{"nrhp_refnum":"91001896","name":"The Bellevue-Staten","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"492 Staten Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oakland","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.80819363200004,"lon":-122.25359274299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-12-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 14-story, 36-unit steel-frame apartment tower with an adjoining four-story garage at 492 Staten Avenue near Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, built 1928-29 and designed by architect Herman C. Baumann.","why_significant":"The complex reflects the 1920s boom in high-rise apartment construction along Lake Merritt, and the Bellevue-Staten marked the end of that boom. It is also considered a masterwork of architect Herman C. Baumann, combining Churrigueresque and Art Deco ornament in a way the nomination calls unrivaled in his other work.","narrative":"Rising 14 stories and 189 feet beside Lake Merritt in Oakland, the Bellevue-Staten is a 36-unit apartment building completed in 1928-29, with a four-story garage added on the adjoining lot a year later. Architect Herman C. Baumann designed both in an eclectic Spanish Mediterranean Revival and Art Deco manner. The steel-frame tower is clad in orange-toned brick and cast stone, with a richly ornamented four-story entrance frontispiece, a two-story lobby with coffered ceiling and bronze elevator doors, and exuberant finials along the roof parapet. It was one of eight high-rise apartment buildings raised near the lake in the 1920s and the only north-shore tower to rival those on the south side. It also stands as the only known luxury apartment building Baumann designed in Oakland, out of some 500 apartment buildings in his career. The exterior and garage remain largely unaltered, and the building was only slightly damaged in the 1989 earthquake, with repairs completed.","period_of_significance":"1928-1929","architect_builder":"Herman C. Baumann (architect); developed by Lakeview Building Corporation (Thebo, Starr & Anderton, Inc. and Fred T. Wood Company)","architectural_style":"Early 20th Century American/Modern Movement/Spanish Mediterranean Revival and Art Deco","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as multiple dwellings (cooperative since 1986); earthquake damage from 1989 was repaired and the building and garage are described as largely unaltered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:26.84373-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/91001896.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001896/7574ba9b77-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001896/7574ba9b77-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Bellevue-Staten_(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:The_Bellevue-Staten_(Oakland,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858351","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bellevue-Staten","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123232214"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/the-bellevue-staten-91001896/"}