St. John's Presbyterian Church, Historic church building in Berkeley, California, United States

St. John's Presbyterian Church is a wooden church at 2640 College Avenue in Berkeley, California, designed by Julia Morgan with assistant Walter Steilberg in the First Bay Tradition style. Its exterior is clad in stained wood shingles, and the redwood-paneled interior leaves beams and trusses fully exposed, lit mainly by smoked glass clerestory windows.

St. John's Presbyterian Church was organized in 1907 to serve people moving from San Francisco to Berkeley after the 1906 earthquake, and its building at 2640 College Avenue was completed in 1910. It was named for St. John's Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, whose pastor, Dr. George Granville Eldridge, became the founding pastor in Berkeley. The congregation moved to a new sanctuary at 2727 College Avenue in 1974, and the building later became the Julia Morgan Theater.

The building is no longer a church: desanctified and sold in 1974, it became the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts in 1980 and merged with the Berkeley Playhouse in 2009. Visitors now attend plays, musicals and theater classes for a range of ages and skill levels.

The former church stands at 2640 College Avenue in Berkeley, near the Elmwood district and the Rockridge BART area. It is now the Julia Morgan Theater, home of the Berkeley Playhouse, so interior access depends on performances and theater classes rather than church services. Look for the brown-shingle facade and broad gables from the street.

Julia Morgan considered this church her best Craftsman building. Its redwood interior leaves the beams and trusses fully exposed, and smoked-glass clerestory windows supply most of the light. The building is #8 on Berkeley's list of historic landmarks and joined the National Register in 1975.