{"nrhp_refnum":"83003822","name":"San Jose Downtown Historic District","other_names":["San Jose Commercial District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"E. Santa Clara, South First, Second, Third and E. San Fernando Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Jose","county":"Santa Clara County","state":"CA","lat":37.33582408400005,"lon":-121.88870558872915,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-05-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A commercial historic district of about 6.4 acres in downtown San Jose, California, covering two city blocks around East Santa Clara, East San Fernando, South First, Second and Third Streets. Its buildings date from the 1870s to the early 1940s.","why_significant":"The district is argued to be significant as the mercantile and financial center of the Santa Clara Valley for about 100 years. It holds the broadest range of historic California commercial architecture in Santa Clara County, from 1870s Italianate to 1920s skyscraper construction and 1930s Moderne. It is also the densest remaining group of older buildings in downtown San Jose.","narrative":"Two blocks of downtown San Jose make up this commercial district, bounded roughly by East Santa Clara Street, East San Fernando Street, and South First and Third Streets. Its buildings range from the 1870s to the early 1940s and show how the city's business core changed over time. The Italianate Oddfellows Building of 1883 is the best surviving example from the 1870s and 1880s. Romanesque buildings along South First Street, including the Knox-Goodrich, Letitia and Security buildings, reflect the orchard-era prosperity of the 1890s and were designed by local architects such as Levi Goodrich and Jacob Lenzen. After the 1906 earthquake, Edwardian, Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival buildings appeared, followed by Moderne designs in the 1930s and 1940s. The 1926 Bank of America Building, San Jose's first skyscraper, anchors the district. Parking lots and altered buildings are counted as non-contributing, but the historic buildings remain the dominant presence. The district was recognized as the county's best concentration of varied commercial architecture.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"H. A. Minton (Bank of America Building); local architects Levi Goodrich and Jacob Lenzen","architectural_style":"Mixed commercial styles including Italianate, Richardsonian and Romanesque Revival, Edwardian, Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival, Renaissance detailing, and Moderne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as occupied and in good condition but altered; several buildings are non-contributing, and some owners are rehabilitating older buildings.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.912718-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/83003822.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003822/f5deda45a5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003822/f5deda45a5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"David Sawyer from Campbell, California, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_San_Jose.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">David Sawyer from Campbell, California, United States</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_San_Jose.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861780","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Historic_District_(San_Jose,_California)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5303460"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/santa-clara-county/san-jose-downtown-historic-district-83003822/"}