Fort Baker: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service
Hoke A. 2004. Fort Baker: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 725249. NPS Pacific West Regional Office. Pacific West Regional Office/CLI Database
Fort Baker is situated on the east shore of the Marin Headlands in San Francisco Bay. This area is part of the Coast Range geologic province of California, and consists of northwest-trending folds and faults, steep hills, and areas of exposed bedrock. Fort Baker is located on the more shallow portions of these hills, rising from the shoreline to the highest point on the west at about 800 feet, sloping down to about 200 feet on the east. The native vegetation surrounding Fort Baker has been heavily impacted by various land uses including cattle ranching, quarrying, landfill, road construction and slope stabilization. The vegetation is a mixture of native and non-native species that are well adapted to such coastal influences as summer fog, maritime temperatures, salt spray and strong winds. Although the military history of Fort Baker spans over 150 years, documentation and evaluation of cultural landscape resources focused on one primary period of significance for the site, with three critical eras. The period of significance is 1867 to 1946. Fort Baker, along with Forts Barry and Cronkhite, was included as a nationally-significant historic district in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, with its significance deriving from the coastal defense history of the site.This area is unique in that there are standing many of our earliest coastal defense artillery batteries, significance in tracing the development of the American coastal defense system.This land, strategically located in Marin County, commands early observation of the Bay entrance. In 1866 Forts Baker and Barry were acquired by purchase to be used for military defense. The fortifications proposed for construction on this land were to augment those at the Presidio of San Francisco, in order to prevent successful passage of hostile ships through the Golden Gate into the San Francisco Bay. Fort Baker retains integrity as a military landscape and today remains in good condition. The site displays the seven aspects that determine integrity as defined by the National Register of Historic Places: location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association through the retention of the majority of the following landscape characteristics that contribute to its historic integrity as one cultural landscape. In addition, the following landscape characteristics contribute to the significance of the landscape: natural systems and features, spatial organization, topography, circulation, cluster arrangement, vegetation, buildings and structures, views and vistas, and small scale features.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hoke, Amy
- Date of Issue
- 2004-08-26
- Publisher
- NPS Pacific West Regional Office
- Units
- GOGA , PWR
- Keywords
- Agriculture, Artillery, Battery, Coastal Miworks, Colonial Revival Style, defense, Endicott Era, Fort Barry, Fort Chronkite, Fortification, Historic Designed Landscape, historic site, Lime Poine Military Reservation, Livestock, Marin Headlands, Military, military post, Mission Revival Style, Rancho Sausolito, Recreation, Seacoast Fortifications of San Francisco, The Home Front, World War I, World War II
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 725249: Fort Baker