{"nrhp_refnum":"81000151","name":"Fort, The","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Ash and Lincoln Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Taft","county":"Kern County","state":"CA","lat":35.15058105300005,"lon":-119.46604964699998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1981-07-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large adobe-brick government complex on about 4 acres at Ash and Lincoln Streets in Taft, Kern County, California, built 1938-1940 as a replica of Sutter's Fort in Sacramento.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was one of the largest WPA projects in the San Joaquin Valley and helped stabilize the local economy during the Great Depression by providing jobs. It also housed county, state and federal offices and medical facilities, giving the community a civic focus. It is presented as a notable example of WPA-era architecture and of California's 1930s response to historic imagery.","narrative":"Built between 1938 and 1940 in Taft, California, The Fort is a massive adobe-brick government center modeled on John Sutter's original fort in Sacramento. It covers nearly three acres, measures 360 by 200 feet, and has walls about 14 feet high, a mission tile roof, heavy timber gates and two-story bastions at the east corners. Inner buildings along the walls hold county, state and federal offices around landscaped courtyards. Kern County and the Work Projects Administration built it jointly, with W. Francis Parsons as architect. An average of 83 men worked on the project daily, and the county spent $51,701.60 while federal funds paid roughly twice that in wages. The nomination presents it as one of the largest WPA projects in the southern San Joaquin Valley, an important source of Depression-era jobs, and a civic center that once also contained a hospital unit. The central auditorium was rebuilt after earthquake damage in 1952.","period_of_significance":"1938-1940","architect_builder":"W. Francis Parsons, AIA (architect); County of Kern; Federal Works Administration","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in good condition and publicly owned; it houses county, state and federal offices. A 1952 earthquake required reconstruction of the central auditorium building.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.431576-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/81000151.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000151/300a233d7e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000151/300a233d7e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Bobak Ha'Eri","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2010-1230-Taft-TheFort.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bobak Ha'Eri</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2010-1230-Taft-TheFort.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858853","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fort_(Taft,_California)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14684107"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/kern-county/fort-the-81000151/"}