Historic Structure Report: Paddle Tug, Eppleton Hall
Tri-Coastal Marine, Inc.. Historic Structure Report: Paddle Tug, Eppleton Hall. Historic Structure Report. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
Located in the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park offers visitors the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Pacific Coast maritime history. The Park includes a fleet of historic ships, a Visitor Center, Maritime Museum, Maritime Research Center, and Aquatic Park Historic District. Eppleton Hall, the only remaining intact example of a Tyne River paddle tug, rests at her moorings at the Hyde Street Pier, seemingly abandoned. She is the last major vessel to be acquired by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and is the only one that has not yet received preservation treatment. For the Maritime Park, Eppleton Hall is problematic in more than one sense. She does not fit into the Park’s theme of West Coast maritime history and is the only vessel of the fleet to be rejected for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. Her previous use, as a semi-operational vessel that occasionally steamed on the Bay, came to an abrupt end in the late 1970s due to safety concerns. Eppleton Hall is, nevertheless, a historically significant vessel, a direct descendant of the first craft to go into commercial service as harbor tugs. Not only is she worth saving as an industrial artifact, she holds important information about the evolution of seafaring that should be passed on. As she sits today, she is neither being saved nor interpreted. In this historic structure report, a plan is outlined for restoring and interpreting Eppleton Hall. The plan is not overly ambitious; it seeks to achieve the minimum level of preservation that is befitting a vessel of Eppleton Hall's significance. Unavoidable in any discussion of the treatment for Eppleton Hall is the question of whether the Maritime Park is the appropriate aegis for the paddle tug. The answer is beyond the scope of this report. This lingering question, however, should not be cause for withholding from Eppleton Hall the attention she so rightly deserves.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Tri-Coastal Marine, Inc.
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- PWR , SAFR
- Keywords
- eppleton hall, steam schooner
- Subjects
- CRIS-HS: 021354: Steam Side Paddlewheel Tugboat "Eppleton Hall"