5 - Officers' Club

WAYSIDE LAYOUT: Cream colored, vertically oriented panel with a dark banner running across the top. The banner reads “Golden Gate National Recreation Area” on the left and the National Park Service logo on the right. The panel has two columns. The first column has main body of text and 1 image. The second column has 3 images.  

FIRST COLUMN: 

TEXT: Officers’ Club – Getting Together on Alcatraz 

When Alcatraz became a federal penitentiary, this building was dubbed the “Officers’ Club.” Soon known by island residents as the “Social Hall,” it was used by prison staff and their families for parties, dances, and other sorts of recreation. They performed skits and watched movies, bowled, played pool, and visited at the soda fountain. For three decades, until the penitentiary closed in 1963, this was the center of the island’s social scene.  

Earlier, between 1910 and 1933, while Alcatraz was a military prison, army families stationed on the island came here to the Post Exchange – the island’s general store, cafeteria, barbershop, and post office.  

DESCRIPTION: Black and white photograph of a gathering of people at a party or dance. Tables are set up in rows and men and women are seated on either side of the tables eating and drinking.  

SECOND COLUMN: 

DESCRIPTION #1: Black and white image of the Post Exchange. The building is on the rocky edge of the island, overlooking the water, with tall pillars holding it up above the water crashing below it.  

CAPTION: Built in 1910. This building and several others on the island burned in 1970.  

DESCRIPTION #2: Colored photograph of a young woman rolling a bowling ball down a bowling alley. Behind her is a bowling ball return filled with bowling balls.  

DESCRIPTION #3: Colored photograph of 3 people dressed in costumes. They are performing a play on a stage.  

QUOTE: “The main even for older teenagers at this time of the year...was the Christmas formal dance. The girls would dress up in evening gowns and the boys would wear tuxedos. Just like any other formal dance, the boy would pick up the girl at her house and bring her a corsage.” - Donald J. Hurley, Alcatraz resident, Alcatraz Island Memories