{"nrhp_refnum":"79000553","name":"Hotel Metropole","other_names":["Plaza Books","Paper Vision"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1111 Pacific Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Santa Cruz","county":"Santa Cruz County","state":"CA","lat":36.97188367500007,"lon":-122.02592583699999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-05-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story Italianate-style commercial and hotel building at 1111 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, California, built in 1908 for Duncan McPherson, with a rear addition made in 1940.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a unique Santa Cruz example of turn-of-the-century late Italianate commercial architecture, with pressed-metal ornamentation standing in for costlier plaster work. It is also described as an important part of the Pacific Garden Mall streetscape. Its history is tied to Duncan McPherson, publisher of the Santa Cruz Sentinel.","narrative":"Built in 1908 on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, this three-story commercial and hotel building was commissioned by Duncan McPherson, editor and publisher of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and constructed by contractor Charles Kay. The hotel offered forty-eight furnished rooms for transient and permanent guests, while the ground floor held shops, including a millinery and a grocery. Later it was renamed the Hotel Al Rose and then the Hotel Drake, and it was occupied until 1961. A department store used the consolidated ground floor until 1976. The late Italianate facade features a bracketed cornice, paired windows with triangular and arched pediments, and acanthus decoration in pressed metal, a material that replaced more expensive plasterwork. Leaded amethyst glass panels sit above the storefront. The building is considered a unique local example of this commercial style and contributes to the scale and continuity of the Pacific Garden Mall, a locally designated historic area.","period_of_significance":"1908 and 1940","architect_builder":"Charles Kay, Contractor (1908)","architectural_style":"Italianate (late Italianate commercial)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Ground floor is in commercial use as a bookstore and paper shop; the hotel rooms on the upper floors are vacant. The hotel was occupied continuously until 1961.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.002505-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/79000553.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000553/5c212194fa-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000553/5c212194fa-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Unknown authorUnknown author","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hotel_metropole_1908,_East_elevation_new_building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown authorUnknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hotel_metropole_1908,_East_elevation_new_building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861867","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Metropole_(Santa_Cruz,_California)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18350113"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/santa-cruz-county/hotel-metropole-79000553/"}