{"nrhp_refnum":"86001665","name":"Pacific Gas & Electric Company Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1625 Clay and 551 Seventeenth Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oakland","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.807140263000065,"lon":-122.27246068199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-07-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An eight-story steel-frame and reinforced concrete office building at 1625 Clay Street and 551 17th Street in downtown Oakland, Alameda County, California. It was built in 1922 as the East Bay district headquarters of Pacific Gas & Electric Company, to designs by architect C. W. Dickey.","why_significant":"The building is significant under Criterion A for its association with the history of Northern California's major utility company, and under Criterion C as an important work of architect Charles W. Dickey. It is one of very few skyscrapers of comparable scale built in downtown Oakland in the early 1920s. Its exterior is unaltered, which is rare among older downtown buildings, and its restrained design anticipates early Modern buildings.","narrative":"Completed in 1922 at the corner of Clay and 17th Streets, this eight-story office building served as the East Bay district headquarters of Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Architect Charles W. Dickey described his aim as a plain, dignified structure, and the result is a restrained Renaissance and Baroque revival design with clean massing. The ground floor is faced in glazed terra cotta over a granite base, with brick above and terra cotta cornices. Inside, the ground floor still has its Tennessee marble floor, wainscoting and columns with Composite capitals. The building reflects the company's consolidation of many gas and electric firms by 1905 and the northward growth of downtown Oakland after 1906. It is also among only a few large buildings of its quality erected downtown between 1920 and 1925, and its exterior remains unaltered. The company occupied it until the mid-1970s. Dickey was an East Bay and Honolulu architect who also designed the Claremont Hotel.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Architect: C. W. Dickey; Builder: R. W. Littlefield","architectural_style":"Restrained Renaissance/Baroque revival (Renaissance Revival, Beaux Arts tradition) looking forward to Modern styling","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Exterior described as unaltered and in very good condition; office floors remodeled over time, ground floor retains much original decor. Form lists the property as vacant/unoccupied with work in progress.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.229201-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/86001665.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001665/064d8cc289-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001665/064d8cc289-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Gas_%26_Electric_Company_Building_(Oakland,_CA).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Gas_%26_Electric_Company_Building_(Oakland,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858308","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q133254770"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/pacific-gas-and-electric-company-building-86001665/"}