At first glance, the 2.5-acre plot of land in downtown San Jose appears unassuming, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. It once held a former Depression-era boxing venue and features a home whose origins may date back to the Civil War.

Now the city wants to tear down those buildings to create a temporary Parking lot, leaving local preservationists outraged at the idea of paving over San Jose’s history.

“Parking lots are just so deadening for the urban landscape,” said Ben Leech, who leads the Preservation Action Council of San Jose, or PACSJ.

Wedged between the Guadalupe River and SAP Center on West St. John Street, the project would clear enough room for 300 cars. The city argues the new lot is necessary to help offset the lost parking capacity for the SAP Center expected during future construction projects like the BART extension and Google’s Downtown West.

After construction is complete and those downtown projects have their own devoted parking lots, the city plans on possibly replacing the West St. John Street parking lot with a pedestrian trail or bicycle path. The city currently owns the land and the existing 181-space parking lot on the parcel’s northern side.

In a statement, the city said it is contractually obligated to offer a certain amount of parking around the SAP Center, and that the proposal is still in line with the city’s transit-oriented goals.

“The City is trying to have the Diridon Station area grow in density and intensity of activity without growing the parking supply,” wrote the city’s Department of Transportation spokesperson Colin Heyne. “Though we are building ‘new’ parking lots, it is not accurate to say we are building ‘more’ parking.”

But historic preservationists like Leech believe that bulldozing the land for cars is the wrong move, especially considering the spot’s walking distance to neighborhoods like Little Italy and the city’s move in December to encourage more public transit usage with their decision to do away with parking minimums for new developments. That new law did allow for some parking requirements in the SAP Center area to remain in place.

Leech also argues that the startling news this year about Google reassessing the timeline for its downtown project raises further questions about the increased need for parking in the area.

Instead, Leech thinks the former boxing gym and the surrounding area should be transformed into a pedestrian-friendly zone with a beer garden, restaurant or other amenities that would encourage locals to gather and small businesses to flourish.

The current site is included in Leech’s organization’s “Endangered 8,” a list of historical San Jose landmarks the group believes are under threat of demolition or neglect. PACSJ said they also have environmental concerns surrounding the parking lot’s construction next to the Guadalupe River.

The former boxing venue on 447 West St. John St. was opened in 1926 for $7,500 by Ora J. Forman, the city’s first successful boxing promoter, according to a historical study from the state’s Department of Parks and Recreation. Matches at Forman’s Arena included fights with Jackie Jurich, known as the “Rose of San Jose”. A match in 1936 included Max Baer as the referee. Baer was a world-famous Jewish heavyweight who defeated the German boxer Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium in 1933, to the great disappointment of Nazi Germany.

“It was a ramshackle place with a few rows of folding chairs at ringside and a lot of bleachers,” one early visitor to Forman’s Arena remarked. “But when I walked in, it looked like Madison Square Garden to me.”

The state’s historical study called the building a “rare surviving sports arena associated with a fascinating period (of) San Jose’s social history and the ‘Golden Age’ of boxing in the 1920s and 1930s in the Bay Area.”

The venue closed in 1940, and is currently an automotive repair shop.

Next door at 405 West St. John St. is a boarded-up single-family residence whose construction date is currently unsettled.

Leech claims that the architecture of the building, what he calls a “National-style cottage,” indicates that it was built in or around the 1860s, making it one of the oldest homes in the city. There’s also the possibility that it could have been constructed somewhere else and then relocated to West St. John Street, he said.

Related Articles

• Business |
  Letters: Quality of life | Get specific | A’s shame | Search a waste | White noise
• Business |
  Affordable homes might Replace San Jose retail center
• Business |
  100-plus affordable homes could sprout in downtown Oakland
• Business |
  Battle erupts over homes to replace San Jose swim club and tennis site
• Business |
  Costco gets nod of approval for East Bay warehouse, 32-hose gas station

But the city’s own analysis dated the home to the 1910s, based on maps from the era, calling it a “Queen Anne Style cottage.” The city was not able to immediately comment on the age of the house.

Leech admits that the two buildings may not be well-known in the area, but insists a parking lot still isn’t the right avenue.

“The preservation issues aside, this is a really unfortunate place for a surface parking lot,” he said. “We just see this as a real lost opportunity.”