Harrison and Fifteenth Sts. Historic District

This group of eight small buildings fills the west side of Harrison Street between 14th and 15th Streets in downtown Oakland and extends along 15th Street toward Webster Street. Seven were built between 1914 and 1929 as ground floor shops with offices, hotel rooms or apartments above; one infill building dates from 1990. They range from two to seven stories and are faced mainly in tan pressed brick with terra cotta trim, in styles including Renaissance Revival, Art Deco, Tudor Revival and Mediterranean Revival. Roger Coit and his investment company developed the four buildings on Harrison Street, including the Hotel Harrison and Hotel Coit. The district is listed as a surviving pocket of the commercial expansion that carried Oakland's business district east from Broadway toward Lake Merritt after 1906. Its developers and most of its designers were minor figures, but the White Building by Clay Burrell stands out for its glass-walled design on a shallow lot. Alterations have been limited to signs, awnings and some storefronts.