The Ink Stone on Bowditch Street on March 8, 1988. The store is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Credit: Chuck Smith

Fifty years ago, a UC Berkeley MBA student named Chuck Smith saw a need for stationeary supplies on the north side of campus, and opened a little retail store in a basement on Euclid Avenue serving mostly college students.

Soon after opening the shop, which he called The Ink Stone, an architect friend of Smith’s was bemoaning the fact that he had to drive to Richmond to pick up blueprints. Again, Smith saw an opportunity, and began printing blueprints at his store, as well as carrying drafting supplies, balsa and basswood for model making, and other architectural supplies. 

“We became a one-stop shop for architects, engineers and contractors,” said Anawin Juntanamalaga, the current owner of the Ink Stone. 

The shop was also a popular place for architecture and art students, and within a couple of years Smith relocated the store to Bowditch Street to be closer to the College of Environmental Design — UC Berkeley’s architecture school — and to the school’s art department. The store remained at the location for 44 years. 

Juntanamalaga began working part time at the Ink Stone in 2000 while studying landscape architecture at UC Berkeley, and took a full-time role after graduation. After a decade working there, he became the owner when Smith retired.

Smith wanted to “sell it to somebody that knew the business and was there for a while,” said Juntanamalaga. “ And so we were able to work out a deal and make it work.”

In 2020, the shop relocated to Telegraph Avenue, and late last year moved to Durant Avenue, into a space that formerly housed Zee Zee Copy, inside the Sather Lane Shops.

The Ink Stone’s current location on Durant Avenue in the Sather Lane Shops. Courtesy: The Ink Stone

The nature of the business has changed over the past five decades, of course, as technological shifts have shaken up the architecture and art industries. 

The shop still does plenty of printing, but has switched from its classic blueprint printing machines to large format laser and inkjet printers. And it continues to pivot as “people are getting more into digital,” he said. 

But the shop is still the go-to place near campus for analog art supplies, including pens, notebooks, sketchbooks, markers, spray paint, oil paint, acrylics, watercolors, brushes, drawing pencils, ink, drafting supplies, and more. 

The store was dealt a blow earlier this year after the closure of MacPherson’s Art, one of the country’s biggest distributors of art supplies. Now the Ink Stone is “trying to adapt to the new supply chain issues,” said Juntanamalaga.

And the tariffs aren’t helping matters. 

“This year we’ve already had two price changes from a lot of the manufacturers,” he said. “I haven’t done the price changes yet because we still have the old inventory, but once I get the new inventory, I’m going to have to update my prices.”

The shakeup of suppliers, as well as the store’s recent relocation, means that Juntanamalaga and his six employees haven’t had much time to plan anything special to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the shop, although some commemorative keychains are in the works. 

But Juntanamalaga is grateful that the store has lasted for five decades.

“We’re excited to have made it that long,” he said. “We’re one of the last few independent art stores around here.”

The Ink Stone, 2431 Durant Ave, Unit C, Berkeley. Phone: 510-843-1162. Hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Connect via Facebook.

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