Clay Building

Clay Building, is a historical building in downtown Oakland, California. The Clay Building was built in 1901. The three-story brick building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 20, 1978. The Clay Building suffered major damage in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Clay Building was a Levi Strauss factory, after the earthquake it was also the Levi Strauss headquarters. Later the Le Cheval restaurant and Tigrai Cafe opened on the ground floor. starting in 1909, Theodore Eliopolous's Eliopoulos Hellenic Company, an Egyptian cigar manufacturer was on the third floor, later moved to Webster Street by John Fisher. An auction house owned by David Bercovich operated out of the building for some years. Harry Bercovich opened a cigar shop in 1924 in the Clay Building. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the building and was repaired.