Alameda County Title Insurance Co. Building - Oakland

The Alameda County Title Insurance Co. Building (aka the Holland Building, named for Arthur P. Holland, and the Everis Building) is located at 380 to 398 - Fourteenth Street / 1400 to 1404 Franklin Street, Oakland, California. Designed by architects McCall & Davis, this Beaux Arts derivative office building was constructed in 1923-1924 by Dinwiddie Construction Company. On the back of the building is the magnificent but faded mural, Mitzvah: The Jewish Cultural Experience.

"This building is a seven story Beaux Arts store and office building of steel frame reinforced concrete construction, with a first floor base, a transitional second story, and a five story shaft with articulated end bays. The lower part is clad in rusticated mottled beige terra cotta; the shaft is clad with variegated dark orange brown combed pressed brick. Ornamentation is Romanesque and early . The shaft has tall slightly recessed arched bays of paired windows, with straight headed end bays. The semicircular bay arches enclose paired semicircular arched windows on the top floor, below a narrow corbeled galvanized iron cornice.

The storefront at 386 Fourteenth Street has a deep blue glazed tile base and wood paneled inset art glass show windows. Most of the ground floor is intact; some windows have been replaced. Plans indicate that the structure was designed to hold five additional stories." ¹

The Alameda County Title Insurance Company was formed in 1920 as a merger of two earlier title abstract firms. Its new building was an early representative of the "financial center" developing along Franklin Street. It was apparently an admired and influential building in its time, with many of its features were adopted by the architects of 1400 Broadway two years later.

On June 6, 1995 the building was designated Oakland Landmark #121, under Zoning Case #LM 95-45.

This historic building is #43 on the list of District Contributors for the Downtown Oakland Historic District Registration Form.

Mural on the Everis Building (by mk30)CC SA-BY Our Oakland