{"nrhp_refnum":"75000476","name":"U.S. Customhouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"555 Battery St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.79437150000007,"lon":-122.39886335299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-01-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story, steel-framed, granite-faced federal custom house at 555 Battery Street, San Francisco, completed in 1911 to designs by St. Louis architects William S. Eames and Thomas C. Young.","why_significant":"It was the first large building on which construction started in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. It is one of the few surviving good examples of late Renaissance federal architecture in the western United States. Its fine materials, workmanship and state of preservation are described as unusual, with relatively few changes.","narrative":"Completed in 1911 at 555 Battery Street, San Francisco, this five-story custom house measures 265 by 117 feet. It has a steel frame, a cut granite base and gray Madera granite on the upper stories. Inside, a large central lobby with double marble staircases, white Italian marble floors and white oak casework organizes the building around two L-shaped light courts. The Deputy Collector's office has curved end walls, a groined ceiling painted with abstract floral patterns and murals by A. L. Cooper. Ground was broken in July 1906, and construction was slowed by a postfire labor shortage. It was the first large building started in the city after the earthquake and fire, and the foundations rest on timbers taken from the hull of the steamship Georgian. St. Louis architects William S. Eames and Thomas C. Young won the design competition. The building is valued as a rare, well-preserved western example of late Renaissance federal architecture.","period_of_significance":"20th Century; completed 1911","architect_builder":"William S. Eames and Thomas C. Young (St. Louis architects)","architectural_style":"Late Renaissance; Second Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in good condition and altered, on its original site, in government use under the General Services Administration; described 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 02:55:31.417373-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/75000476.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000476/18ca25bc6c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000476/18ca25bc6c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:U._S._Customhouse_(San_Francisco).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</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:U._S._Customhouse_(San_Francisco).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861339","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Customhouse_(San_Francisco)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7889713"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/u-s-customhouse-75000476/"}