{"nrhp_refnum":"01001179","name":"Lee, Don, Building","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"1000 Van Ness Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.78480157100006,"lon":-122.42076810299994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-10-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An eight-story reinforced-concrete former Cadillac automobile showroom and garage at 1000 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, built in 1921 and designed by Weeks and Day, with a large 1998 addition on its eastern half.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is locally significant under Criterion C as an example of the automobile showroom type on San Francisco's historic Auto Row. It is described as the largest and one of the three most architecturally significant showrooms there. It was the first of a new generation of important 1920s showrooms and influenced the scale and elaboration of later ones.","narrative":"Occupying a full block on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, the Don Lee Building was erected in 1921 as a Cadillac showroom and garage, designed by Weeks and Day. Its eight-story concrete frame is dressed on the main street fronts in Renaissance Revival stucco and terra cotta, with a rusticated base, paired Tuscan columns, terra cotta figures and a Cadillac crest. Inside, the double-height showroom shows a Spanish Colonial Revival character, with hand-painted Mexican tile floors, a carved staircase modeled on one in Burgos Cathedral, and a polychrome coffered ceiling. The nomination presents it as the largest and among the three most architecturally significant showrooms on the city's Auto Row, and as the first of the grand 1920s showrooms that shaped later designs. A 1998 rehabilitation added a movie theater on the eastern half, turned the upper garage floors into residences, and replicated the lost cornice in fiberglass.","period_of_significance":"1921","architect_builder":"Weeks and Day","architectural_style":"Italian Renaissance; Commercial Style; Spanish Colonial Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Rehabilitated in 1998 with an eight-story addition. The showroom is now a theater lobby and restaurant, the mezzanine holds offices and a health club, and the upper floors are residential units.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.004541-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/01001179.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001179/ff801c9b57-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001179/ff801c9b57-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Olaf2","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Don_Lee_Building_in_San_Francisco.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Olaf2</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Don_Lee_Building_in_San_Francisco.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861190","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q44633492"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/lee-don-building-01001179/"}