{"nrhp_refnum":"75000471","name":"City of Paris Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"181-199 Geary St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.78950398200004,"lon":-122.40585343099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-01-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story commercial building with a full basement at the southeast corner of Geary and Stockton Streets, facing Union Square in San Francisco, California. It was built in 1896 for the Spring Valley Water Company and designed by Clinton Day.","why_significant":"It is one of the few downtown San Francisco buildings to survive the 1906 earthquake and fire, and an early, rare Western example of Neoclassical commercial architecture from before 1900. Its elliptical rotunda and stained glass dome, created in the post-earthquake remodeling by Bakewell, Brown and Bourgeois, is thought to be the only one of its kind. The nomination calls it perhaps the finest Neoclassical interior of a commercial building in America.","narrative":"Occupying the southeast corner of Geary and Stockton Streets facing Union Square, this six-story building was completed in 1896 for the Spring Valley Water Company, to designs by architect Clinton Day. The Verdier family, whose French dry goods store began aboard a ship in San Francisco harbor, became its first tenants. The building came through the 1906 earthquake and fire with its street facades intact, although the interior was demolished. The Verdiers then hired John Bakewell, Arthur Brown and Louis Bourgeois, all trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, to remodel the inside. Their centerpiece was a four-story elliptical rotunda under an oval stained and leaded glass dome, thought to be the only one of its type. Glass details carry a ship motif and the motto \"battered, but never sinking.\" The exterior is an early use of Neoclassical style at a time when Victorian design still dominated, and such examples are rare in the Far West. A miniature Eiffel Tower tops the corner.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Clinton Day (original 1896 architect); John Bakewell, Arthur Brown and Louis Bourgeois (post-1906 remodeling consultants)","architectural_style":"Neoclassical / Beaux-Arts, with late Victorian elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Exterior described as in perfect condition. The form notes the interior was altered when soft colors and gold leaf were painted over by the last tenant. The form checks the status as occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.866469-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/75000471.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000471/8720880811-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000471/8720880811-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Unknown authorUnknown author","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City_of_paris_after_reconstruction.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown authorUnknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City_of_paris_after_reconstruction.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861075","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Paris_Dry_Goods_Co.","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5123857"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/city-of-paris-building-75000471/"}