California State Historical Resources Commission to Consider 10 Properties for Action
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – (RealEstateRama) —The California State Historical Resources Commission (Commission) will consider 10 nominations for federal historic designation Friday, February 3. The Commission meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in the Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Library and Learning Center in the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse, located at 501 I Street, Suite 1-400, Sacramento.
Properties being considered at this meeting include historic places worthy of preservation, such as Sacramento’s Sutter Club, two properties associated with the Latinos in Twentieth Century California historic context, and several properties undergoing certified rehabilitation for adaptive reuse.
All properties being considered at the meeting include:
National Register of Historic Places Nominations
Sutter Club
Sacramento, Sacramento County
Designed by Dean & Dean and Starks & Flanders, the Sutter Club building is perhaps Sacramento’s most important example of Spanish Eclectic Architecture. In addition, as Sacramento’s oldest social club, the Sutter Club is closely associated with the social, cultural, and business development of Sacramento.
Azteca Theater
Fresno, Fresno County
Under the management of Mexican-born impresario Arturo Tirado, the 1948 Art Deco style theater in Fresno’s Chinatown showed films made during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, and was also a venue for personal appearances by many of the leading actors of Mexican film. When in March 1966 César Chavez led striking farmworkers on their march from Delano to Sacramento, they stopped in Fresno, met with Mayor Floyd Hyde at City Hall, and held a rally in the Azteca that featured Chavez and the striking farmworkers.
Pan American Bank of East Los Angeles
East Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
The oldest Latino-owned bank in California is also emblematic of the economic growth of the Mexican American community in East Los Angeles after World War II. The building’s five-panel mosaic tile mural, entitled “Our Past, Our Present, and Our Future,” is one of the earliest examples of the art form in East Los Angeles and influenced the rise of the Chicano mural movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The bank is also representative of the career of co-founder Romana Acosta Bañuelos, a prominent Mexican American entrepreneur who later became the first Latina Treasurer of the United States.
Melrose Baptist Church
Oakland, Alameda County
The Spanish Revival style church and attached school are located in the Fruitvale district. This building includes a 1930 church sanctuary, two-story hall and offices added in 1939, and a two-story school building added in 1949. Church architects Roger Blaine and David Olson’s travels through Spain influenced their choice of style, construction, and decorative materials.
Grand Central Air Terminal
Glendale, Los Angeles County
Designed by Los Angeles architect Henry L. Gogerty in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, the terminal has an Art Deco air traffic control tower and interior decorative features. The terminal building was put into service in 1929 while still under construction; construction was completed in 1930. It is a rare, intact example of an early aviation passenger terminal and serves as a physical record of events that helped shape the development of air travel and the aviation industry in Southern California.
Grether & Grether Building
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
The mercantile and industrial building is located in the center of Los Angeles’ manufacturing district. The simplified Beaux-Arts style, six-story, reinforced concrete building, constructed in 1924, reflects the concurrent growth and development of manufacturing with wholesale distribution in Los Angeles during the first half of the twentieth century. Walter Grether, a principal of the building’s namesake firm, was president and founder of the Wholesale Institute and helped establish Los Angeles as a major center of manufacturing in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s through the creation of Market Week, a buyers’ convention showcasing Los Angeles-made products.
Halcyon Historic District
Halcyon, San Luis Obispo County
These 130 rural acres exemplify a settlement pattern and town planning unique to socialist reformers in the United States from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century. Halcyon remains much the same physically and in spirit as when it was founded in 1903 by an offshoot of the Theosophical Society in America, who moved to California from Syracuse, New York. As a part of the large movement toward establishing utopian/intentional communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Halcyon is one of the few remaining such communities in California. The Temple of the People sanctuary, the Blue Star Memorial Temple, was designed by noted architect Theodore Eisen and constructed by Temple members in 1923 and 1924.
Point Sur Light Station Amendment
Point Sur, Monterey County
An earlier Point Sur Light Station nomination is amended to include the site of the Point Sur Naval Facility (NAVFAC), a Cold-War era SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) facility located southeast of the main light station. This facility was the site of experiments in long-range underwater sound transmission used to identify and monitor Soviet submarines during the Cold War. The amendment also expands the period of significance for the district, and adds two new historic contexts.
Portuguese Chapel of San Diego
San Diego, San Diego County
Imperio Capela is a small wood-framed chapel inspired by similar chapels from the islands of Terciera and Pico in the Azores. Intended for use in conjunction with the Portuguese Festa, the design also emulates a Portuguese tuna boat. The chapel represents a culturally significant architectural response to an important community festival.
Washington Firehouse
West Sacramento, Yolo County
This 1940 Streamline Moderne firehouse is located in the Washington neighborhood. Designed by George Sellon, the building was funded by the Works Progress Administration.
All nominations and photographs of properties under consideration are available at www.ohp.parks.ca.gov/pending.
The public may present oral statements at the hearing at the appropriate time. Written comments about any subject on the agenda may be submitted to Julianne Polanco, State Historic Preservation Officer, Office of Historic Preservation, Post Office Box 942896, Sacramento, California 94296-0001. Inquiries may be directed to Recording Secretary Twila Willis-Hunter by phone at (916) 445-7052, by fax at (916) 445-7053 or by mail to the State Historical Resources Commission, Post Office Box 942896, Sacramento, California 94296-0001. Notices and agendas for the Commission’s workshop and meeting are available at ten days before the meeting.
The National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program that coordinates and supports public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archaeological resources. The California Register of Historical Resources includes buildings, sites, structures, objects and districts significant in the architectural, engineering, scientific, economic, agricultural, educational, social, political, military or cultural annals of California.
Notices and agendas for California State Historical Commission meetings can be found online at www.parks.ca.gov/commissions.
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California State Parks Mission
To provide for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high quality outdoor recreation.
