Cozzens-Ball Ford Dealership
The rise of automobile use in the early 20th century transformed San Pablo Avenue, the East Bay’s primary north–south route, into a corridor lined with garages, repair shops, parts stores, and service stations. Automobile dealerships soon followed, particularly along this stretch near the Oakland border.
Cozzens Ball Inc. Motor Co., owned by R.H. Cozzens and C.H. Ball, was an authorized Ford and Lincoln dealer operating at 4800 San Pablo Avenue. Their success led them, in 1923, to construct a new state-of-the-art facility here at 38th Street and San Pablo Avenue.
When it opened in 1924, the large reinforced-concrete building featured Corinthian pilasters, a showroom, and service garage, and employed approximately 45 people. Shortly afterward, the firm became known as Cozzens Motor Co.
The following decades brought significant economic disruption to the auto industry, including the Great Depression and the World War II manufacturing shutdown. During this period—when Oakland’s Auto Row was at its peak, drawing dealerships away from neighboring cities like Emeryville—this building changed hands several times.
By 1927, it had become a Hudson and Essex dealership operated by Tucker Motor Co., followed by Taylor & Smith by 1930. In the mid-1930s, the site returned to Ford sales under Kilpatric, Gale & Wilson, and by 1934 it was listed as M.C. Gale Inc., selling used vehicles.
In the 1940s, ownership passed to A. L. Learner, who sold Federal Trucks and later Crosley micro-cars. During the 1950s, Learner added Hudson automobiles and transitioned to GMC Trucks after Hudson ceased operations in 1954. Learner operated here until about 1968, after which the building continued as a GMC dealership known as the Oakland GMC Truck Center. That business relocated in 1981, ending 57 years of continuous vehicle sales at this address.
Subsequent uses reflected San Pablo Avenue’s post-industrial shift. In the 1980s, the building housed J.C. Paper Company, followed in 1991 by MAZ Auto Center (later MAZ Glass Center), which sold automotive accessories and provided window repair.
In 2013, the property was acquired by Holliday Development for adaptive reuse as a housing project. Construction of the 105-unit mixed-use complex known as The Intersection began in 2015, but was devastated by a six-alarm fire in 2016, later ruled arson.
Construction restarted, only to be destroyed again by a second arson fire on May 13, 2017. These fires occurred amid a broader wave of arson attacks on East Bay housing projects under construction; although a suspect was later convicted for a nearby blaze, he was never charged in connection with this site.
Remarkably, the original 1924 concrete showroom survived both blazes and was incorporated into a third redevelopment effort using modular construction. Completed in 2021, the finished project was donated to UC Berkeley for graduate student housing.
The ground-floor commercial space is now being developed as a satellite clinic and educational facility for the UC Berkeley School of Optometry, marking the building’s latest reinvention.
