{"nrhp_refnum":"95001385","name":"Pacific Gas and Electric Company General Office Building and Annex","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"245 Market St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.79229578600007,"lon":-122.39657458899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-11-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seventeen-story Beaux Arts office skyscraper at 245 Market Street (corner of Market and Beale Streets), San Francisco, built 1923-1925 as the headquarters of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, with an annex at 25 Beale Street added 1945-1947.","why_significant":"The nomination argues statewide significance under Criterion A for its role in commerce as headquarters of the utility serving most of Northern and Central California. It argues local significance under Criterion C as a very fine example of the 1920s terra cotta-clad tall office building, designed to pair with the adjacent Matson Building and echoing San Francisco City Hall motifs.","narrative":"Rising seventeen stories at Market and Beale Streets in San Francisco, this office tower was built in 1923-1925 as the general office of Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Architects Bakewell and Brown clad it in rusticated Granitex terra cotta, using a base-shaft-capital arrangement and motifs borrowed from their earlier San Francisco City Hall, including a double-height arcade and Doric columns with urns. It was designed to match the neighboring Matson Building. An annex on Beale Street, completed in 1947 by Weihe, Frick and Kruse, added about half again as much office space and used movable steel-panel partitions. The building was listed for two reasons: its role as headquarters of a utility serving nearly all of Northern and Central California, and its quality as a 1920s terra cotta-clad office building. A seismic retrofit in 1993-1995 added concrete shear walls and articulated the terra cotta facade, while the lobby and executive offices were kept or reassembled. The company still occupies it.","period_of_significance":"1923-1947","architect_builder":"Architect: Bakewell, John Jr., & Brown, Arthur Jr.; annex by Weihe, Frick & Kruse; Consulting Structural Engineer C. H. Snyder; Consulting Mechanical Engineers Hunter & Hunter","architectural_style":"Late 19th & early 20th century Revivals: Beaux Arts","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still houses the PG&E headquarters; seismic retrofit and remodeling carried out 1993-1995, with the main lobby and selected executive offices preserved or reassembled.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:26.905356-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/95001385.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001385/e601dbc6c3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001385/e601dbc6c3-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"TheCatalyst31","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Co._General_Office_Building_full_view.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">TheCatalyst31</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Co._General_Office_Building_full_view.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861234","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Company_General_Office_Building_and_Annex","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18155664"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/pacific-gas-and-electric-company-general-office-building-and-annex-95001385/"}