A horrific accident occurred a century ago on Oct. 16, 1925, when a Southern Pacific streetcar hit an Oakland fire truck at Seventh and Jefferson streets west of downtown Oakland. The fire truck overturned, and the first unit of the streetcar derailed, crashing into a park playground.
The Berkeley Daily Gazette ran a full-page ad Oct. 17, 1925, featuring a fur-clad, club-wielding, Neanderthal-like giant poised to destroy a city, presumably an image of barbarism against civilization as one group’s depiction of what letting stores stay open on evenings and Sundays could mean. (image courtesy of the Berkeley Historical Society and Museum)One member of the fire crew died, crushed by the overturned truck, and seven firefighters were injured, along with “scores of passengers” on the streetcar.
“An old tree in front of the playground was demolished but probably prevented the car from plowing full into the playground yard where many children were playing,” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported.
A Berkeley woman, Cecelia Gollum, was credited with saving children in the playground by blowing her whistle when she saw the crash occurring. Children ran to the center of the playground as the streetcar came through the fence.
Shopping activism: In last week’s column I mentioned efforts of the “American Ideals and Health League,” based in Oakland, to shut down “night and Sunday shopping.” The Gazette ran a full-page ad Oct. 17, 1925, featuring a fur-clad, club-wielding, Neanderthal-like giant poised to destroy a city, presumably an image of barbarism against civilization.
Histrionic text asked “Shall our Churches be Destroyed?” “Is Business to be made into a Madhouse” and “Is Human Slavery to be Continued in this Community?” The latter referenced that “more than 5,000 men and women of the Eastbay (sic) want to be freed of the SLAVERY of Night and Sunday toil — work that can be done just as well on regular business days.”
Further down, the ad continued with “Put an end to Night and Sunday Shopping — and make it, by ordinance, forever impossible for this monster to again raise its head.”
On Oct. 12, 1925, the same group had run an ad stating “no sweatshops wanted — no crowded tenements — no starving and impoverished children — no overworked and underpaid women and men.” Plus “proper sanitary inspection of food” and “clean-up the pest-holes that now operate as food shops — make sanitary inspection.”
The same day W.L. Butler, “manager of the American Health and Civic League” (sic) stated at a meeting in Berkeley that the problem had “reached a point where our very civilization is being threatened.” The article noted that Berkeley had 146 grocery stores with 88 of them open on weekday evenings and Sundays but that most of those stores’ managers would prefer that stores be closed at those times.
I’m still not sure of the exact motivation behind this campaign. Was it initiated by grocery store owners who didn’t want the expense of operating additional hours? Religious traditionalists opposed to Sunday shopping? Community activists who genuinely wanted better working conditions and food sanitation? Or an alliance of convenience for all three interest groups?
The large advertisements imply that considerable money was likely behind the campaign. Absent from the articles and ads I’ve seen so far are the direct voices of grocery workers and shoppers, who presumably had opinions on this issue.
Summer camps: Berkeley’s summer camps that opened in the 1920s proved to be a big hit. The Gazette reported Oct. 16, 1925, that in the summer of that year, 797 people had spent part of the season at Berkeley’s Sierra camps, the largest attendance since they opened.
“The average length of stay was 12 days,” according to the Gazette, and the camps had turned a profit.
Parking limits: Center Street merchants between Shattuck and Oxford were petitioning the city Oct. 16, 1925, for a one-hour curbside parking limit.
Fire danger: Berkeley Fire Chief Sidney Rose issued a warning of fire danger on Oct. 20, 1925, “in view of the unusually low humidity prevailing with the north wind.”
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.
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