{"nrhp_refnum":"88000969","name":"California Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3443--3501 San Pablo Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oakland","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.82457551400006,"lon":-122.27899315499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-06-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story hotel with mezzanine and penthouse at 3443-3501 San Pablo Avenue in west Oakland, California, built in 1929-1930 in Spanish Colonial Revival style. It has an L-plan and twin towers facing north toward what is now the MacArthur Freeway.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the hotel is a fine, essentially intact example of the large hotel building type in a 1920s Period Revival style, designed by a locally important architect and built by prominent local builders. Its scale and twin towers have made it a landmark, and it was Oakland's only major architectural response to the nearby Emeryville transportation hub. It may later gain significance as a social center for East Bay Black entertainers in the 1950s and 1960s.","narrative":"Rising five stories above San Pablo Avenue in west Oakland, this hotel was built in 1929-1930 with an L-shaped plan, red brick walls, off-white stucco trim and a pair of towers facing north. Clay N. Burrell designed it for the Sommarstrom Brothers, who also built it and were among Oakland's prominent apartment builders. The owners sited it to attract travelers arriving from the north and to serve the nearby Emeryville rail and highway hub, and it remains the only large building in the vicinity. Its original lobby survives with a beamed ceiling, a tiled fireplace and terrazzo stairs set with brass bear emblems. After World War II it became a leading East Bay lodging and social center for Black entertainers and audiences, a role the form says may become significant in time. The hotel was listed for its architecture, as an intact and conspicuous example of a large 1920s hotel building.","period_of_significance":"1929-1930","architect_builder":"Burrell, Clay N., architect; Sommarstrom Brothers, builder","architectural_style":"Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Run-down and slightly vandalized; hotel and residential floors vacant for about a dozen years, with ground-floor commercial uses continuing and rehabilitation as low-income housing planned.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.784054-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/88000969.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000969/1fdd28bdff-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000969/1fdd28bdff-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:California_Hotel_(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:California_Hotel_(Oakland,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858169","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21188155"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/california-hotel-88000969/"}