National Register #81000144
Berkeley Post Office
2000 Allston Way
Berkeley
Built 1914-1915

The Berkeley Post Office is a characteristic and well-preserved product of the Treasury Department Supervising Architect's Office. The actual architect is unknown.

The building embodies the belief, common in the early 20th century, that government could use architecture to "educate and develop public taste and elevate it to a higher plane."

The arches, wide overhanging red tile roof and classical details are common to early 20th century post offices throughout the United States, a style often called Second Renaissance Revival. The Berkeley post office has been described as a free adaptation of Brunelleschi's Hospital of the Innocents in Florence.

Excerpted from the NRHP nomination.

The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 until World War II.

1869: United States Mint, Carson City
1888: Federal Government Building, Carson City
1893: United States Post Office and Courthouse, San Francisco
1910: United States Post Office and Courthouse, Eureka
1910: United States Post Office and Federal Building, Santa Rosa

1912: United States Post Office, Chico
1915: United States Post Office, Berkeley
1915: United States Post Office and Courthouse, Medford
1932: United States Post Office, Marysville
1933: United States Post Office and Courthouse, Las Vegas

1933: United States Post Office and Federal Building, Modesto
1933: United States Post Office, Petaluma
1941: United States Post Office, Tonopah