Cultural Landscape Report for Forts Baker, Barry, and Cronkhite, Golden Gate NRA, Volume II: Existing Conditions through Treatment

Auwaerter, John; Curry, George

Forts Baker, Barry and Cronkhite, an expansive landscape composed of three former harbor defense installations, extend across more than 2,700 acres on the Marin Headlands bordering San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate, and the Pacific Ocean. This Cultural Landscape Report, which follows the first volume containing the site history of Forts Baker, Barry, and Cronkhite, is intended as a resource to help the park manage this historic cultural landscape. The report includes documentation of existing landscape conditions, an inventory and evaluation of landscape characteristics and features, and recommendations to preserve and enhance the landscape's historic character. Chapter 1, Existing Conditions, provides a narrative and graphic overview of the existing character and use of the Forts Baker, Barry, and Cronkhite landscape, including its management, regional setting, natural environment, and system of roads and trails. The description of each reservation provides an overview of the landscape with its reservation-wide characteristics and features, followed by a description of each character area defined by clusters of military development. Chapter 2, Analysis and Evaluation, inventories and evaluates the cultural landscape of Forts Baker, Barry, and Cronkhite as a basis for historic preservation planning. The chapter is organized in two parts. The first addresses the historic significance and integrity of the cultural landscape according to criteria established by the National Register of Historic Places. The second part evaluates the historic character of the cultural landscape according to National Park Service cultural landscape methods outlined in A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques (National Park Service, 1998). The landscape today retains the overall natural environment, circulation, and patterns of development that existed by 1966. Change since 1966 has occurred primarily in vegetation, notably the spread of invasive Monterey pine, cypress, and eucalyptus trees and continued loss of grassland; the retrofitting of military roads for public use; deterioration and removal of vacant buildings and structures; rehabilitation of buildings for park and partner uses; and loss of Army signs and security fencing along the borders and defensive works as the district was opened for public use and integrated with the former ranchlands to the north as the Marin Headlands unit of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The recommended Period of Significance for the cultural landscape under Criteria A and C begins in 1866 with the establishment of the Lime Point Military Reservation, and extends to 1966, the year when the last major Army development was completed: Nike SF-87 administration complex at Fort Cronkhite. Chapter 3, Treatment, provides recommendations for preserving and enhancing the historic character of the Forts Baker, Barry, and Cronkhite landscape in the context of contemporary site management and use. Maintenance (preservation) is the default treatment where there is no specific recommendation. The recommendations are conceptual and will require additional park planning to implement.

Cultural Landscape Report for Forts Baker, Barry, and Cronkhite, Golden Gate NRA, Volume II: Existing Conditions through Treatment

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