Built in 1946, it is one of the city's most notable examples of Streamline Moderne architecture, and representative of the boom in automobile-oriented commercial development in the immediate post-war period.

Hendren, a local grocery store owner who saw the potential for further commercial development in the rapidly growing Nob Hill area.

Supposedly the Streamline Moderne design was based on a photograph Hendren had seen of a building on a similarly shaped lot somewhere in the Midwest.

The initial tenants of the building included a pharmacy, an electrical supply company, a luggage shop, and doctors' offices.

The Hendren Building is a one-story, flat-roofed commercial block located on the acute corner formed by Dartmouth Drive and Monte Vista Boulevard.