Coit Memorial Tower (Amendment)
View of completed Coit Tower looking from Washington Square Park, 1933.
January 27, 2018 - SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The California State Historical Resources Commission (Commission) will consider nine nominations for federal historic designation and one nomination for state designation on Friday, February 2. The Commission meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in the Auditorium at the State Resources Building, located at 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento.
Properties being considered at this meeting include two buildings in San Francisco at the national level of significance—Coit Memorial Tower, which exhibited federally funded art through the Public Works of Art Project, and The Women’s Building, which is associated with second wave feminism. Two nominations document additional significance and eligibility for previously listed properties—Lake Norconian Club Historic District and San Francisco Central YMCA.
Properties being considered at the meeting include:
National Register of Historic Places Nominations
Coit Memorial Tower (Amendment)
San Francisco, San Francisco County
This update to the 2008 nomination documents Coit Tower at the national level of significance for its association with the extraordinary permanent exhibition of federally funded art created through the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). The Coit Tower Mural Project was the single largest PWAP venture in the country, and the most ambitious test of whether federally funded arts programs could work.
Lake Norconian Club Historic District (Amendment)
Norco, Riverside County
The documentation expands the existing Lake Norconian Club Historic District to include the Naval Hospital/Naval Surface Warfare Center built around the Lake Norconian Club resort between 1942 and 1947, including both standardized military base buildings and new buildings designed by Lake Norconian Club architect Claud Beelman. The amendment incorporates new areas of significance associated with medicine, military history, social history, and expanded architectural context, extending the period of significance to 1965.
Miles C. Bates House
Palm Desert, Riverside County
The house has a striking double curve roof, a patented system integrating two wooden profiles and clad with a cementos covering, supported by a modular steel framing system. Master architect, inventor, and builder Walter S. White echoed the profile of the mountain range in the distance, demonstrating his sensitivity to site and setting. The period of significance is 1955, the year of construction.
Napa County Infirmary
Napa, Napa County
The property is significant for its association with the development of Napa County’s government institutions during the early twentieth century. The district consists of three buildings arranged on a crescent-shaped drive, inspired by the “cottage plan” for hospitals, asylums and orphanages that gained popularity in the late nineteenth century.
San Francisco Central YMCA
San Francisco, San Francisco County
The YMCA was listed in 2009 as a contributor to the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District. The 1910 Italian Renaissance Revival style building is individually eligible for its architecture, for its role as the lead branch of the San Francisco Metropolitan YMCA, and as the birthplace of the Golden Gate University, one of a few universities that can tie their origins to the educational programs offered at a local YMCA.
The Integratron
Landers, San Bernardino County
The circular, wooden two-story hemispherical umbrella dome structure was designed and built by George Van Tassel and Howard Peyton Hess. The Integratron is the central feature of the College of Universal Wisdom, whose construction began in 1956 and modifications continued until Van Tassel's death in 1978. The Integratron was intended as a high-voltage electrostatic generator intended to facilitate healing, anti-gravity, and time travel, according to Van Tassel. The property is significant for its association with UFOlogy (the study of Unidentified Flying Objects), the life of prominent UFOlogist Van Tassel, and for its architecture, inspired by aircraft and hangar design and Van Tassel's theories about anti-gravity, magnetism and static electricity.
The Women’s Building
San Francisco, San Francisco County
This building in San Francisco’s Mission District is associated with second wave feminism, one of the late twentieth century’s most consequential social movements. Women’s centers were especially important manifestations of this grassroots movement for gender equality and social transformation. Maestrapeace, the mural that envelops the building’s main façades, visually communicates the organization’s mission of supporting and celebrating women across time and around the world.
Torrey, Joseph and Carrie, House
Long Beach, Los Angeles County
The 1911 Craftmsan Bungalow was designed by Willard G. Scott and Gardiner Crandall. The property is associated with the lives of Carrie and Joseph Torrey, both of whom were influential figures in the community of Long Beach in the early twentieth century.
Westminster Presbyterian Church and Cemetery of Tremont
Dixon, Solano County
The property is associated with the pioneer history of eastern Solano County. The 1871 building embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Greek Revival Style as applied to a modest community church, and is a rare, surviving example of volunteer-built nineteenth century churches in California’s central valley.
California Register of Historical Resources Nominations
Glendale Civic Auditorium
Glendale, Los Angeles County
The auditorium was designed by J.A. Grundfor with funding from the Works Progress Administration, associated with the growth of Glendale in the late 1930s. The property received later alterations in 1949, 1950 and 1964. The building is a noteworthy symbol of Glendale's growth during and following the Great Depression.
All nominations and photographs of properties under consideration are available at www.ohp.parks.ca.gov/pending.
The public may present oral statements at the hearing at the appropriate time. Written comments about any subject on the agenda may be submitted to Julianne Polanco, State Historic Preservation Officer, Office of Historic Preservation, P.O. Box 942896, Sacramento, California 94296-0001 or via email at CALSHPO.OHP@parks.ca.gov. Inquiries may be directed to Recording Secretary Twila Willis-Hunter by phone at (916) 445-7052, by fax at (916) 445-7053 or by mail to the State Historical Resources Commission, P.O. Box 942896, Sacramento, California 94296-0001. Notices and agendas for the Commission’s workshop and meeting are available at ten days before the meeting.
The National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program that coordinates and supports public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archaeological resources. The California Register of Historical Resources includes buildings, sites, structures, objects and districts significant in the architectural, engineering, scientific, economic, agricultural, educational, social, political, military or cultural annals of California.
Notices and agendas for California State Historical Commission meetings can be found online at www.parks.ca.gov/commissions.
Source: CA. State Parks
