{"nrhp_refnum":"91000563","name":"NIANTIC (Storeship)","other_names":["Bow and Associated Material Culture, NIANTIC Storeship Site"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"NW corner of Clay and Sansome Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.795158306000076,"lon":-122.40115129999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-05-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Maritime History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Archeological site at the northwest corner of Clay and Sansome Streets, San Francisco, containing the buried bow (about 29 feet) of the ship Niantic, built in 1835, plus the associated artifact collection recovered in 1978.","why_significant":"Niantic was the first ship converted into a beached storeship on the San Francisco waterfront during the Gold Rush, paving the way for about 150 others. Its recovered artifacts are the only excavated and preserved Gold Rush storeship assemblage. The remaining bow is believed to hold about two-thirds of the artifact deposit, and the hull also records early 19th century American wooden shipbuilding.","narrative":"Beneath a lot at Clay and Sansome Streets in San Francisco lies the buried bow of Niantic, a ship built in 1835 by Thomas Childs in Connecticut. She served in the China trade and as a whaler, then carried 250 gold seekers from Panama to San Francisco in 1849. Her crew left for the mines, and merchants bought her, beached her on the waterfront, and turned her into a storeship with warehouses below and offices on deck. She was the first such conversion, followed by roughly 150 others. A fire in May 1851 burned her to the waterline, and the hull was later buried under fill. Construction in 1978 exposed about 90 feet of the hull, and crews recovered thousands of artifacts now held by the National Park Service. About 29 feet of the bow, thought to contain an intact deposit of goods, remains unexcavated. The site is valued for Gold Rush commerce, maritime history and archeology.","period_of_significance":"1835-1851","architect_builder":"Childs, Thomas (builder)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C","D"],"status_note":"Current function is listed as vacant, not in use; the remaining bow lies buried beneath an adjacent lot.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.534483-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/91000563.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91000563/0ca800f1e2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91000563/0ca800f1e2-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Photo by Robert Harris-Stoertz. Painting by unknown Chinese artist (Chinese characters visible on original).","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whaleship_Niantic.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Photo by Robert Harris-Stoertz. Painting by unknown Chinese artist (Chinese characters visible on original).</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whaleship_Niantic.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861224","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niantic_(whaling_vessel)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7024076"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/niantic-storeship-91000563/"}