The Julia Morgan Theater, located in the former St. John's Presbyterian Church, is a historic building in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

Julia Morgan Julia Morgan (January 20, 1872 – February 2, 1957) was an American architect and engineer. She designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and prolific career.Erica Reder"Julia Morgan was a local in ''The New Fillmore'', 1 Febr ...

. The wooden building at 2640 College Avenue is built in the

American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. ...

style with an exterior wood-shingle finish known as Berkeley Brown Shingle. The church building was desanctified and sold when the congregation moved to a new building in 1974. It now houses the Berkeley Playhouse. The structure is #8 on the city of Berkeley's list of historic landmarks. In 1975 it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

(listing #74000507).

Church

The church was organized in 1907 to serve the influx of people moving from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to Berkeley after the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

, and the church building was completed in 1910. The church was named to honor St. John's Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, which many of the new congregants had attended and whose pastor, Dr. George Granville Eldridge, became the founding pastor of St. John's in Berkeley. Subsequent pastors included Dr. Stanley Armstrong Hunter (1924-1954), Dr. James Comfort Smith (1954-1970), Dr. Robert A. McKenzie (1970-1983), Dr. Thomas McKnight (1984-2001), and Dr. Max Lynn (2002–present).

Architecture

Julia Morgan and her assistant Walter Steilberg chose a design with broad gables and a stained shingle exterior. The redwood paneled interior leaves the wooden beams and trusses completely exposed, while smoked glass

clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

windows provide most of the light. "This structural exhibitionism forms a worship space of great visual interest. … The small scale of the church and the warm color of the wood help create a cozy and restful space while the plain lumber serves to remind one of God's creation—the unadorned beauty of natural materials." Morgan herself considered it to be her best Craftsman building.

Arts center and theater

In 1974-75 the congregation moved to a new modern sanctuary at 2727 College Avenue, and the fate of the Julia Morgan building was uncertain. The desire to preserve it from demolition was the major catalyst leading to the formation of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association in 1974. The building seemed suitable for use as an arts center, and after a brief incarnation as the Center for World Music, the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts took over the building in 1980. It housed the Berkeley Opera, the Berkeley Ballet Theater, and various theatrical productions as well as arts classes. In 2009 the Julia Morgan Center merged with the Berkeley Playhouse, a theater company founded in 2007 by artistic director Elizabeth McKoy. The Playhouse produces several plays and musicals per year, as well as offering theatrical instruction for a variety of ages and skill levels. The building is known as the Julia Morgan Theatre.

References

External links

Julia Morgan Theatre, at Berkeley Playhouse websitewebsite for current St. John's Presbyterian Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Presbyterian Church (Berkeley, California) American Craftsman architecture in California Julia Morgan buildings National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley, California Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in California Churches completed in 1910 Shingle Style church buildings Tourist attractions in Berkeley, California Shingle Style architecture in California Berkeley landmarks in Berkeley, California 1910 establishments in California Former Presbyterian churches in the United States Churches in Alameda County, California