Fred Turner Building
Fred Turner Building (2004), photo Daniella Thompson, BAHA.
CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK
designated in 1981
Julia Morgan, Architect
Christian M. Teigland, Builder, 1940
This elegant commercial building, featuring two projecting storefront bays, copper bay hoods, pressed-copper storefront friezes, and steel-sash multi-pane windows, was the famed architect’s last Berkeley project. It was built for Frederick Chester Turner (1865–1955), a former Oakland City Engineer and Councilmember whose wife, Elsie Bloomfield Lee (1867–1937), was Julia Morgan’s sorority sister. Over several decades, Morgan designed various projects for the Turners, including a medical office building and a laboratory on this block (demolished). Two legendary long-term tenants in this building were the George J. Good men’s haberdashery, in the western storefront, and the Black Sheep Restaurant, located behind an interior courtyard accessed through a central archway between the storefronts.
Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
2021
Fred Turner Building, photo R. Kehlmann (2023).
Turner Building with Black Sheep Restaurant, 1960s.
Julia Morgan Drawing of Turner Building Courtyard.
Black Sheep Restaurant Menu, 1952.
Black Sheep Restaurant Match Book Cover.
Photo credit abbreviations:
BAHA: Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assn.
BHS: Berkeley Historical Society
