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13
*NRHP Status Code
5S2
*Resource Address:
912 12th Street
B1.
Historic Name:
Del Paso Hotel
B2.
Common Name:
Ridgeway Hotel
B3.
Original Use:
Residential, commercial
on ground floor
B4.
Present Use:
vacant
*B5.
Architectural Style:
Craftsman, Italianate
influences
*B6.
Construction History:
The hotel building was constructed in 1912 by owner
W.S.Simmon(d)s.
By 1915, there was an ice cream factory on the ground floor with Del
Paso Hotel on the upper floors.
In 1919, the storefront was remodeled and interior changes made.
1927: stucco was applied
to the surface by owner C.Hellman.
1930: storefront was
remodeled.
1931: City directories
indicate the ground floor was vacant.
A Sanborn map of 1952, indicates a fire
escape on the north end of the east elevation.
1971: fire sprinkler system
was installed by owner Abdul Rahim.
1976: a new roof was
installed by owner Yuriye
Kosumoto.
1978:
a metal stairway was installed in a
rear stairwell.
1988: building was remodeled;
an elevator was installed at the north end
of the west elevation
.
Visible surface discoloration on the west end of the south wall may have
been due to installation of a fire escape and its later removal. Dates
unknown.
*B7.
Moved?
nNo
_Yes
_Unknown
Date:
Original Location:
*B8.
Related Features:
none
B9a.
Architect:
unknown
b.
Builder:
unknown
*B10. Significance:
Theme: Commercial
development
Area:
Downtown Sacramento
Period of Significance:
1912
Property Type:
residential hotel, commercial/retail
Applicable
Criteria:
A; (Sacramento
early 20th century urban cultural and economic expansion event)
and C; ( rare remaining example of
an important building type in the architectural evolution of the city.)
[Please see Continuation Sheet
#B10.Significance]
B11.
Additional Resource Attributes:
HP5
*B12.
References:
Groth,
Paul, “Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United
States”, University of California Press, 1994.
Historic Environment Consultants, “Sacramento Survey II:
Non-Residential Buildings”, 1980-81.
Historic Environment Consultants, “Downtown Infill Survey”, 2005.
Malinowski, Michael, Applied Architecture, Inc., “Ridgeway Hotel Report”,
sketch map floor plans.
Mead & Hunt, “Historic Survey and Evaluation:
Ridgeway Hotel
at
912-914 12th Street, Sacramento, California”, January 25, 2102.
B13. Remarks:
*B14. Evaluator:
Paula Boghosian, Historic Environment Cons.
*Date
of Evaluation:
November 2012
(This space reserved
for official comments.)
|
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of 13
Resource Name or #: 912
12th Street; Ridgeway Hotel
Recorded by :
Paula Boghosian
#3a. Description
[continued]
The street level facade of the
building on 12th Street currently contains two different
commercial units that flank
the original entry to the hotel upstairs.
The northerly one contains an angled
recessed entry off the sidewalk flanked by show windows beneath clerestory
windows. The one on the south has show windows
beneath the clerestory windows, and an entry
flush with the sidewalk. The
original hotel entrance was a slightly recessed doorway off the sidewalk
that led to the upstairs rooms.
This door, located between the two shops, has been closed off from the
street with a block of concrete at sidewalk level. The main entrance to the
hotel has been shifted through the shop on the south with interior stairs to
the upper rooms. Each separate
unit has its own entry canopy, including the hotel. The southerly shop’s
canopy was originally canvas or metal over an angled metal frame.
The small rectangular hotel canopy is trimmed ornamentally and the
frame projects from the building with divisions for small hanging colored
glass panels, typical of the era.
The northerly shop’s canopy is a non-historic shed-roof shaped metal
sheet.
Additional alterations include the re-surfacing of the building with stucco
in 1927, storefront remodelings, and some wall
disturbances to the south and west elevations from the second floor to the
top floor.
An elevator was added to the north end of the west wall in the 1988
remodeling of the building.
Evidently there was a ‘notch’ in the west elevation that was filled in to
accommodate the elevator. The
lines of the infill are visible in the cracking of the exterior stucco.
The stucco on the bays may have been overcoated
at that time (1988), perhaps
partly due to damage to the bases at the alley from truck impacts over time.
Although there is indication that
there were bollards in the alley at one time to protect the building, they
were removed. There are patches
in the alley floor that appear to indicate where they were once located.
It appears that their removal has allowed continued damage by trucks
to the bases of the bays.
On the south elevation between the westernmost two ‘columns’ of bays, there
are disturbances in the stucco at each floor that suggest the possible
earlier location of doorway openings to what may have been a fire escape.
A second interior fire stair was added to the building in 1988,
perhaps removing the necessity of a fire escape on that wall. The 1952
Sanborn map indicates a fire escape on the northern end of the east facade
elevation. There is currently
no visual evidence of that fire escape.
There is an uneven small-vehicle size opening in the brick with a
metal roll-up door on the south wall at the alley, near the front of the
building that appears to have been added to serve as a trash collection
site.
At some unknown time, the street entrance to the upstairs hotel rooms was
closed off by a large hunk of poorly formed concrete placed in the doorway
to block the entrance. The date is unknown and no permit dates have been
determined. This closure appears to have re-routed hotel room access through
the ground floor business(es),
and was perhaps associated with its change from apartments to residential
hotel rooms. There is a recessed
opening under the stairs facing the southern ground floor retail area that
may have served as a check in point for the hotel.
The physical condition of the building is poor, with deterioration at the
bases of the angled bays along the alley, due to damage from impacts of
trucks using the alley. There
is damage due to heavy use, weather, water intrusion from wall and roof
leaks, lack of ongoing maintenance, vandalism, and possible metal salvage
damage to equipment, etc.
The date of the installation of the stucco surface was not required in the
former Primary 523 form.
Additional research to prepare the BSO 523 form revealed the stucco is over
50 years old. A new form has
been prepared providing this updated information.
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Resource Name or #: 912
12th Street;
Ridgeway Hotel
Recorded by :
Paula Boghosian
.
#*B. 10
Significance:
[continued]
The Ridgeway Hotel played the dual role of housing both residential and
small retail activities, a traditional one in urban settings, and
particularly early to mid-century 20th century Sacramento, and
portraying an important downtown architectural tradition.
A number of multi-residential apartment dwellings and hotels were
constructed before 1959 in the Sacramento downtown area.
These structures were vital to the successful evolution and growth of
the city and its downtown at a time when the city had limited transportation
opportunities. Construction of
these types of buildings followed the contours of the economy over time,
with more buildings of a popular general style constructed during periods of
expansion, and fewer of another style during recessions.
These dwelling units are generally located around the downtown core, to
allow people who worked there to walk to work.
Many buildings in the central area of the city had rooms and
apartments on the upper floors, and shops at street level.
People had to walk or take a horse and carriage to market and to work
until electric trolleys and autos came along.
Most of the principal markets, shops and work places were located within the
central city, and before the automobile, public transportation was critical.
As public transportation options expanded, people moved further from
the center of the city and walked to the streetcar lines.
The first such system was powered by horses that pulled the trolleys.
After the city became 'electrified' in 1895, electric-powered
streetcars took over, again allowing further expansion, primarily to the
east and south.
During the first and second decades of the century, apartment and
residential hotel buildings began to appear around the city core, and along
transportation lines. They were
affordable for most blue and white-collar workers and provided a good
housing solution up to and through World War I.
The street level of the buildings most often contained various
businesses, from markets to offices, repair and various services, barbers,
coffee shops and restaurants and shops, while the upstairs areas were
largely devoted to residential uses, both long and short term.
During the height of Sacramento’s downtown activity and energy, the city was
alive with activity. People
both lived and worked there – went to market, school, restaurants and the
movies. People in offices and apartments could connect with the street and
the outside world through their projecting windows.
Photographs of these years show busy
streets, cars, people, streetcars –and many of the buildings with projecting
bay windows above the street.
There were signs and life activities everywhere.
During World War II, housing became a premium since the war precluded the
construction of new housing.
Many older apartments and single-family houses were divided into smaller
units, and additions were made ‑ often without the benefit of any building
permits or code inspections.
After the War, the "flight to the suburbs" began, and downtown demographics
began to reflect the exodus.
Some multi-residential units in the downtown fringes, needing residents,
became inhabited by lower income residents, contributing in some areas to a
downward slide of neighborhood quality.
New or remodeled buildings often lacked any efforts regarding design
or the retention of existing ornament or comfort, particularly if that
increased the costs of the work.
The "International Style" of architecture became popular at that time, and
endorsed smooth and unadorned building surfaces and sophisticated balances
and proportions of primarily rectangular forms.
Reflecting, but not understanding the concepts behind the style,
buildings were stripped-down, ornament removed, and facades covered or
resurfaced to “modernize” them.
The multitude of projecting second-floor bays of inhabited rooms and
flats above the street were removed, as tenants flocked from such changes to
the comfort and space of the suburbs.
Consequently, the least attractive, even stark versions of the
International and ‘modern’ style prevailed throughout
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Resource Name or #: 912
12th Street;
Ridgeway Hotel
Recorded
by :
Paula Boghosian
much
of the downtown core. The
"modernization" of the downtown was meant to update it and attract business,
when in fact the ‘dehumanization’ of familiar older buildings tended to
drive it away. The bays have been a
victim of progress reflecting both design and architectural evolution, but
also the great demographic and social changes of the city with the loss of
downtown residents.
Over time, due in part due to deterioration, remodeling and new development,
the number of buildings retaining their original
projecting bay windows has greatly diminished, dramatically changing the
look of the downtown and its earlier character.
Only a handful of buildings currently remain that have retained this
important feature. Potential
“alley” districts have retained projecting angled bay windows in the alleys
behind principal facades for addresses on J and K Streets:
908 J - 926 J/911 K - 923 K Street;
and 1018 J - 1027-31 K Street.
An additional potential alley district has recently been demolished,
further diminishing the number of buildings that still reflect this
character-defining feature of downtown Sacramento.
The Downtown Infill Survey (Historic
Environment Consultants)
of
2006
focuses on the construction and architecture of infill structures during the
early 20th century through the 1950s, its image and evolution.
Character-Defining Features of Downtown Historic Sacramento
In order to retain some of the original
character of the downtown city, those features that provide that character
as well as a sense of a different era should be identified. (Downtown Infill
Survey, p.8)
-
Relatively consistent original grid format of numbered and lettered
streets.
-
Mixture of building ages and styles, reflecting continuing uses from
1848 beginnings to the present.
-
Alleys between east-west streets dividing north and south half
blocks, are consistently lower in the middle,
reflecting the original ground level of the city.
-
Remaining vestiges of angled bays on the upper floors of buildings. The
facades of many buildings formerly had projecting angled bays on the
upper floors for apartments above ground floor retail.
Most of these bays were removed after World War II in an effort
to ‘modernize’ a receding downtown.
These remodelings made dwelling units
less desirable due to flat building fronts and less visible street
activity, further changing the upper floor occupancy of downtown
building from residential to office/commercial.
There are some remaining vestiges of this design feature in the
alley facades of buildings facing the streets, mostly in some locations
between 9th and 12th Streets, J and K.
-
Remaining two and three story building heights along major historic
downtown streets, associated with original 20’ or 40’ x 160’ building
parcels, and creating a sense of original scale dependent on both the
height and width of nineteenth or early twentieth century buildings.
These remnants occur generally between 7th-12th
Streets along J and K Streets.
-
Vestiges of hollow underground areas beneath sidewalks reflecting the
original level of the city
-
Remaining granite curbstones in some locations.
-
Remaining iron rings embedded in granite curbs for tying horse reins;
along 8th Street between I and J,
for example.
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Resource Name or #: 912
12th Street;
Ridgeway Hotel
Recorded
by :
Paula Boghosian
Significance:
The Ridgeway Hotel is significant as a rare early 20th century
remnant of an important downtown era that reflects the city’s surge of
economic growth and sense of self that evolved at that time.
It was part of the emerging “City Beautiful” movement that occurred
in many cities of this era, and communities strongly supported public
demonstrations of their pride with the construction of beautiful buildings
and evident symbols of prosperity.
At that time, the popularity of the city generated a need for
additional housing both for residents and visitors. New residential
buildings met the needs of many who worked and lived in the downtown area in
a variety of jobs with varied financial compensation.
Housing for those responding to this growth was needed in various
economic ranges, and was provided with apartments above store fronts, hotels
and a variety of residential hotel and rooming house offerings.
As such, they were a response to a
“golden age” of Sacramento’s history, when its ‘heart’ was the downtown
area.
The Hotel is also an increasingly rare example of a type of urban
residential architecture popular with downtown residents at that time.
The building was designed with a number of projecting angled bays
that originally reflected Italianate styles of the 19th century,
but in a later urban setting provided tenants with a vital visual contact
with the community and city below.
The building is one of the very few remaining downtown structures to
have retained its projecting window bays – an architectural feature once
predominant in the downtown area which contained a number of apartments and
offices above the commercial ground floor establishments.
This feature embodies distinctive characteristics of a period of
architectural design in downtown Sacramento, once prominent and now rare.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, architectural styles turned toward
Modern and International Style styles which celebrated simple designs, plain
surfaces, and no decorative ornamentation.
In order to stay current with then contemporaneous society updated
styles, and efforts to slow down the loss of business to the suburbs, many
property owners removed the bay windows and building ornamentation.
This resulted in less attractive places to live in and increased the
loss of residents. Over time,
those buildings that had retained bay windows found them difficult to
maintain and not a strong enough attribute to stem the exodus to the
suburbs. In a city whose
buildings once contained many projecting bay windows, there are now very few
such examples of that era and its phenomenon.
The Ridgeway Hotel is a rare representative of the architectural
design of that era and its cultural and social expression.
It represents a building type that was very prominent in the city’s
past, and is an important remnant that provides an understanding to the
public of the visual character of Sacramento during most of the twentieth
century, and its cultural and social counterpart.
History
The building was constructed by
W.S.Simmon(d)s
in 1912, and in 1913 opened as the Del Paso Apartments.
By 1915, there was an ice cream factory on the first floor.
In 1924-1926, a cleaners business occupied the
912 12TH
Street storefront. In 1926, a
delicatessen moved into 914 12th, but by 1931-32, the storefront
was vacant .
In 1933, the name of the hotel changed to the Hotel Ridgeway, and the
Generator Exchange and Supply Co. , and
F.G.Meilike Insurance agent became storefront
tenants. During the early
1940s, there was a succession of minor tenants such as
Brazel Auto Parts, an insurance agent, Jacuzzi Bros. Pumps, and
cleaners. However by 1947, a
music company moved in, the C & H Music Store, with varied related products,
and it remained until the 1980s.
In 1988, the building was remodeled and an elevator added.
A tattoo shop was installed in the northern retail space.
The interior of the building that is accessible to the public includes the
street level business/commercial areas below the upper residential units.
This space, currently divided into two segments, is the only publicly
accessible space in the building.
It has been much altered but the store front windows and clerestory
windows remain. A large piece
of concrete still closes off the original access to the upstairs units
between the two shop areas.
Page 7
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Resource Name or #: 912
12th Street;
Ridgeway Hotel
Recorded
by :
Paula Boghosian
While the building has been re-surfaced with a stucco
coating, that surface has been in place for 85 years.
It is the image that has been in public view and modification of its
character could be considered an impact to its evolutionary character.
Since the stucco texture has become associated with the image of the
building by the public for 85 years, removing it may not be advised as it
has become a character-defining feature.
It reflects the life of an urban place and the changes that take
place over time in a living city.
Character-defining features of the Ridgeway Hotel building include the
following elements.
These features constitute elements of the building that contribute
importantly to the character and appearance that
create its significance.
Residential building type with units above street level businesses at ground
level
Projecting angled bays in upper units, a derivation of Italianate design of
the 19th century then common in Sacramento
Roof
form with overhang supported by decorative beam ends beneath enclosed
soffits
Storefront business show windows with clerestory windows above
Stucco surfacing and resulting changes in the visual definition of
architectural features of the building; texture
Interior stairway to upper level visible within store front
Narrow interior upper floor hallways, and doors with original transoms, now
blocked
Distinctive alley elevation with projecting angled bays
Two interior light wells (not visible by public)
Summary:
The Ridgeway Hotel appears to be eligible to the Sacramento Register of
Historic and Cultural Resources under
Criteria a;
it is associated with events that have made a significant
contribution to the broad patterns of history
of the city, region, state or
nation; and
Criteria c;
it embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period of
construction, or method of construction.
Additionally, the property retains:
A: integrity
of location, design, setting, interior workmanship and association,
B:
significant architectural worth, and its designation as a landmark is
reasonable, appropriate, and necessary to promote, protect, and further the
goals and purposes of the Historic Preservation Chapter of the City Code.
The Ridgeway Hotel is a rare remaining representative of a significant
architectural expression of the “golden” era of Sacramento’s downtown
vitality and its cultural and social expression.
It represents a building type that was very prominent in the city’s
past, and is an important remnant that provides an understanding to the
public of the visual character of Sacramento during most of the twentieth
century. Significantly
visually, the building type also provided the basis for the active life that
drove the city,
providing both critical and appealing living opportunities and
a vital economic base.
The Hotel is also an increasingly rare example of a type of urban
residential architecture popular with downtown residents at that time.
The building was designed with a number of projecting angled bays
that originally reflected Italianate styles of the 19th century,
but in a later urban setting provided tenants with a vital visual contact
with the community and city below.
The building is one of the very few remaining downtown structures to
have retained its projecting window bays – an architectural feature once
predominant in the thriving downtown hub of the early to mid-century era in
Sacramento and significant character-defining element of that core.
