The Shuman Block

BERKELEY HISTORY 
THE SHUMAN BLOCK 
McDougall Bros., Architects, 1906

Horse-drawn wagons once carried goods to The Berkeley Free Market housed here. In
1952 the structure was modernized to accommodate automobile showrooms, with artists’
studios above. Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, William Theophilus Brown, and Paul
Wonner are among the prominent Bay Area painters who rented studios here. Together
with David Park, who had a studio in downtown Berkeley, Bischoff and Diebenkorn
founded the Bay Area Figurative style. While here, in 1955–1956, Diebenkorn combined
abstraction with nature in his “Berkeley Series” landscapes.

A 1999 rehabilitation by owner John Gordon and The Bay Architects restored much of
the building’s original appearance. Artists continue to use the upstairs studios.

Berkeley Historical Plaque Project 
2005