Street Names: SHATTUCK AVENUE

Do you ever wonder where the names of Berkeley streets come from? Shattuck Avenue and Kittredge Street were both named after Francis Kittredge Shattuck. Shattuck was an early resident and a prominent force in the growth of what became the City of Berkeley. He was born in New York in 1824 and moved to California with his friend and brother-in-law George Blake when they heard that gold was discovered here. Shattuck and Blake each acquired 160-acre parcels in what is now central Berkeley.

Francis Shattuck had various political roles, and was mayor of Oakland from 1859-1860. As a member of the county Board of Supervisors, he was in charge of the construction of a new county road along the dividing line between his land and Blake’s parcel to the east (now Shattuck Avenue).

Daniella Thompson, in an article about the Shattuck Hotel, notes that Shattuck also built Berkeley’s “first major commercial center and helped it grow by talking the Central Pacific Railroad into extending a branch line into Berkeley. Later he founded the Commercial Bank, which would become the First National Bank of Berkeley.”

The site of Shattuck’s original homestead is where the Hotel Shattuck Plaza now stands.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia: “Francis Kittredge Shattuck” and “Shattuck Avenue” (viewed 9/30/2025)

Daniella Thompson, “East Bay: Then and Now: The Shattuck Hotel,” Berkeley Daily Planet, 10/19/2007