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\n\t\t\t\t\tA full-page ad for July Fourth weekend specials from Berkeley businesses ran in the Berkeley Daily Gazette a century ago with this illustration of the goddess Columbia flanked by American Revolutionary and World War I-era soldiers. (photo courtesy of the Berkeley Historical Society and Museum)<\/p>\n
A century ago on July 4, 1926, the city of Berkeley held \u201can old-fashioned picnic amid picturesque surroundings, patriotic exercises \u2026 musical numbers, addresses and tableaus depicting the history of the country and games and contests for the children\u201d at Live Oak Park.<\/p>\n
The contests included pie eating, father-and-son and mother-and-daughter races, a sack race and \u201ca tilting contest in which one man will stand on another\u2019s shoulders and attack a similar team with a padded pole \u2026 . There will also be a pillow fight and a cracker battle,\u201d the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported (I have no idea what a cracker battle involved).<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people attended and heard a speech by Judge J. Allen of Oakland, an \u201cIndependence Day orator\u201d who \u201ccited the history of the republic as symbolic of the spirit of the people. \u2018There is no fear for its future,\u2019 he declared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Downtown Berkeley stores closed Monday, July 4, that year, and several local churches held Independence Day services. Along the West Coast that holiday, 28 \u201cpersons met death by tragic means,\u201d the paper reported. Among them, 13 died in traffic collisions, two from fireworks mishaps and \u201cfour persons were drowned and three killed in gasoline explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fireworks injuries seem as old as the July Fourth holiday itself. On July 1, 1926, the Gazette carried a story that began, \u201cFourteen-year-old Richard Otis McMann is in the Berkeley General Hospital today minus his right hand as a result of the explosion of fireworks which he manufactured at his home, 754 Arlington Avenue, yesterday. The boy\u2019s arm was amputated two inches above the wrist \u2026 .\u201d<\/p>\n
He and a teenage friend, were building a \u201ctoy cannon\u201d out of \u201ca piece of iron water pipe.\u201d After \u201centertaining boys in the neighborhood with the pyrotechnic display \u2026 a terrific explosion ensued.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferry approved: Berkeley got its desired car ferry to San Francisco by decision of the State Railroad Board, on July 7, 1926. \u201cWork on the construction of a thee-mile pier at the foot of University Avenue will be started just as soon as contracts can be awarded, President O.A. Stewart of the Golden Gate Ferry Company announced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Art exhibit: Berkeley\u2019s third summer annual exhibition of paintings at the Berkeley League of Fine Arts opened July 2, 1926. Sixty-one paintings and seven sculptures done by local artists were on display, and local women were prominent among the artists. The exhibit was at 2419 Haste St., the old McKinley School Annex which still amazingly survives on the grounds of Berkeley\u2019s First Presbyterian Church.<\/p>\n
Prominent Bay Area artist Alice Best died July 6, 1926, \u201cfollowing a long illness.\u201d She and her\u00a0 , Arthur, had a studio in the same building where the art exhibit was held. They had previously run an art school in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Train injury: A Key Route interurban train struck Miss Emma Jarvis, 76, at Alcatraz Avenue and Adeline Street on June 30, 1926. She was taken to the hospital with \u201ca possible fractured skull.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police news: Berkeley police Chief August Vollmer said July 7, 1926, that criminals were taking advantage of \u201ctwo factors \u2014 the automobile and the pistol. \u2026 Most holdup men are between the ages of 17 and 27,\u201d and many were \u201cauto bandits, auto burglars and auto thieves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, Berkeley police uniforms were changing a century ago. Old \u201cchoker-style\u201d collars were out, and new \u201clow collars with long lapels\u201d were in. \u201cWhite shirts and black ties are worn with the new collars,\u201d the Gazette reported. Since Berkeley police had to pay for their own uniforms, the changes would be phased in over time, as the older uniforms wore out.<\/p>\n
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column\u2019s copyright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A full-page ad for July Fourth weekend specials from Berkeley businesses ran in the Berkeley Daily Gazette a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-382118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}