Third Street commercial district now listed on National Register
of Historic Places
San Juan Bautista’s historic Third Street commercial district,
which runs through the heart of the Mission City, is now officially
listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Third Street commercial district now listed on National Register of Historic Places
San Juan Bautista’s historic Third Street commercial district, which runs through the heart of the Mission City, is now officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
City Planner Matthew Sundt, who helped coordinate the nomination process along with a consulting firm and local volunteers, received word last week that that area received the designation.
The California State Historic Resources Commission in November approved the district’s nomination and forwarded it to the National Park Service for final approval.
The designation, Sundt said, will increase the San Juan’s profile and therefore potentially “modestly increase” both tourism activity and tax revenue. The designation is also a conduit for federal rehabilitation tax credits for building owners within the district, Sundt noted, so that could benefit the area as well.
Third Street, San Juan’s main drag, consists of 26 historic buildings constructed between 1834 and the 1930s. The two-lane street was paved for the first time in the 1920s, a decade after the sidewalk areas were paved with concrete from the cement plant operating at the mouth of the San Juan Canyon.
Two buildings in the Third Street commercial district are already listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Casa Juan de Anza Adobe at the corner of Third and Franklin streets, which was built in 1834, and The Roza’s House at 31 Polk St., a former boarding house built in 1856.
