{"nrhp_refnum":"73000449","name":"Alviso Historic District","other_names":["Embarcadero de Santa Clara"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Boundaries unknown at this time","address_restricted":false,"city":"Alviso","county":"Santa Clara County","state":"CA","lat":37.424935170000026,"lon":-121.96773982499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-10-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic port-town district at the head of Alviso Slough at the south end of San Francisco Bay, in Alviso (San Jose), Santa Clara County, California. It is also known as Embarcadero de Santa Clara and contains buildings from about 1855 to 1905.","why_significant":"The nomination calls Alviso one of the earliest ports on the U.S. West Coast, predating San Francisco, and the main passenger and freight link between San Francisco and the southern bay area. It was also the chief commercial shipping depot for the Santa Clara Valley. The nomination argues the town remains a virtually unchanged, unsuburbanized California port town that looks much as it did in 1880-90.","narrative":"Alviso is an old bay port town laid out on a grid at the head of a navigable slough at the south end of San Francisco Bay. The nominated district runs along Alviso Slough, the 1850 canal and the Guadalupe River, and holds many buildings from the town's 1849-1900 heyday. These include the Old Union Warehouse and docks (about 1858), the Laine residence and store, the Railroad Depot (1904), the South Bay Yacht Club (1905), Wade's house and warehouse, and the Constable Office and Jail. The port was known by 1792, when Vancouver noted a rivulet near Santa Clara Mission with the confines of a port, and it handled hides and tallow for the mission. It became the principal freight and passenger link between San Francisco and the southern bay and the main shipping depot for the Santa Clara Valley. Port activity slowed in the 1880s and 1890s because of railroad competition, and the town still looks much as it did then.","period_of_significance":"18th and 19th centuries (1792 to about 1900)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked as deteriorated. Present uses include boating, fishing, clamming, shell collecting and commercial and industrial activity. The slough shelters transportation boats and the South Bay Yacht Club.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.199327-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/73000449.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000449/c167557065-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000449/c167557065-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bayside_Cannery_office,_907_Elizabeth_St.,_Alviso_Historic_District,_Alviso,_CA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bayside_Cannery_office,_907_Elizabeth_St.,_Alviso_Historic_District,_Alviso,_CA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861641","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q114414649"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/santa-clara-county/alviso-historic-district-73000449/"}