Clio Logo
Bakersfield California Walking Tour
Item 10 of 23
Constructed in 1894 in the Second Renaissance Revival architectural style, this property was the site of the Bakersfield offices of the Kern County Land Company. It was built four years after the company was founded as a sign of the company's "Faith in the Future" of Bakersfield. However, the Kern County Land Company sold the property in 1959 after outgrowing the space. Today, it is known as the Tevis Block Building.

Kern County Land Company's Offices

Building, Art, Rectangle, Landmark

Tevis Block Building today (formerly the Kern County Land Co. Building)

Sky, Building, Cloud, Tree

Historical Marker on the former Kern County Land Co. Building

Font, Commemorative plaque, Wood, Public utility

Tevis Block Building (2006)

Building, Window, Fixture, Plant

In the early 1890s, the architect Henry A. Schulze from San Francisco was hired to design an office building in Bakersfield for the Kern County Land Company. Schulze designed this building in the Second Renaissance Revival architectural style. It features a row of arched windows on the first story, cream colored pressed brick on the exterior, with additional architectural details made from gray sandstone and granite.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, the Kern County Land Company owned hundreds of thousands of acres of land throughout the county. The construction of this building as a company headquarters in Bakersfield was a sign of optimism about the future of the city, and its role within the development of the region.

The building is considered one of the only remaining buildings in the downtown area of Bakersfield to have retained its original architectural integrity. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in Kern County on March 29, 1894.

Boose, Denise. Kern County Land Company Building, The Historical Marker Database. May 16th 2016. Accessed April 16th 2021. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=52573.

Jones, Greg L. . The Kern County Land Company Building, Flickr. January 27th 2014. Accessed April 16th 2021. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wyojones/17254331841.

Tevis Block (AKA Kern County Land Company Building), Noe Hill. May 16th 2016. Accessed April 16th 2021. https://noehill.com/kern/nat1984000780.asp.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Worthpoint

Wiki Commons

Denise Boose, The Historical Marker Database

Noe Hill