Berkeley Photo Solved

[Tucker Fan 48]

After searching for the last couple years for the needle in the haystack and origin of this picture I have been able to verify 100% that the photo was taken of the NW corner of Shattuck Ave. and Blake St. in Berkeley CA.

I have further been able to determine that the address for the business was 2525 Shattuck Avenue and that the photo was taken in 1954. The name of the business was Bob Held Berkeley Auto Mart.

The car in the photo is Tucker #1010 before its current paint job. The BE7-7474 number was used for less than one year, 1954, and then for only seven months. All BE7 numbers were changed in the Berkeley area to TH5 numbers beginning in 1955. This made finding the origin of the picture much more difficult.

You'll notice that the stairwell in the upper right hand corner of the 1954 photo exactly matches the stairwell in the 2010 photo. Although the windows have been changed and the building is now painted two shades of brown there is no doubt it is the same building. The building is the Williamson Building and it is a historical building in Berkeley.

Under the phone number on the Berkeley Auto Mart sign you also notice another car lot sign. You can see it clearly says "J.E. French Company Used Car Dept". French was a local Dodge & Plymouth Dealer and their Used Car Lot was located at 2517 Shattuck Avenue in 1954.

The Bob Held lot was later bought by Oliver Imported Cars. It was owned by Oliver W. Hindley. Their main location was across the street at 2567 Shattuck Avenue. They sold VW's for many years. They also later had a second location in Vallejo CA.

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[Natalie]

Incredible work!!!!!!!!

The fact that the building in the background still stands is a testiment to how important historic preservation can be. Not only for the propery preserved, but to help tell stories (serve as pin-cusions to various "needles in haystacks") like this where the rest of the clues (names, numbers, etc.) have long changed. Even a small piece of the puzzle can help answer a big question.

[Larry Clark]

Tucker Fan 48- I am utterly amazed at what you come up with in searching out the history of Tucker car ownership. Once again, incredible sleuth work. Thanks for sharing with us- it is fascinating.

Larry

[Tucker Fan 48]

A couple of additional finds on this:

An August 27 1954 ad from the Oakland Tribune for Bob Held Berkeley Auto Mart
with the BErkeley 7-7474 phone number.

8_27_54_Bob Held Berkeley Auto Mart.jpg (71.03 KiB) Viewed 1059 times

An July 28 1955 ad From the Oakland Tribune for J.E. French Company

7_28_55_Oakland Tribune_JE French.jpg (230.2 KiB) Viewed 1052 times

[Tucker Fan 48]

The cars next to #1010 in the photo are a 1952 Jaguar XK120 coupe and a somewhat rare 1953 Hillman Minx Convertible which were both advertised for sale by Bob Held Berkeley Auto Mart.

The lot at 2525 Shattuck Ave was used by Golden Bear Motors, the Berkeley Ford dealer until at least April 7th of 1954. Golden Bear Motors never had the BE7-7474 phone number. It was first issued to Bob Held Berkeley Auto Mart at 2525 Shattuck Ave. The first ads for Bob Held at that address appear in June of 1954. Beginning in January of 1955 all the ads began using the TH5-7474 phone number for Bob Held Berkeley Auto Mart.

That should place the dates these photos were taken as between June 1954 and December 1954.

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Tucker_car_lot.jpg (103.93 KiB) Viewed 1052 times