National Carbon Company Building

Rising four stories at Eighth and Brannan Streets in San Francisco, this reinforced concrete building was completed in 1917 for the Eveready Division of the National Carbon Company. Architect and engineer Maurice Couchot gave the industrial structure oversize classical touches, including pedimented door surrounds, spandrel panels and concrete medallions. Built for about $400,000, the original section measured 295 by 120 feet and housed roughly 500 employees; an addition around 1920 doubled its size. It featured a ventilation system, sprinklers and an intercommunication network of telephones, pneumatic tubes and spiral chutes. Blake, Moffitt and Towne, a paper distributor, acquired part of it in 1937 and used the complex as a headquarters and warehouse until 1981. The building was listed because it exemplifies early twentieth-century concrete industrial construction blended with City Beautiful ideas, and because its size makes it stand out among nearby industrial structures. Its street facades remain largely intact, while the interior is mostly unfinished storage space.