Berkeley, a Look Back: Halloween 1925 reported as ‘quietest in years’

A century ago Halloween in had been from a police standpoint the quietest in years the Berkeley Daily Gazette revealed Nov Mischief included soaping store windows including almost every downtown store turning off electricity to homes from the outdoor panels and doorbells being rung with the perpetrator then running away The whole Berkeley police force had been on duty during the nighttime hours Police kept youngsters moving mostly towards their own homes according to the Gazette In North Oakland annoyed by boys playing harmless Hallowe en pranks on Chabot Road by rolling tin cans on the porch of a house an irate citizen fired into a crowd of boys He was apparently using a -caliber rifle grazed a -year-old in the chest and shot a -year-old in the left leg Both were treated at Alta Bates hospital New apartments The Whitecotton building on Shattuck Avenue between Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue was going to get three upper floors at a cost of They would contain apartments served by two elevators and a central heating plant A feature of the design is the fact that all are outside rooms with an abundance of light the Gazette released Nov Downtown Berkeley in was a district in which a number of splendid building improvements are underway or just completed including the Tupper and Reed building the Hezlett store structure the telephone building the Atkins theater the Drake Catering Company building the -story Chamber of Commerce building and others The Odd Fellows temple on Bancroft Way is also soon to be started while still other structures are in contemplation New sewer On Nov Berkeley City Manager John Edy appealed the City Council to patronage a request that UC Berkeley pay half the cost for a new sewer on Bancroft Way leading west to Telegraph Avenue from the Hearst Gymnasium for Women which was then under construction The new sewer will be used almost entirely for taking off drain age from showers and the swimming tank in the new gymnasium the Gazette quoted Edy as saying The council agreed and the city manager went forth to ask the university for half of the estimated cost I couldn t find any word in the paper about whether the university granted the request Event tickets A huge mailing operation was underway Nov as the Berkeley Post Office processed letters containing tickets for the upcoming Nov Big Event against Stanford All would be sent by registered mail bringing in fees of to the Post Office It was the largest single local mailing that year Another or so ticket letters were to go out in the following days Hill fires Wildfire season in was not quite over A stubborn grass and brush fire which burned over four acres threatened several homes in Thousand Oaks on Nov at the same time there was a similar blaze in the Claremont district which endangered homes Fanned by brisk wind both fires gained considerable headway Housewives saved their own homes by using garden hoses until the arrival of firemen World cyclists Two young men from Bombay India nowadays s Mumbai arrived in Berkeley and were spending a limited days in viewing the sights of the bay region before attempting the next procedures of their journey the Gazette disclosed Nov They were no ordinary travelers They were riding bicycles around the world having begun more than two years earlier in Bombay on Oct Headed westward they were hoping to make it back to India by June after passing Asia Europe and North America by land and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by ship Bay Area native and Berkeley public historian Steven Finacom holds this column s copyright