The Medico-Dental Building, now known as the Centre City Building, is a historic 14-story high-rise office building in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers 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 distric ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was one of San Diego's first skyscrapers; when it opened in 1927 it was the tallest building in San Diego. It is San Diego Historical Site # 135 and 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 artistic v ...

in 1979.

History

The location, 233 A Street on the southwest corner of 3rd Avenue and A Street, was originally the site of a second home and carriage house for Alonzo Horton, the father of Downtown San Diego. The

Sisters of St. Joseph The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, abbreviated CSJ or SSJ, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This congregation, named for S ...

purchased the property from Horton in the 1880s and established a girls' school, the

Academy of Our Lady of Peace Academy of Our Lady of Peace (locally called "OLP"), is a Catholic high school for young women started by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ). OLP is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego. Though the school itself is Cathol ...

, in the large home, using the carriage house as a convent and offices. The Academy moved to its current location, a larger property in Normal Heights, in 1925. The Horton structures were then razed to build the Medico-Dental Building, which opened in 1927. As its name suggests, the building was designed to house medical and dental offices, with a ground-floor pharmacy and a medical library on the 14th floor. Its purpose was to cluster medical and dental services in one place, improving San Diego's medical scene as well as providing a profitable business venture; a similar business model had succeeded in a dozen cities across the country. The original owners were a group of professional men headed by Charles Lineaweaver. Tenancy was restricted to licensed physicians and dentists; the rule was enforced by a Board of Directors and Officers. As time went on the focus of San Diego's medical community shifted uptown toward Hillcrest, where Mercy Hospital and the UCSD Hospital were located. The building was no longer restricted to doctors and dentists but was used more and more for general office tenants, including at various times government offices, the public defender's office, and the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. During the 1980s the name was changed to the Centre City Building.

Description

The building is 14 stories high with a foundation that encloses a concrete subterranean basement. It has a reinforced concrete frame structure, also known as "ductile frame" construction. The exterior walls are concrete clad, faced with granite on the lowest three stories and with brick on the remainder of the building. It is built in an "L" configuration, with the two wings fronting A Street and 3rd Avenue. Its design is neoclassical revival with a decorative facade of brick, quarried granite, and ornamental cast iron trim. It has a gabled rooftop finished with Spanish tile, a gravel-covered lower observation roof over a rolled mineral surface, and rosette-style windows. Interior features include a marble lobby floor and staircase with a restored coffered ceiling. It has of office space and of ground floor retail space. The building is owned by the Lamden Family Trust.

Recognition

The building and its architect, Frank W. Stevenson, received the 1933 A.I.A. award in the Commercial/Industrial category.

References

{{commonscat, Medico-Dental Building National Register of Historic Places in San Diego Commercial buildings completed in 1927 Skyscraper office buildings in San Diego