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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
The colorful history of this presidio, for almost two
centuries the guardian of the finest harbor on the Pacific coast, spans
the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods in California, from 1776 to
the present. During all the wars and conflicts since the Mexican
WarIndian, Civil, Spanish-American, World Wars I and II, Korea,
and Vietnamthe post has been a major coastal defense base and,
except for a 3-year period in the 1850's, command head-quarters for the
Western United States and the Pacific area. It was in the latter
capacity, particularly, that the presidio was involved with the Indian
wars, though troops also fanned out from it to serve in the various
campaigns.
The presidio's importance transcends the military and
enters the realms of politics, economics, and diplomacy. Used by the
Spaniards as a base for exploration and conquest, it figured prominently
in their extension of settlement into northern California. The northern
bastion of Spain's New World Empire, it was for many decades the chief
barrier against British, Russian, and American expansion in California.
Between 1821 and 1836, under Mexican rule, the presidio continued to be
the military headquarters of northern California, but its strength
gradually declined. In 1836, the year after the Mexican Government
established Yerba Buena Pueblo (San Francisco) not far away and
transferred the headquarters to Sonoma, it withdrew the garrison. The
buildings disintegrated rapidly.
U.S. forces seized California in 1846. Early the
following year troops garrisoned the presidio, repairing the remaining
buildings and adding new ones. The next April it became a permanent
post. By 1890, when it accommodated six artillery batteries, one cavalry
troop, and two infantry companies, it had been permanently constructed
of brick.
Two installations associated with the presidio are
Fort Point (Fort Winfield Scott) and Fort Mason. The story of Fort Point
traces back to the Spaniards, who established a castillo, or fort, on
the site. During the years 1853-61 the U.S. Army razed the
disintegrating castillo, lowered the face of the cliff on which it stood
some 90 feet so that the new batteries could more easily fire on ships,
and erected and immediately garrisoned the largest fortification of its
kind on the Pacific coast, Fort Point.
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Modern view of the Presidio of
San Francisco and Golden Gate Bridge. (U.S. Army, Department of
Defense) |
During the years 1865-78 Fort Point was a subpost of
the presidio and for a decade after 1868 was not garrisoned. The Army
redesignated it Fort Winfield Scott in 1882, and 4 years later it again
became a presidio subpost. In 1897 all the guns were removed. Seriously
damaged by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and declared unsafe, the
fort was abandoned by the Army in 1914, though it received some use
during World Wars I and II. The modern Fort Winfield Scott Reservation,
on the western side of the presidio, includes Fort Point.
The second major installation whose history merges
with that of the presidio, in Spanish times as today outside its
boundaries, is Fort Mason. Originally the site of a Spanish battery, it
was later a Civil War defense emplacement and the residence of prominent
generals.
In addition to sites and buildings associated with
the Spanish-Mexican period, various old Army buildings are extant at the
presidio. The oldest remaining structure is the hospital, built in 1854.
The brick stables now serve as offices and storehouses. A stone magazine
dates from 1863. Fort Point is dwarfed by the Golden Gate Bridge.
Changed but slightly since the time of its construction, it is one of
the outstanding historical structures at the presidio and a prime
example of a 19th-century coastal fort. The Fort Point Museum
Association maintains a two-room museum. The modern headquarters
building of Fort Winfield Scott was completed in 1912, after the old
brick fort was condemned. The presidio is a registered State historical
landmark.
The present 69-acre Fort Mason Reservation, under the
jurisdiction of the General Services Administration and the Army, is
bounded by Van Ness Avenue and Bay and Lacuna Streets. Of special
interest is McDowell Hall (Brooks House No. 1), on the north side of
MacArthur Avenue. A large two-story framehouse erected in 1855 and 9
years later converted into a duplex, it was the residence of 38
commanding generals of the Army's western headquarters from 1865 until
1943, including Gens. Irvin McDowell, Edward O. C. Ord, John Pope,
Nelson A. Miles, and Arthur MacArthur. It is now an officers' mess.
NHL Designation: 06/13/62
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitea8.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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