Cloyne Court Hotel
Encyclopedia
The Cloyne Court Hotel, often referred to simply as Cloyne, is a student housing cooperative
located at 2600 Ridge Road in Berkeley, California
on the north side of the University of California, Berkeley
campus, on Ridge Road at Leroy Avenue. It is part of the Berkeley Student Cooperative
(BSC) system. Residents of the house are known as "Clones".
The BSC is now the largest housing co-op organization in North America
and Cloyne is one of the biggest cooperative houses in the country with 150 residents. Despite its size the house was entirely student-run for nearly sixty years. This changed in July 2005, when the co-op was forced to hire a live-in manager in order to renew the property lease with the University.
Cloyne Court has played a notable role in the Bay Area music scene. The bands No Doubt
, Operation Ivy
, The Offspring
, Rancid
, Green Day
, Elliott Smith
, 24-7 Spyz
, Save Ferris
, Skankin' Pickle
, The Mr. T Experience
and Rilo Kiley
played at Cloyne before becoming well known. The house has also been host to several lesser-known bands during its many events. Cloyne has hosted as many as a dozen bands in a single evening, commonly using 2 separate stages, though sometimes as many as 4 - the dining room, the lib-ed room, the basement ("dungeon"), and the courtyard.
, the village in Ireland
where George Berkeley
was bishop.
Cloyne was built in 1904 for $80,000 by the University Land and Improvement Company, which included several University professors, University benefactresses Phoebe Apperson Hearst and Jane K. Sather, future Regent James K. Moffit, Dr. Louis Lisser, John L. Howard, Warren Olney, Dr. Kasper Pishel, Louis Titus, John Galen Howard
, the architect of the building and James M. Pierce, the later owner of the hotel. The building, described as a 'high-class, modern apartment house,' originally contained 32 suites, each with bath, that were not connected by common hallways, but rather were paired onto private stairways to the first floor public areas. Each section was separated by heavy brick firewalls with automatic fireproof doors and each suite was wired for telephone. In 1911, the music room was added to the building, directly opposite the main entrance, which hosted numerous lectures and music recitals.
The building was one of a rare few to survive the devastating 1923 Berkeley fire
, remarkable also because all of the buildings had (and still have) wood shake siding and roofs.
Pierce and his family managed the hotel from its opening in 1904 until 1914, when they purchased it from the investors. The family continued operating the hotel until it was sold in 1946.
The services and hospitality at Cloyne Court were always highly complimented by the many visitors who had the pleasure of staying at the hotel. Registered compliments in the hotel guest book include:
Cloyne Court was sold by the Pierce family in 1946 to the University Students' Cooperative Association for $125,000. That year, fifteen Cloyne men occupied the new co-op alongside the previous residents, whom the USCA had agreed to not displace but rather to allow to continue to live in the former residential hotel. Cloyne originally housed all men who often held dances and dined with the women of nearby Stebbins Hall and Hoyt Hall, both all-female co-ops at the time. In 1972, Cloyne Court became a co-ed house.
In 1970, the USCA was forced to sell the property to the Regents of the University of California
, upon the threat of an eminent domain
acquisition by the University, in exchange for a peppercorn
lease, most recently renewed in July 2005.
On December 21, 2008, Cloyne Court was closed temporarily for earthquake renovations. It reopened at the beginning of the Fall 2009 semester and briefly attracted public attention in 2010 when a 21-year-old resident of the house suffered extensive brain damage and lapsed into a coma, reportedly as a result of a cocaine overdose, in his room.
The building is one of fifty-six buildings in Berkeley listed in the National Register of Historic Places
as well as a City of Berkeley Landmark.
Student housing cooperative
A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for students in an educational institution.Unlike a resident who acquires shares at market rates to earn the right to occupy a specific apartment on a permanent basis , a resident of a student co-op acquires...
located at 2600 Ridge Road in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
on the north side of the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
campus, on Ridge Road at Leroy Avenue. It is part of the Berkeley Student Cooperative
University Students' Cooperative Association
Berkeley Student Cooperative is a student housing cooperative serving primarily the University of California, Berkeley but open to any full-time post-secondary student. BSC houses over 1300 students in 17 houses and 3 apartment buildings...
(BSC) system. Residents of the house are known as "Clones".
The BSC is now the largest housing co-op organization in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Cloyne is one of the biggest cooperative houses in the country with 150 residents. Despite its size the house was entirely student-run for nearly sixty years. This changed in July 2005, when the co-op was forced to hire a live-in manager in order to renew the property lease with the University.
Cloyne Court has played a notable role in the Bay Area music scene. The bands No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
, Operation Ivy
Operation Ivy (band)
Operation Ivy was an American ska punk band that formed in Berkeley, California, and was often credited with spurring the 1990s punk revival in California. It is well-known as one of the first bands to "mix" hardcore punk with elements of ska, known as ska-core...
, The Offspring
The Offspring
The Offspring is an American punk rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1984. Known as Manic Subsidal until 1986, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dexter Holland, lead guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, bassist Greg K. and drummer Pete Parada...
, Rancid
Rancid (band)
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
, Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
, Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
, 24-7 Spyz
24-7 Spyz
24-7 Spyz are a band from the South Bronx, New York, formed in 1986, originally consisting of Jimi Hazel , Rick Skatore , Kindu Phibes , and P. Fluid . The band is best known for mixing soul, funk, reggae, and R&B with heavy metal and hardcore punk...
, Save Ferris
Save Ferris
Save Ferris was a ska punk band formed circa 1995 in Orange County, California. Their name is a reference to the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.-History:...
, Skankin' Pickle
Skankin' Pickle
Skankin' Pickle was an American ska punk band formed in San Jose, California that was active from 1989 to 1996.-Biography:Skankin' Pickle first formed in December 1988, made up of students from Westmont High School and Los Gatos High School. The band played their first show on April 28, 1989,...
, The Mr. T Experience
The Mr. T Experience
The Mr. T Experience is an American punk rock band formed in 1985 in Berkeley, California and currently recording for Lookout! Records. They have released ten full-length albums along with numerous EPs and singles and have toured internationally...
and Rilo Kiley
Rilo Kiley
Rilo Kiley was an American indie rock band based in Los Angeles. Formed in 1998, the band consisted of Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder, and Jason Boesel....
played at Cloyne before becoming well known. The house has also been host to several lesser-known bands during its many events. Cloyne has hosted as many as a dozen bands in a single evening, commonly using 2 separate stages, though sometimes as many as 4 - the dining room, the lib-ed room, the basement ("dungeon"), and the courtyard.
History
Cloyne Court was named after CloyneCloyne
Cloyne is a small town to the south-east of the town of Midleton in eastern County Cork, Province of Munster, Ireland. It is also a see city of the Anglican Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, while also giving its name to a Roman Catholic diocese...
, the village in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
where George Berkeley
George Berkeley
George Berkeley , also known as Bishop Berkeley , was an Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism"...
was bishop.
Cloyne was built in 1904 for $80,000 by the University Land and Improvement Company, which included several University professors, University benefactresses Phoebe Apperson Hearst and Jane K. Sather, future Regent James K. Moffit, Dr. Louis Lisser, John L. Howard, Warren Olney, Dr. Kasper Pishel, Louis Titus, John Galen Howard
John Galen Howard
John Galen Howard was an American architect.He is best known for his work as the supervising architect of the Master Plan for the University of California, Berkeley campus, and for founding the University of California's architecture program...
, the architect of the building and James M. Pierce, the later owner of the hotel. The building, described as a 'high-class, modern apartment house,' originally contained 32 suites, each with bath, that were not connected by common hallways, but rather were paired onto private stairways to the first floor public areas. Each section was separated by heavy brick firewalls with automatic fireproof doors and each suite was wired for telephone. In 1911, the music room was added to the building, directly opposite the main entrance, which hosted numerous lectures and music recitals.
The building was one of a rare few to survive the devastating 1923 Berkeley fire
1923 Berkeley Fire
The 1923 Berkeley Fire was a conflagration which consumed some 640 structures, including 584 homes in the densely-built neighborhoods north of the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California on September 17, 1923....
, remarkable also because all of the buildings had (and still have) wood shake siding and roofs.
Pierce and his family managed the hotel from its opening in 1904 until 1914, when they purchased it from the investors. The family continued operating the hotel until it was sold in 1946.
The services and hospitality at Cloyne Court were always highly complimented by the many visitors who had the pleasure of staying at the hotel. Registered compliments in the hotel guest book include:
- Cloyne Court - Silence and peace in an insane world. - Ernest BlochErnest BlochErnest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
, 1944 - Cloyne Court, a haven and a place where the gentle art of hospitality is made manifest to the unknown stranger as well as to the great ones of our day. - Mary Lambert, 1942
- Giving people a happy home is a divine service. - Benjamin Ide WheelerBenjamin Ide WheelerBenjamin Ide Wheeler was a Greek and comparative philology professor at Cornell University as well as President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919.-Biography:...
, 1923 - I came a stranger, stayed a guest and departed a friend. - unknown
Cloyne Court was sold by the Pierce family in 1946 to the University Students' Cooperative Association for $125,000. That year, fifteen Cloyne men occupied the new co-op alongside the previous residents, whom the USCA had agreed to not displace but rather to allow to continue to live in the former residential hotel. Cloyne originally housed all men who often held dances and dined with the women of nearby Stebbins Hall and Hoyt Hall, both all-female co-ops at the time. In 1972, Cloyne Court became a co-ed house.
In 1970, the USCA was forced to sell the property to the Regents of the University of California
Regents of the University of California
The Regents of the University of California make up the governing board of the University of California. The Board has 26 full members:* The majority are appointed by the Governor of California for 12-year terms....
, upon the threat of an eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
acquisition by the University, in exchange for a peppercorn
Peppercorn (legal)
A peppercorn in legal parlance is a metaphor for a very small payment, a nominal consideration, used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract. "A peppercorn does not cease to be good consideration if it is established that the promisee does not like pepper and will throw...
lease, most recently renewed in July 2005.
On December 21, 2008, Cloyne Court was closed temporarily for earthquake renovations. It reopened at the beginning of the Fall 2009 semester and briefly attracted public attention in 2010 when a 21-year-old resident of the house suffered extensive brain damage and lapsed into a coma, reportedly as a result of a cocaine overdose, in his room.
The building is one of fifty-six buildings in Berkeley listed in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as well as a City of Berkeley Landmark.
External links
- History of the Cloyne Court Hotel, from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
- Cloyne Court co-op history
- Cloyne Court - a personal account
- The Cloyne Court Forum - a free, non profit discussion forum for Cloyne Court members, past, present, and future