Park Headquarters at Fort Mason

201 Fort Mason - NPS Headquarters

Kirke Wrench

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Open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The William J. Whalen Building is the National Park Service headquarters for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Stop into the front office for maps and park info.

In 1902, the army constructed this building as the post's army hospital, complete with a 12-bed ward. After four years the army brass was already considering it for major re-tooling since most wounded soldiers were being cared for at the new and larger Letterman Army Hospital in the Presidio. The army then used this building as a kind of a glorified closet for storage, temporary barracks and performing non-essential tasks. That all changed in 1912, when the army constructed a major depot on Fort Mason's shoreline, for the conveyance of cargo and troops. Suddenly, the building had purpose again: to serve as the headquarters for the new shipping center, that 20 years later, was renamed the San Francisco Port of Embarkation.