{"nrhp_refnum":"82002263","name":"Live Oak Creamery","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"88 Martin St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Gilroy","county":"Santa Clara County","state":"CA","lat":37.00825280600003,"lon":-121.56822864599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-03-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story brick creamery with frame additions at 88 Martin Street, Gilroy, Santa Clara County, California, built in 1908 by the Learnard family beside the Southern Pacific Railroad spur.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was the first butter factory established in the Gilroy area and the only insulated structure of its kind locally. It later produced cheese in the 1920s and 1930s. It is described as the last visual reminder of the pioneer dairy and cheese industry of the lower Santa Clara Valley.","narrative":"Built in 1908 at Martin and Railroad Streets in Gilroy, the Live Oak Creamery is a rectangular brick building with later stucco-covered and board-and-batten frame additions. Tracey Learnard and his father, Colonel O. E. Learnard, established it so local dairy farmers no longer had to ship cream elsewhere to be made into butter. It was the first butter factory in the Gilroy area and could produce 1,000 pounds a day. A Southern Pacific spur beside the site allowed products to be loaded directly onto rail cars. New owners installed a pasteurizer and homogenizer in 1919, and in the early 1920s the plant began making cheese, including Monterey Jack and cheddar. Walter Luchessa and his brothers bought it in 1925, and the Zottola Brothers later leased it. Stricter state moisture rules ended operations around 1940. Its insulated refrigerator room was unusual locally. The building is regarded as the last visible reminder of Gilroy's early dairy and cheese industry.","period_of_significance":"1908","architect_builder":"Not known (built by the Learnard family)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as presently used as a warehouse and workshop; the form also lists the property as unoccupied and commercial, and the creamery ceased operating about 1940.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.220158-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/82002263.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002263/0bc18482ad-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002263/0bc18482ad-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Eugene Zelenko","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA-Gilroy-Live_Oak_Creamery-3.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Eugene Zelenko</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:USA-Gilroy-Live_Oak_Creamery-3.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861728","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Oak_Creamery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123205474"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/santa-clara-county/live-oak-creamery-82002263/"}