6106 Harwood Avenue
Normally I wouldn’t bother with a mark this poor, but it establishes that Mottino used a proper metal stamp for the date as well as hand-writing dates.
1930 – M. Mottino
26 August 20231921 – F. A. Mero
25 August 2023
2915 Acton Street, Berkeley
This stamp, yet another example of Mero’s marks that year, is a nice pulled-together piece that gives his city as Richmond. Not many Richmond masons practiced this far south.
1916 – The Oakland Paving Co.
24 August 2023
29 Tanglewood Street, Berkeley
The date on this mark differs from my Oakland example. The numerals appear to have been impressed one at a time. Clearly there were several stamps that went out with the crews, some with nice dates and others with makeshift dates.
This part of Berkeley is exceptionally opulent, and peaceful despite being right near the Claremont traffic/business nexus.
Old stamps preserved: J. Catucci
19 August 2023
335 63rd Street
This driveway, and presumably the sidewalk too, was originally made by the J. Catucci firm in 1916. When Rosas Brothers redid parts of this block in 2010, they appear to have kindly preserved the older stamp on behalf of the homeowner.
I need to prepare a Profile for Joseph Catucci; until then the comments to this post have a good amount of detail from his descendants.
Corners: Manoa and Mystic Streets
18 August 2023
This corner, one of two thus marked, is also a splendid example of a dated Schnoor Bros. stamp, unlike my previous example from just down the block.
1905 – Geo. Hall
17 August 2023
2108 Russell Street, Berkeley
George H. Hall was an early Berkeley contractor and was probably the Hall of Hall and Nelsen. There are no Geo. Hall marks in Oakland, but I’ll keep this one anyway.
1904 – The Oakland Paving Co.
16 August 2023
2936 Ellsworth Street, Berkeley
