{"nrhp_refnum":"88000919","name":"Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"1414--1422 Harbour Way, S.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond","county":"Contra Costa County","state":"CA","lat":37.91123863400006,"lon":-122.35706856718728,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-06-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large industrial assembly plant complex beside the Santa Fe Channel in Richmond, Contra Costa County, California, designed by architect Albert Kahn for Ford Motor Company and dedicated in 1931. It includes a main building, craneway, boiler house and a detached oil house.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the plant is significant for its architecture and its history. It is the only Albert Kahn building in the San Francisco Bay Area and uses his \"daylight factory\", all-under-one-roof design. It was the largest assembly plant on the West Coast, a major driver of the local economy and harbor development, and it converted to military vehicle processing in World War II.","narrative":"Built on reclaimed bayfront land beside the Santa Fe Channel in Richmond, California, this Ford assembly plant was designed by Albert Kahn and dedicated in 1931. The main building holds about 496,000 square feet under one roof, with a two-story section, a single-story section, a craneway, a boiler house and a rail shed canopy. Steel windows and sawtooth skylights light the interior, and the craneway extends onto a pile-supported dock where finished vehicles could be loaded onto ships or trains. A detached oil house also contributes. The plant was the largest Ford assembly facility on the West Coast and the only Kahn-designed building in the Bay Area. During the Depression it supplied Ford vehicles across the western states and supported a large local payroll. In 1942 it became a tank depot that processed military vehicles for shipment overseas. Car assembly ended in 1953 and the plant closed in the mid-1950s. A later warehouse, guard house and tugboat building do not contribute.","period_of_significance":"1930 - 1938","architect_builder":"Kahn, Albert","architectural_style":"Other: Industrial","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Described as half vacant at the time of the form; grounds and exterior wood members need repair, and the railroad trestle was removed in 1986.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.878362-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/88000919.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000919/494c5156bd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000919/494c5156bd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_Motor_Company_Assembly_Plant_(Richmond,_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:Ford_Motor_Company_Assembly_Plant_(Richmond,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858526","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company_Assembly_Plant","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5467856"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/contra-costa-county/ford-motor-company-assembly-plant-88000919/"}