The Green Shutter Hotel is a historic hotel building located in
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
Hayward in
Alameda County
Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, United States. The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2004,
[ and is on the ]California Register of Historical Resources
The California Register of Historical Resources is a California state government program for use by state and local agencies, private groups, and citizens to identify, evaluate, register, and protect California's historical resources.
The Calif ...
.
History
The land where the building resides was first purchased in the mid 1860s by an immigrant named Joseph Rivers. Rivers opened a small blacksmith shop which he later sold in 1878 to Henry Eggert. Eggert expanded the building and sold plows and wagons out of it until the shop was inherited by his sons, Henry Jr., and Herbert. By 1920 the brothers would expand the structure which was first used as a hotel after a large addition in 1926 commissioned to the architect George L.F. O'Brien. The hotel originally had 55 rooms on the second floor and retail space below.
The hotel officially opened on August 21, 1926. Existing near to the highly trafficked Lincoln Highway and being the largest hotel in Hayward at the time, the hotel saw high occupancy rates in its early years.
The hotel would become the site of downtown Hayward's first public parking lot.
By the 1970s, the hotel rooms would be converted to apartments.
Today
It is currently used commercially, and houses the Green Shutter Hotel (a single room occupancy
Single-room occupancy (SRO) is a type of low-cost housing typically aimed at residents with low or minimal incomes, or single adults who like a minimalist lifestyle, who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair, and sometimes a smal ...
) on the second floor, with retail businesses on the ground floor, including The Bistro, a pub and music venue, and The Book Shop, now closed, an independent bookstore
An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, ...
and at the time the only bookstore in Hayward.
In 2017, the interior of the second floor of the building was largely gutted, shutting down the residential hotel. Some ground floor businesses are still operating. The building has 88 apartment units.
See also
*
* List of hotels in California
References
External links
Green Shutter Hotel at the National Register of Historic Places websitehistoric photo at Hayward Area Historical Society website
Buildings and structures in Hayward, California
Bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area
Hotels in the San Francisco Bay Area
Hotel buildings completed in 1926
Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California
National Register of Historic Places in Alameda County, California
Residential buildings in Alameda County, California
Independent bookstores of the United States
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