Three Corners & The Marchant Building (Now Foundry31)
The northernmost part of The Emeryville Greenway, referred to by some locals as “Three Corners,” is the intersection of the cities of Emeryville, Berkeley and Oakland. A marker designates the spot where all three cities abut.
The property to the East, known today as “Foundry 31,” stretches a full block of San Pablo Avenue and spans 800 feet to the west into Emeryville. The building is so large it has three addresses including 3100 San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, 1000 Folger Street (also in Berkeley), and 1222 67th Street in Oakland.
Precisely, 55% of the building is in Berkeley, 44% in Oakland, and just 1% in Emeryville.
The original address of the building was 6701 San Pablo Avenue and was constructed in 1958 for Marchant Calculators, Inc. (originally Marchant Calculating Machine Company). That same year Marchant merged with Smith Corona Typewriters forming Smith-Corona Marchant Inc. or simply “SCM.”
The 4-story, 507,000 square foot plant was designed by Architect Albert P. Roller and constructed at a cost of 6 million dollars.
The company completed the move of their administrative division, parts production, assembly, and engineering division from its 1475 Powell Street location in June of that year. At its peak, the factory employed a workforce of 1,500 employees.
The operation as it turns out, would be short lived. The first electronic calculator was invented by Japanese company Casio a year prior in 1957 setting off technological “arms race” in the industry.
In 1962 SCM announced they would work to reduce overhead within the company and sell the four year old plant “in order to compete successfully with foreign made calculators.” They moved their calculator manufacturing division to Orangeburg, S.C impacting 1,200 employees.
In 1963, BART considered it for their Engineering headquarters for the fledgling transit system. It was also considered as a designated fallout shelter at the recommendation of Navy Engineers noting its capacity for 9,615 people.
In 1966, after considering purchase of the building, the Peralta Junior College District leased it and converted it to a trade school called the East Bay Skills Center. The school offered classes in a variety of trades including refrigeration, welding, electronics, word processing, banking and computer repairs.
Later renamed the Edith M. Austin Skills Center, it operated for 20 years until state cuts and lack of funding impacted staff and enrollment. Facing debt, The Peralta Community College Board of Trustees voted to shut the school down in 1987.
In 1975, the building was briefly considered by the County Supervisors to be converted to a County Jail.
The last mention of SCM at the location was in 1977 where apparently they still used a portion of the space as an office for field technicians.
It was next acquired by UC Berkeley for printing services and storage among other uses. UC Berkeley utilized the space for 20 years before selling it to LBA Realty in 2009. They held a massive giveaway to clear the stacks of desks, chairs, dormitory furniture, and many other items accumulated by the University.
A few years later, LBA developed a plan to modernize and partition the building for a variety of uses, rebranding it as “Marchant on the Greenway.” They also added a rooftop parking garage among other renovations that they completed in 2014.
They renamed the property “Foundry31” in 2018 and is occupied by a variety of tenants including TCHO Chocolates, Amazon, City Sports Club and UCSF Medical.
In 2021 the building was acquired by Oxford Properties who are looking to attract more life science tenants.
Earlier history of the Marchant Calculating Machine Co. will be told on stop 21 of this tour.
