Fort Mason Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service

Foulds, Eliot; Hoke, Amy

On satellite imagery, Fort Mason appears as a green sward within the dense urban grid of San Francisco, perched on a point of land on the northern tip of the San Francisco peninsula at the edge of the San Francisco Bay. Fort Mason’s 68.5 acres are but one small sub-unit of the immense Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). A collection of military structures on site date from the 1850s through the 1950s and illustrate the evolution of military landscape planning and architecture over a one hundred year period. The Fort Mason cultural landscape is generally understood to contain two primary zones: Upper Fort Mason is the older of the two, first occupied by the Ohlone, and later serving as the site of the eighteenth century Spanish battery and nineteenth century American coast artillery post. This area represents approximately 55 acres of the entire 68.5 acre site. Found within this area is a collection of buildings, structures, roads, vegetation and other landscape features that were first designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1972. Lower Fort Mason consists of the wharves and sheds built on filled land reclaimed from the bay in the early twentieth century. Beginning in 1911, these facilities at Lower Fort Mason became an important component of the Army's Port of Embarkation - expediting personnel and materiel into the Pacific. The period of significance, 1855-1953, originates with the construction and civilian settlement of the area during California's Gold Rush and ends with the cease-fire ending the Korean Conflict. Although "Black Point" or "Point San Jose" played a role in the military affairs of Spain, and perhaps Mexico, the extant above-ground cultural resources at Fort Mason are survivors of one-hundred years of United States military history. Best relating to National Register Criterion A for association with the events that have made a significant contribution to broad patterns of history, the resources of Fort Mason have evolved over a period inclusive of the American Civil War, the Indian Wars of the American West 1865-1890, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and finally the Korean Conflict. Fort Mason displays the seven aspects that determine integrity as defined by the National Register of Historic Places: location, design, materials, workmanship, setting, feeling and association. The following landscape characteristics contribute to the significance of the historic district’s cultural landscape: Natural Systems, Spatial Organization, Topography, Circulation, Buildings and Structures, Vegetation, Small Scale Features, Views and Vistas, and Archeological Sites.

Fort Mason Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service

Series

Collections