This Queen Anne style house, with its fish-scale shingles, broad herringbone gable end walls, and arched bracketing in corner windows, is an example of substantial family homes scattered throughout West Berkeley farmland before the turn of the century. Canadian emigrant John Brennan was a local farmer and businessman as well as one of the first trustees of the town of Berkeley. John and brothers James and Edward established a livery stable in the 1870s and later opened a saloon at San Pablo and University Avenues. In 1959, nephew Jack opened Brennan’s Restaurant at Fourth Street and University Avenue, continuing a family tradition of entrepreneurship. Brennan family members lived here until 1970.