A century ago, Berkeley had a fairly calm New Year’s Eve, which fell on a Thursday that dawned with fair weather and “not much change in temperature, light variable winds,” according to the Berkeley Daily Gazette’s front page.
Most rowdy New Year’s Eve celebrations were in San Francisco and Oakland — and more than a few Berkeleyans traveled to each to partake — but local streets were calm. There were no traffic accidents, but five drivers were cited for going over the speed limit early New Year’s Day. One inebriated man was found wandering the streets without trousers, and the police obligingly helped him find his way home without a citation.
This week’s column includes a photo of the top of the Gazette’s Jan. 1,1926, front page so readers can see what the local boosterish press was highlighting as 1925 accomplishments. Among them were the rapid pace of home building and a large expansion in factory production. Back then, Berkeley still emphatically saw itself as a manufacturing and business center.
Thank you: As I do each year, I want to note the origins of this weekly column. Carl Wilson began writing it for the Berkeley Voice back in the 1980s. Carl was followed by Kenneth Cardwell, who ably continued the work. Cardwell eventually asked for someone to take over the column’s summer editions since he spent that season away from Berkeley in Inverness.
I volunteered and after a few summer sessions transitioned to writing the column year-round. Wilson and Cardwell served in the role of the Berkeley Historical Society’s archivist. Both were careful researchers and writers and made significant contributions to the study and preservation of local history.
How many years have I written the column? As a community historian, I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember exactly which summer I began working on it (I will look it up some time), but it now feels like it’s been a quarter-century or more. I would guess I’ve researched and prepared more than 1,300 columns. That seems like a huge amount but wasn’t so difficult when you research and write them to exactly 600 words one at a time.
I’ve made only one major change to the column approach, and that was switching from the original “75 years ago” format to a century past a few years ago. That was done for practical reasons, since access to physical copies of the old Berkeley Gazette is difficult past the mid-1940s, but it also let me delve back into an era that’s of major interest, the period when Berkeley grew so quickly right after “the Great War” (World War I).
All through that process a succession of Berkeley Voice editors have been excellent partners in this history work. I very much value a good editor, one who can ask the right questions, spot mistakes that need correction and remain friendly, firm and encouraging with a wide variety of writers. All the editors I’ve worked with at the Voice have been in that mold, up to and including the current Nate Jackson.
I also appreciate the Bay Area News Group for providing space for the column for so many years, an era when print journalism has faced so many changes and challenges. I also thank the Berkeley Historical Society and Museum’s Tom Edwards, who saves hard copies of the Voice for me each week.
Finally, thank you to the readers who like the column and find it enjoyable. You are a major reason I continue to enjoy doing it. I hope in 2026 it will remain an intriguing and useful read.
Bay Area native and Berkeley community historian Steven Finacom holds this column’s copyright.
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