Veterans Affairs Medical Center-San Francisco, California
Why it's listed
Overlooking the Golden Gate and the Pacific from San Francisco's northwest corner, this historic district forms the original core of a veterans hospital campus on Clement Street. Covering about 12 acres of a 29-acre site, it contains buildings completed mainly in 1933-1934 in Art Deco style, decorated with terra cotta moldings drawing on Mayan motifs. Entrances, friezes and spandrel panels carry this ornament, and larger buildings have towers with stepped parapets. The complex was described in 1935 as one of the first government projects designed with careful attention to earthquake hazard, using interior concrete shear walls and terra cotta tied to the concrete structure. The district includes 14 contributing and 8 noncontributing resources, among them the administration building and the main hospital building, though many have been altered. Newer construction elsewhere on the campus reduced its historic character, so those areas lie outside the boundary. The campus remains an operating hospital beside Fort Miley.
Significance in brief: The district preserves the core of the original 1934 veterans hospital campus, whose Art Deco design is enriched with Mayan-inspired terra cotta ornament. The complex was also an early government project designed with deliberate attention to earthquake hazard, using shear walls and tied terra cotta. The later campus areas outside the district were excluded because of lost integrity.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 05001112, listed April 20, 2009. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 4150 Clement St., San Francisco |
|---|---|
| County | San Francisco |
| Listed | April 20, 2009 |
| Reference number | 05001112 |
| Resource type | District |
| Architectural style | Art Deco (Mayan-Deco) |
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Politics/Government, Military, Health/Medicine |
| Level of significance | National |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still in use as a hospital and health care campus; buildings now house administrative, clinical, research and engineering functions. |
| Acreage | 29.2 |
| Coordinates | 37.78426, -122.50582 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 05001112.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7414132
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.