Charles MacGregor – The “Builder of Albany”

Albany’s MacGregor School—slated for demolition this summer—first opened in the late 1940s to accommodate the population surge that followed World War II. The school began as C.M. MacGregor Primary School and was later used for other purposes, including the Albany Adult School and MacGregor High School.  The school was named after Charles M. MacGregor, a prominent East Bay developer who built many homes in Albany beginning in the 1920s. The following, first posted in 2010, provides a look back at Charles MacGregor and his influence on Albany.

Chances are, if you live in Albany you’ve heard of Charles MacGregor, the builder of some 1,500 homes throughout the city. Constructed mostly during the 1920s and 30s, MacGregor homes are often touted by realtors as having attractive architectural features, and it’s not uncommon for his name to appear in sales ads and flyers.

“MacGregor is famous for split-level living,” said Diane Sindel-Deutsche, owner of Jeans Realty on Solano Ave., a company that has operated in Albany for decades.  For example, bedrooms are frequently located up a small flight of stairs, and placed over a garage.

While he built different styles, many of his homes have a Mediterranean look and feature appealing added extras.  “MacGregor added quality with archways, large picture windows in the front living room, ornate tiled fireplaces, and built-ins,” Sindel-Deutsche said.  “His homes are known for their own style today—it’s a part of history here.”

MacGregor’s influence in Albany goes well beyond homes, however.  For years the city celebrated “MacGregor Day,” an annual September event near his birthday. The first MacGregor Day in 1936 featured a parade, various games and contests, and a banquet, all in honor of the man local newspapers heralded as the “Builder of Albany.”

Subsequent MacGregor Days focused on children—MacGregor would treat all Albany schoolchildren to free ice cream and a movie at the Albany Theater.  The event continued until his death in 1954.

Today it wouldn’t be that common for a city to name a holiday after a builder and celebrate it for nearly 20 years. What made MacGregor so influential? One likely factor was that much of his work coincided with the Great Depression. During a time when economic vitality was collapsing, MacGregor was expanding the city of Albany and putting people to work. 

Vintage articles and family members also describe his charitable giving during hard times—groceries, children’s shoes and medicine delivered anonymously to families in need, and an effort to stagger jobs to keep his workers employed through the rainy season.  

Two Albany schools have been named after MacGregor, the current MacGregor High School, as well as a former primary school built in the late 1940s.

As well known as MacGregor is in Albany, he also built many structures elsewhere. Born in Nova Scotia, MacGregor came to the Bay Area as a young man around 1890. He first worked as a carpenter for others before striking out on his own. 

Some of his first structures were in Oakland where he built homes as well as apartment buildings, including the elegant Madison Park Apartments at 100 9th Street. This 1908 structure, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was once called the largest apartment building west of Chicago, and some claimed it was one of the firsts in the area with an elevator.  

A prolific builder, MacGregor also worked in San Francisco and built throughout the East Bay in Piedmont, Emeryville, Orinda, Alameda, Berkeley, El Cerrito and Richmond. But it was in Albany where his business really expanded.

At first, people thought he was crazy when he began to buy Albany lots, said MacGregor’s daughter, Charlotte MacGregor Boggs, in a 1983 interview.  At the time, Albany’s open rural landscape was largely unappreciated—many considered the area the “end of the line” far removed from it all.

Unlike other builders, MacGregor also bought numerous small lots in Albany. “There were so many 25-foot lots and it was hard to do anything with them,” said Boggs, who once worked in her father’s office. “He worked with a man who never finished his architecture course but he drew very good plans. He and my father worked together to make the plans for the little houses on the 25-foot lots.”

By the mid-1930s MacGregor had built several hundred homes in Albany and decided to move his office there from Oakland. He built the commercial building that still stands today at the corner of Carmel and Solano Avenues and moved his office into a portion of it in 1936. (The Albany Historical Society placed a historical plaque in front of the building in 2011.) MacGregor continued his construction in Albany into the 1940s.

Not everyone was fond of MacGregor. Over the years he acquired the nickname “One-Nail MacGregor.” Several stories evolved about the origin of the name. Some say MacGregor was known to be thrifty, especially during the Depression, and found a way to install a 2 x 4 (or similar piece of lumber used at the time) using one less nail.

Those who disliked him stressed the moniker referred to inferior building practices. “His competition said he wasn’t putting in as many nails as he should,” said Ingraham “Bud” Read Jr., MacGregor’s grandson.  But Read and others also heard people praise the quality of his homes, saying he put in one nail more than other builders.

While not everyone agrees on his building methods, few dispute that MacGregor left his mark in Albany.