The Saw Mill was a wooden furniture business, known for its commercials featuring owner Marty Sherman astride his horse, George. It went out of business in the early 2000s.
There were several Bay Area locations. In Oakland, it was in what had been the Lyon Storage and Moving Company between Broadway and Piedmont Avenue.
Other Building Uses
The building dates back to c.1916 when it was built for Lyon. Before the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the building had a tower where the steel frame now sits. The tower featured lions on each corner; one or more apparently they fell off during the earthquake and crashed through the roof into the top floor of the building. The tower is visible in early photographs looking up Broadway
The Saw Mill moved in c.1979; they had an earlier location in the 2200 block of Webster Street.
Gorman & Son Furniture (formerly in Berkeley, and older than Berkeley itself) moved into the building in 2003. 1
In 2014, Candela Fine Art Printing moved into the building.
In February of 2016, the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment moved into the lobby floor of the building.
Links and References
- Older Than Berkeley, Gorman’s Leaving For Oakland Berkeley Daily Planet August 15, 2003