The Matson Building is a historic office building located at 215 Market Street in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Description and history

The building was constructed in 1922 - 1924 to serve as the headquarters of the

Matson Navigation Company Matson may refer to: * Matson (surname) * Matson, Gloucester, England, a suburb of Gloucester * Matson, Missouri, an unincorporated community * 2586 Matson, an asteroid *Matson, Inc. Matson, Inc. is an American shipping and navigation services ...

, then the largest shipping and transportation company between the West Coast and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

. In addition, the building held mainland offices for three of Hawaii's Big Five corporations and multiple smaller Hawaiian firms, making it a prominent fixture in San Francisco - Hawaii commerce. Architects Bliss & Faville designed the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

building. The sixteen-story building is divided into three sections; the lower and upper sections feature extensive ornamentation, giving the building a column-like appearance. The outside of the building is clad in

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracot ...

, which is also used for the building's decorative elements. In 1945 - 1947, a matching annex was placed on the building to provide more space for Matson's offices. . The building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

on November 29, 1995.

References

Skyscraper office buildings in San Francisco Market Street (San Francisco) Office buildings completed in 1924 Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco Bliss and Faville buildings Renaissance Revival architecture in California {{SanFrancisco-NRHP-stub