Fort Cronkhite: Barracks (Building 1059) and Mess Hall (Building 1049)

Brown, William; Bradford, Walter

This report makes recommendations for historic furnishings in the Enlisted Men’s Barracks, Building 1059, and the Mess Hall, Building 1049. These types of structures are well documented in a joint study by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record and the U.S. Department of Defense, World War II and the U.S. Army Mobilization Program: A History of 700- and 800-Series Cantonment Construction. 6 The initial evidence for historic furnishings for these buildings is based on information collected about Battery E, 6th Coast Artillery and the 56th Coast Artillery, both of which saw service at Fort Cronkhite during the war. The Historical and Pictorial Review of the Defenses of San Francisco, a yearbook published in 1941, has a photographic roster of both Battery E and the entire 56th Regiment. A booklet printed for Christmas 1941 includes many photographs of Fort Cronkhite and also a complete roster of Battery E. Some of the soldiers who were stationed at Ft. Cronkhite survive and have donated photographs, letters and various mementos. Fortunately, some oral history has also been collected. The subsequent evidence is the oﬃ cial documentation of U.S. Army clothing, equipment, weapons, and furnishings of 1941–42. Photographic evidence from similar installations can also be relied on to accurately reﬂ ect conditions at Ft. Cronkhite during the war years. The combination of this site speciﬁ c oﬃ cial and more general evidence allows for a very accurate historic furnishing of the barracks and mess hall at Ft. Cronkhite.