sculptor” who had been at work on a bust of Dawes and used the opportunity to put finishing touches on it.
Dawes, 60, told the sculptor, “that sure is good, but it’s better than I look.” Later that day, he and his wife took the train for Los Angeles, where he had a night-time speaking engagement.
Tennis victory: The same day Wills visited Dawes in Berkeley, another Berkeley tennis star, Helen Jacobs, successfully defended her own title, winning the national junior girls’ tennis championship.
Cycle event: On Sept. 5, 1925, the Gazette reported that “boy cyclists of Berkeley turned out in quite a large number this morning and full of enthusiasm, for the bicycle parade and demonstration of safety rules” held at San Pablo Park. The parade was a mass ride from Shattuck Avenue and Derby Street down to the park.
The adults in charge of the event spoke to the assembled cyclists and “cautioned them against hanging onto streetcars or trucks and told them to cut out such things as zigzagging down the street in front of automobiles. They were told their proper place on the street and how to give the proper signals.”
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.
