Tupper & Reed Building
CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK
designated in 1984
TUPPER & REED BUILDING
William Raymond Yelland, Architect
1925
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
John Tupper and Lawrence Reed constructed this building for their music store,
which they had established in Berkeley in 1906. University of California art
Professor Eugen Neuhaus complimented them as businessmen whose commissioned
design rose above "the dreadful boredom of the commonplace that so often makes
of architecture a stupid business and not a stimulating art!"
Architect W.R. Yelland (1891-1966), a UC graduate, designed many "storybook"
structures. This building features clinker bricks, wood beam ceilings, slate
roofs, balconies, fanciful decorations, and a monumental fireplace. The
iron cutout on the chimney top announced the Sign of the Piper
Restaurant, once located upstairs. Following a 1959 fire Tupper
and Reed moved next door.
Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
2003