Plaza Garage

Plaza Garage

808 G St.

Built: 1913

Period: Craftsman Architecture c. 1910-1930

Description: In 1903, lumberman Noah Falk drove the first automobile in Arcata and the town was never the same from that time forward as new services and skills were needed to keep the new fangled contraptions on the road. In response to a growing need for repair services, George Averell and Moses Greenwald had the Plaza Garage built in 1913. Moving his auto repair business into town from Alliance, William Crawford pumped gas, sold tires, and repaired automobiles at this location until 1926.

After Crawford moved out, the street level spaces were remodeled into storefronts for a variety of businesses including long time tenants 0. Ekenberg's tailor shop and Emelio Canclini's College Shoe Store, and, after the Arcata Electric Shop, the offices of the Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

Although built as a garage, this flat roof building was not unattractive. In fact, its projecting cornice, block brackets, decorative dentils, and classic comer pilasters created quite an imposing building on this Plaza comer.

During the 1930's, a coat of stucco, light green above and chocolate below, was added to the building, but the major modernizing changes occurred in 1950 when the windows were altered, modem storefronts created, and a flagstone trim added. The early 1970's saw the building encased in metal, the final blow to the original architecture of the Plaza Garage.