Santa Monica City Jail, 1685 Main Street, Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, CA

Significance: The Santa Monica City Hall, including the jail facility in the northwest wing, was designed in a PWA Moderne style popular in the 1930s by prominent Los Angeles architects, Joseph M. Estep and Donald B. Parkinson. Contractors, Campbell and Kelly, built the structure in 1938-39 and the project costs totaled $168,000. Funds to pay for the building were drawn from the federal government's New Deal program, the Public Works Administration, as well as from city taxes and revenue generated from the property sale of the original City Hall on Fourth Street and Broadway. PWA projects, like the City Hall, typically incorporated many building and design trades into each project including masonry, woodwork, tilework, metalwork, sculpture and mural painting, employing the artists and artisans who practiced these crafts.

The jail is part of the original design, and it served as the local Santa Monica Police Department jail until 2002. Not only does the building represent an outstanding example of PWA Moderne style architecture, it has also played an important role in Santa Monica's political, social and civic history.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1365

Survey number: HABS CA-2803

Building/structure dates: 1938-1939 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 2002 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1958 Subsequent Work

county government government facilities jails new deal art moderne architectural elements 3 stories flat roofs cast in place concrete reinforced concrete construction santa monica monica santa monica city jail main street los angeles county los angeles california campbell and kelly joseph m estep historic american buildings survey h harold melstrom donald b parkinson pcr services corporation virginia b price photo ultra high resolution high resolution united states history metal cage cage jail law enforcement police library of congress

1939 - 1980

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html