{"nrhp_refnum":"92001300","name":"University High School","other_names":["Merritt College"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5714 Martin Luther King Jr. Way","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oakland","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.84254059400007,"lon":-122.26915751099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-10-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story reinforced concrete school building with a detached gymnasium, in Spanish Colonial/Mission Revival style, at 5714 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland, California. It was built 1922-23 on a 9-acre site, with a gym and shop wing added in 1926-27 and rebuilt in 1939.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a fine, rare surviving example of early 20th century California school architecture, designed by regional architect Charles W. Dickey and modeled on the California missions. It also matters to Oakland educational and social history, serving as a respected progressive laboratory high school, an early community college, and the birthplace of the Black Panther Party, ethnic studies, and the Chicano muralist movement.","narrative":"University High School in Oakland is a large Spanish Colonial style school building, completed in 1923 from designs by architect Charles W. Dickey. Its reinforced concrete structure has tan stucco walls, red tile roofs, terra cotta trim, a 650-foot arcaded front, a bell tower, and a gabled auditorium that recall a California mission. Inside, classrooms line long corridors around landscaped study courts, with a two-story library and a 1,300-seat auditorium. A detached gymnasium and a shop wing were added in the 1920s and rebuilt in 1939. The campus housed a laboratory school run with the University of California, later an early community college, and was later linked to the Black Panther Party, ethnic studies and the Chicano muralist movement. It was listed for its architecture and for its role in Oakland's educational and social history. Few comparable prewar Oakland schools survive. The buildings are now boarded up and deteriorating, though largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1922-42","architect_builder":"Dickey, Charles W. (architect); Littlefield, R.W. (builder)","architectural_style":"Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The buildings are boarded up and deteriorating from vandalism, small fires and weather, though most classrooms are nearly intact and damage is largely cosmetic.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.067346-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/92001300.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001300/a2fdbc2089-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001300/a2fdbc2089-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_High_School_(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:University_High_School_(Oakland,_CA).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858369","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_High_School_(Oakland,_California)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7894742"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/university-high-school-92001300/"}