Fire Station No. 1 (1444 7th Street), Santa Monica, CA Landmark and Structure of Merit Assessment Report Prepared for: City of Santa Monica Planning and Community Development Department 1685 Main Street, Room 212 Santa Monica, CA 90401 Prepared by: Architectural Resources Group 360 E. 2nd Street, Suite 225 Los Angeles, CA 90012 March 5, 2019 Table of Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ 2 1.2. Preparer Qualifications ...................................................................................................................... 3 2. Architectural Description ................................................................................................................. 4 2.1. Context and Setting ............................................................................................................................ 4 2.2. Site ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3. Building Exterior ................................................................................................................................. 5 3. Development Chronology and Alterations ..................................................................................... 12 4. Historic Contexts ............................................................................................................................ 15 4.1. Post‐World War II Civic & Institutional Development (1945‐1977) ................................................. 15 4.2. Late Moderne Architecture .............................................................................................................. 16 5. Regulations and Criteria for Evaluation .......................................................................................... 20 5.1. City of Santa Monica Landmarks and Historic Districts Ordinance .................................................. 20 6. Evaluation of Significance ............................................................................................................... 22 6.1. Previous Evaluations ........................................................................................................................ 22 6.2. Evaluation of Local Significance ....................................................................................................... 23 6.3 Period of Significance ........................................................................................................................ 26 6.4. Integrity ............................................................................................................................................ 26 6.5 Character‐Defining Features ............................................................................................................. 27 7. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 28 8. Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 29 Appendix A: DPR form Appendix B: Building Permits Fire Station No. 1, Landmark and Structure of Merit Assessment Report March 5, 2019 Architectural Resources Group 1 1. Introduction 1.1. Executive Summary At the request of the City of Santa Monica’s Planning and Community Development Department, Architectural Resources Group (ARG) has prepared this Landmark and Structure of Merit Assessment Report for the property at 1444 7th Street, Santa Monica, known as Santa Monica Fire Station No. 1. The property contains a two‐story, Late Moderne style fire station designed by architect J.H. Melstrom and built in 1954 for the City of Santa Monica Fire Department. ARG evaluated the subject property to determine whether it appears to satisfy one or more of the statutory criteria associated with City of Santa Monica Landmark and Structure of Merit eligibility as listed in Chapter 9.36 (Landmarks and Historic Districts Ordinance) of the Santa Monica Municipal Code. Preparation of this report involved the following tasks related to research, documentation, and analysis: Visited the property on January 22, 2019 to assess existing conditions and document the building’s exterior with digital photographs; Reviewed pertinent federal and state technical bulletins, local ordinances, and other reference materials related to the evaluation of historical resources; Reviewed applicable background materials including historical building permits and Historic Resources Inventory (HRI) data for the subject property; Conducted supplemental research to glean additional information about the property’s development history, occupancy, and historical significance; Developed applicable historic contexts and themes; and Evaluated the building against the City of Santa Monica’s Landmark and Structure of Merit criteria. Research materials were culled from the following sources: Los Angeles Public Library; Santa Monica Public Library; the archives of the Los Angeles Times, Santa Monica Outlook, and other local periodicals; building permits obtained from the City of Santa Monica’s Planning and Community Development Department; online repositories; and ARG’s in‐house collection of architectural books and reference materials. It should be noted that historical drawings for the building’s 1954 construction and 1978 alterations are no longer on file at the City of Santa Monica building department, historic photographs showing the full extent of the primary façade could not be found, and attempts to contact the Santa Monica Fire Department’s de facto archivist Dominic Smith were unsuccessful. As a result, assessments of the building’s original condition are based largely on the information from building permits, historic photographs showing portions of the south and center primary façade, and historic aerial photographs. A complete list of sources is included in Section 8: Bibliography of this report. In summary, ARG concludes that Santa Monica Fire Station No. 1 appears to be eligible as a Santa Monica Structure of Merit, however it does not appear eligible as a Santa Monica Landmark. The Fire Station No. 1, Landmark and Structure of Merit Assessment Report March 5, 2019 Architectural Resources Group 2 following sections provide a contextual basis for analysis and a detailed discussion of how this determination was made. 1.2. Preparer Qualifications This report was prepared by Mary Ringhoff, Associate, and Lakan Cole, Architectural Historian and Preservation Planner, with oversight by Katie E. Horak, Principal. Ms. Horak, Ms. Ringhoff, and Ms. Cole meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualifications Standards, 36 CFR Part 61, in the discipline of Architectural History. Fire Station No. 1, Landmark and Structure of Merit Assessment Report March 5, 2019 Architectural Resources Group 3 2. Architectural Description 2.1. Context and Setting Santa Monica Fire Station No. 1 at 1444 7th Street is located on the west side of 7th Street, on Block 168, Lots I and H. The block is bound between Santa Monica Boulevard (north) and Broadway (south), within the original town site and Downtown neighborhood of Santa Monica. Like much of Santa Monica, the streets adhere to an orthogonal grid that is skewed slightly west of the cardinal directions, reflecting the contour of the adjacent coastline. The fire station sits upon a flat, rectangular parcel near the center of the block. The parcel is bound by a five‐story multi‐family residential building to the north and a two‐story multi‐family residential building on the south. To the west, between 7th and 6th Streets, is a vehicular alleyway that provides access to the rear of the building, through a security gate enclosure. Location map. The subject property, 1444 7th Street, is outlined in red (base map: City of Santa Monica). The area surrounding the fire station is mixed‐use, primarily developed with one‐ to five‐story multi‐ family residential properties on 7th Street and neighborhood commercial properties on Santa Monica and Broadway. The majority of the surrounding development dates from the post‐World War II period to present‐day, and the properties feature various iterations of Modern and contemporary styles. Only a few nearby properties date to the early decades of the twentieth century. In keeping with the mix of uses and development periods, the surrounding properties retain a variety of setbacks. Most of the Modern or contemporary mixed‐use residential buildings abut one another and are constructed close to the street wall. These buildings are accessed by a combination of street‐facing Fire Station No. 1, Landmark and Structure of Merit Assessment Report March 5, 2019 Architectural Resources Group 4 pedestrian walkways and driveways that lead to below‐grade parking lots, or alternatively, parking lots are located and accessed off of rear alleyways. Buildings of an earlier vintage typically have deeper setbacks, preceded by landscaping, driveways, and/or parking lots in front of the building. A uniform sidewalk and narrow lawn with street trees, contemporary metal street lights, and parking meters intervene between the roadways. 2.2. Site The