Welcome to Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
BAHA has an extensive archival collection of historic materials for Berkeley. Much of it is unique to BAHA and is only accessed through the office. These include the Donogh files, Block Files, Block books, slide collections, architectural plans, maps, and oral histories. BAHA also maintains a collection of Berkeley newspapers.
The Donogh collection is a one-of-a-kind collection of information on almost every house in Berkeley. It was collected by Ormsby Donogh, a real estate agent. He started collecting information on Berkeley houses in the 1930s and the collection goes up to the 1970s. Each house information is contained on an index card and sometimes the index card has an envelope on the back that contains more information, including photos of the house. There are 48 large boxes with approximately 1500 index cards in each box. Many of these have been scanned and the scanning process continues.
Block Files are kept in the office in file cabinets. Each street is assigned a specific Block Number and each block number has a block file(s). The files contain everything from real estate agent flyers to more specific information (say, from the city of Berkeley) about houses in Berkeley. Unlike the Donogh files, there is no guarantee that the block files will contain information about most houses on the street. However, the materials that have been gathered for the Block files are one-of-a-kind.
Block Books are published books that contain streets in Berkeley. Real estate agents would pencil in the names of the home owners and other notes as well. Each book is unique.
BAHA also holds quite a few building permits from the early history of Berkeley. The permits date from 1909-1946.
These maps were developed by insurance companies and can now be used by researchers to investigate the development of buildings on a specific site. House placement, garage placement, and natural features such as streams can be found on these maps. Our Sanborn maps start with copies of pages from 1890 and 1894, then 1903, 1911, updated to the 1920s and 1930s, 1929, updated to the 1940s and 1950s.
City Directories, published in alphabetical order by last name, list residence address and, frequently, the occupation of the resident. BAHA has City Directories for 1909, 1912, 1914, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1922, 1924, 1928, and 1937.
BAHA has a slide collection of more than 7,000 slides of Berkeley. The contents range from photos of UC Berkeley campus, as well as images taken from various streets and buildings throughout the city. We also have an extensive negative collection and about 150 of those are being digitized through a grant from California Revealed.
The collection also includes the Humphrey slides. Humphrey was a building inspector for Berkeley and he donated his vast collection of slides from buildings all over the city to BAHA.
BAHA holds over 150 architectural plans and drawings from various buildings throughout Berkeley. These include plans from UC Berkeley buildings, buildings that belong to the Berkeley Unified School District, as well as house/garden plans.
In addition to architectural plans, BAHA collections include around 100 various maps of the city. Some of these are of Berkeley as a whole, and others drill down to specific street levels.
BAHA has master copies of all 670 State Historic Resources Inventory forms
Two years ago BAHA received a grant from California Revealed to digitize our collection of over 100 cassette tapes, created mostly in the 1970s. These are oral history tapes of Berkeley, many of which were done by our very own Executive Director, Anthony Bruce. These oral histories can be found at this website. See Digital Projects link for these oral histories.
BAHA also has an extensive collection of books stored throughout the McCreary House that primarily focus on Berkeley and the surrounding area.
Blue & Gold Yearbooks from 1887 to 1957 are also available.
BAHA has copies of every issue of Old House Journal and a few copies of Historic Preservation.
Many of the photos in BAHA’s collection are taken from the negatives (listed above).
BAHA has the Berkeley Gazettes from 1898 to about 1940, mostly in bound volume (the 1906 volume is missing); and our 1923 is on long-term loan to Berkeley Historical Society. We also have the Berkeley Reporter, Herald, and Advocate.
BAHA also has various collections that have been donated.
Primarily photographs of his own house at Bancroft & Piedmont, interior and exterior views.
Newspaper clippings, photos, research notes; mainly relating to the poet, Charles Keeler, and the Hillside Club.
Three-plus boxes of material on the Hillside Club, Maybeck, Keeler, John White etc. Much xeroxed material from the Bancroft Library.
Unidentified (and identified) photos of architect Yelland’s buildings, from his own photo collection.
Photo albums of Mayor Richardson’s family on Channing Way near Telegraph, c. 1900.
Mostly photos from the turn of the century, formerly stored in the attic of the Wilson House. The Wilson House was on the site of the Graduate Theological Union).
Photos of architect James W. Plachek’s buildings; and his scrapbooks.
Photographs of Bay Area Victorian buildings taken in the 1950s-1960s. Many of Berkeley.
Photos, correspondence, and ephemera.