Walter Ratcliff

Walter Harris Ratcliff Jr.
Born1881 (1881)
London, England
Died1978 (aged 96–97)
OccupationArchitect

Walter Harris Ratcliff Jr. (1881—1978) was an English-born American architect, active in Berkeley, California. His work includes local landmarks and buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He served as Berkeley's first city architect for part of his career and is credited with helping develop the first zoning regulations in the state.

Biography

Ratcliff was born in London and came to the United States in 1894. Lilian Bridgman worked as a draftsperson in his office.

He partnered with John Galen Howard for a short time. He also worked with Alfred Henry Jacobs (as Ratcliff & Jacobs).

Ratcliff designed the John J. Cairns House at 2729 Elmwood Avenue, Walter Keane and his wife Barbara Keane lived in it. He also designed Armstrong College's Ratcliff building at 2222 Harold Way. Named after the architect, it is a Berkeley landmark. He designed the Charles W. Merrill House (1938) for mining engineer and San Francisco businessman Charles Washington Merrill. It is listed on the National Register. He is one of the noted architects with buildings in Panoramic Hill, Oakland/Berkeley, California. He was one of the architects who designed buildings for Mills College. He designed Hillside Elementary School (1928), a building listed on the National Register. Converted to a residence, it is on the List of largest houses in the United States.

Walter Ratcliff retired in 1955. His son, Robert W. Ratcliff, and later his grandson also became architects and maintained the firm he founded.

List of buildings

National Register of Historic Places

The buildings he designed that are listed on the National Register include:

Other buildings

The Holbrook Building at Pacific School of Religion

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Johnson, Robert E.; Byron, Janet L. (September 28, 2015). Berkeley Walks: Revealing Rambles through America's Most Intriguing City. Roaring Forties Press. ISBN 9781938901515 – via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr. biography". berkeleycitizen.org.
  3. ↑ Ormsby Donogh Real Estate Files, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.
  4. ↑ Berkeley Building Permit #483, March 8, 1910.
  5. ↑ Bruce, Anthony. Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., Architect: His Berkeley Work. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, 2006, p.8.
  6. 1 2 Pimsleur, J. L. (1998-05-14). "Robert Ratcliff". SFGATE. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  7. ↑ National Register database
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cerny, Susan Dinkelspiel (2007). An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area. Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-1-58685-432-4.
  9. 1 2 "Berkeley's Heritage: A Massive 'Period' Building". Newspapers.com. The Berkeley Gazette. April 7, 1978. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  10. ↑ Keeling, Brock (2019-08-23). "Walter H. Ratcliff Jr.'s 'Cairns House' in Berkeley hits the market for $3.195M". Curbed SF. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  11. ↑ Graff, Amy (2019-08-24). "This Berkeley house cost $10,000 to build. 109 years later, it's selling for $3.2 million". SFGATE. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  12. ↑ "Berkeley Landmarks :: The Studio Building". berkeleyheritage.com.
  13. ↑ Rauch, Kate Darby (November 21, 2021). "Berkeley's only landmarked gas station gets a sorrowful goodbye". Berkeleyside. Retrieved November 23, 2021.