Peninsula

 San Bruno

-1911: Eugene Ely takes off from Selfridge Field (part of Tanforan) and 18 minutes later lands on USS Pennsylvania. Takes off from the ship and lands twelve minutes later back at Selfridge Field. 


-15 January 1911: Lt Myron C. Crissy (Army Signal Corps) drops a six pound bomb on Tanforan area (creating a hole in the marshland three feet wide and two feet deep) from biplane piloted by Philip Par melee


-18 January 1911: 30th Infantry’s 2d Battalion camp at Selfridge Field


-World War One: a large number of Artillery troops led to the lease of Tanforan as Camp Grizzly


-Fiscal Year 1938- 1939: SF Chamber of Commerce gives 160 acres and federal Government contributes funds for seaport north of SFO. City ceded 20.53 acres to US government for a Coast Guard Station and suspended SFO operations for 56 days while it was 


-November 1940: SFO Coast Guard station commissioned


-15 February 1941: Air Station San Francisco established at Mills Field for USCG. Taken over quickly by US Navy (released after the war to the USCG) under the command of LT George H. Bowerman. SAR missions and coastal patrols through the end of World War II. Coast Guard SAR unit still active.


-May- September 1942: Tanforan used to house 4000 Japanese before they went to one of 169 concentration camps. After they left, site was used to house sailors transitioning to Pacific.


-1944: in exchange for the title to Treasure Island, Army & Navy spend $10 million on SFO improvments. 93 acres of reclamation, seaplane facilities improved, and Navy built both a seaplane hangar and, at SFO, an international terminal to be used by Pan Am


-1943: specialized training at Navy's Advanced Base Personnel Depot San Bruno


-1944: Bayshore Manor, a housing area for 250 families, built next to SFO


-1944: USN acquires land west of Tanforan Track for more housing. Current Bayhill Shopping Center was family housing, Officer housing at San Bruno and El Camino, next to a large recreational complex (which is now Chili's). USN rest site is now TGI Friday's


-26FB99: Navy announces intent to leave 20 acre San Bruno Naval Facilities Engineering Command, established during WW2, a support facility for nearby bases



San Mateo County

-01 July 1922 -1924: 90 acre Pacific City at Coyote Point.


-March 1942: Internment camp at Sharp Park, located in a canyon behind the Sharp Park Golf Course, run by the FBI. The Service Administration Unit opened a POW camp (German, Italian and Austrians) on site of WPA era Relief Camp, now Pacifica archery range


-1943: Cal Trans builds Half Moon Bay Airport for Army Air Corps as part of coastal defense. To San Mateo County in 1950


-February- October 1943: 40th Chemical Lab Co bivouac area in Sunnyvale (Washington Park. Coolidge Ave on N, Iowa Ave S, Pastoria St E, Sunset St W). Barracks, Mess, Latrines, Showers, plus Command & Staff vehicles of II Armored Corps. To Sunnyvale at the cessation of hosilities.


-October 1943- October 1944: US Army Corps of Engineers leased Colma city hall


-US Merchant Marine Basic School opens at Coyote Point. Closed in under a year


-Mills Mansion used as a convalescent hospital for merchant seamen


-Milagra Ridge was southern-most coastal defense work, to defend entrance to San Francisco Bay. 6" gun emplacement was built here during WW II.16" gun emplacement similar to one at Fort Funston to be built but canceled. Called Battery 243


-Spring 1942: Immigration Station moves from 801 Silver Avenue (SF) to Sharp Park


-1944: Immigration Station leaves Sharp Park for Appraiser's Building in San Francisco


WWII

-Point Montara had an Anti Aircraft Training Center


-US Navy barracks at Coyote Point


-Montara Mountain: 3 bunkers (one at Gray Whale Cove used for sightings, others at Devils Slide promontory and southern ridge of Green Valley)


-fire control (lookout) stations at: Devil's Slide (one above the other), Hill 640 (above Stinson Beach), Milagra Knob, Bolinas Bay, Olema and Wildcat (Drakes Bay)


-McNee Ranch used as barracks by bunker builders and later as quarters for Commanders


-Pacifica's McCloskey Castle used by Coast Guard for communications. Guarded by dogs. CG used a house on Beach Blvd (by Skull Krusher tavern) to keep the beach-patrolling dogs)


-Crocker Hills (Daly City) an army camp, next to reservoir. Nearby was a wireless station


-1953: 97 Regular Army troops at Sweeney Ridge Nike site


-1956- 1974: Sweeney Ridge/ Milagra Ridge has remnants of southern most Nike site


-January 1959: dedication of Westlake Guided Missile Battery Site


-1963: California National Guard takes over Nike sites


-1974: Nike sites shuttered



 Camp Fremont

-July 1917: Camp Fremont construction begins near Menlo Park. Halted for 3 weeks went troops went east, replaced by 8th Division. Near Menlo Park (Valparaiso Ave to San Francisquito Creek & El Camino Real to Alameda de las Pulgas. Base hospital (& other facilities) on Willow Road where VA is now). Government paid $2 million for upgrades. West of town, 1000 acres of leased hayfields, hills and pasture used for maneuvers; 1300 acres with permanent and semi-permanent buildings. 

Stores in a 5 mile radius went dry.  A Post Office, 9 YMCA buildings, a church and a theater went up. Sequoia High opened a branch on the base and the Bank of Palo Alto opened a Menlo Park branch, though both quickly closed.

Had infantry, cavalry and "10,000 horses and mules," stationed further east on Ravenswood at a "remount station," near the camp hospital (which became the VA).


-January 1919: Camp Fremont closes. Government canceled leases and auctioned off buildings. Old Headquarters is now a small park (area of Santa Cruz and University), the Oasis is the old Camp Fremont billets. 1000 buildings, and Menlo Parks first streets, gas and water.


-1919: Hospitality House (designed 1918 by Julia Morgan for YMCA as meeting place for servicemen and their families) dedicated to WW1 dead. Hostess House and MacArthur Park went to the YMCA following the hostilities. Moved to Palo Alto, only remaining  bldg. Now at 27 Mitchell Lane (NE corner of University Ave & El Camino Real). Rented 79 to MacArthur Park Restaurants, opened 1982.


-27,000 troops at peak, 42,000 trained there



 Dibble General Hospital

-1943: Army opened Dibble General Hospital on Timothy Hopkins estate for care of soldiers injured in South Pacific. Ravenswood Avenue and MiddlefielÂd Road in Menlo Park. Specialized in plastic surgery, blind care, neuro-psychiatry and orthopedics. 2400 beds at its peak


-44: Victorian Mansion (52 rooms on 55 acres; built 06-10 for Theo Payne, SF hardware manufacturer and acquired 21 by Leon Douglass, named after his wife) became a Dibble Extension, for convalescing soldiers


-1945: bought by the Menlo College and Menlo School and known as Douglass Hall; when those two split in 1994, the latter got it


-mid-1946: Began closure


-1946: multi-denomination chapel of Dibble bought for $5,000 and became Nativity School Hall


-1948: City bought 9.31 acres of Dibble for Burgess Park and 29 acres for other uses


-mid 1950s: Movie theater sold and to converted to live shows as the Burgess Theater, used mainly by the Menlo Players Guild. On Laurel Street.


-First civilian hire at Dibble was Jeanne Bone, who was also last to leave


-Stanford took some of the land for the Stanford Research Insitute and Stanford Village, the latter 300 apartments for married students and 1500 dorm beds

MOFFET FIELD

-1926: Navy announces plans to build west coast airship base, leaning towards San Diego's Camp Kearney Niles' Laura Whipple heard about it ( and the 1700 acre Ynigo Ranch) and pressed the San Jose Chamber of Commerce and newspapers to fight for the site. SF raised $330,000 and Santa Clara communities raised $100,000


-December 1926: 1000 acres purchased for $476,066. Northern California won over Camp Kearney


-February 1927: President Hoover authorizes site to be purchased for $1 and $5 million for construction


-1930: established


-13 May 1933: Naval Air Station Sunnyvale opens


-17 April 1933: Landing field becomes Moffet Field, honoring Rear Admiral W. A. Moffet, dead in the USS Macon crash


-25 October 1935: US Army takes over. TC13, the Army's only dirigible kept there. swapped field on North Island San Diego with Navy. 82nd Army Observation and 9th Airbase Materials squadrons move in


-1938: 18th and 20th pursuit squadrons move in 


-1939: Congress established the Ames Research Center (of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) on 62 acres adjacent to the station.


-1940: becomes west coast training center for Army Air Corps


-22 March 1941: Jimmy Stewart arrives for Basic Training


-November 1941: Having passed Flight Test, Jimmy Stewart returns


-07 December 1941: Jimmy Stewart on guard duty when Pearl harbor bombed


-1942: Navy leases Watsonville Airport as an auxilary field, improving it to three runways and three blimp mooring circles, plus barracks for 116. Blimp crews rotated in for a month- long tour, conducting 12 hour patrols for submarines, escorting convoys and rescueing people.


-19 January 1942: Passing Flight Test and awarded Wings, 2LT Stewart transfers to Kirkland Field NM


-16 April 1942: Back to US Navy, as Naval Air Station Sunnyvale


-20 April 1942: Naval Air Station, Moffet Field opens under Captain D.„ M. Mackey. Two hangars quickly added


-1947: Watsonville Airport's 87 acres returned to owners by USN


-August 1947: blimp operations cease


-1960s: NASA moves in


-1986: Sunnyvale Air Force Station becomes Ozinuka Air Force Base. Satellite Test Center at 1080 Lockheed Way


-1994: Moffett Field closed as a Naval station, the airfield (a 9,200 and a 8,100 runway) became 1,427 acre Moffet Federal Airfield, under NASA Ames control, along with the golf course and Research Park. The Air Force took over the housing areas and management of the golf course. 2263 acres.


-05 November 1999: new NASA Research Park planned for 213 acres on west side of field


-April 2000: housing transferred from Air Force to Army as Moffet Family Housing (803 units) for South pacific Command use under auspices of Ft McCoy


-September 2001: Onizuka to close. Includes Officer Housing area (111 units), Orion Park (562 enlisted housing units in 103 buildings on 69 acres,adjacent to air field) and Shenandoah Park (126 family housing units in 23 buildings on 15 acres 1 mile south of airfield in Mountain View.

-1993 Acres

-As part of a DoD move to place all 65 MEPS stations within active bases, Oakland MEPS moved to Moffett.

-US Space Camp at Moffet Field


Onizuka AFB

-1956: operations start in Palo Alto


-1960: operations start as Air Force Station Satellite Test Center. 2 acres, just south of Moffet Field.


-1964: renamed Air Force Satellite control Facility


-1969: blue cube built


-1971: renamed Sunnyvale Air Force Station


-1986: renamed Onizuka Air Station


-September 2010: closed

The Tanforan race track appropriated by the U.S. government to be used at first as a relocation area for American-Japanese, then as a naval base. Facilities at the Tanforan race track soon proved to be extremely inadequate for the intended use of temporary housing for naval personnel passing to the Pacific war zone. The government’s solution was to build another expanded naval facility to the west of Tanforan. By civil action number 23268 in 1944: Civil Action 23268 established Camp Terry B. Thompson Navy Base, 113 buildings on 80 acres. The government owned 38 of these acres and 42 acres were leased from San Bruno Lands, Inc. (George W. Williams). Since the 1920s, the area had been farmed by vegetable and flower growers including the Repetto, Pastorino and Piedemonte families. They purchased 25 acres of land for farming from the Silva family in the 1920s, but now they were ordered off their land. The Piedemonte family quit farming, and the Repetto and Pastorino families moved to the west of San Bruno, and eventually relocated their businesses.The Naval Advanced Personnel Depot cost $5 million. Between El Camino, San Bruno Avenue and Sneath Lane. In what in now the Bayhill Shopping Center area, 88 metal quonset huts were built (called Homoji) for the housing of the related-civilian personnel. At that time, San Bruno Avenue was only a path that led to the quonset huts. 150-bed hospital facility was built where the Ryan National Archives exist today on Commodore Avenue. Immediately off of El Camino near San Bruno Avenue, extensive recreation facilities with a large recreation hall and a lounge for the personnel, 16-lane bowling alley, a 24-chair barber shop and two soda fountains were constructed. A mammoth drill hall was erected that had the capacity to hold 8,000 men, and in which at least six basketball games could be played simultaneously. A church was available, and a combination banking and Red Cross building existed on the grounds. A theater was built that had a capacity to hold 3,000 people. There was also a swimming pool, reported to be the largest in California. After the war, the city of San Bruno tried to negotiate to purchase these facilities, but was unsuccessful, and the swimming pool was filled in with dirt (A savings and loan was built on the site of the swimming pool, and it is now occupied by a Kaiser Hospital facility).In 1946, the Naval Advanced Personnel Depot was "disestablished.” Numerous name changes occurred in the next few years, but the government continued to operate it in conjunction with buying, selling and operating property for the government in the western United States. In 1952, it became the District Public Works Office of the 12th District, and it had 350 daily workers. By 1959, it officially became the Naval Facility, District Public Works Office. To the north along Sneath Lane was the Avensino- Mortensen nursery.This was torn down in the mid-60s. In the early 70s, the Homoji quonset huts had been replaced by the Bayhill Shopping Center, and Bayhill Avenue was built. In 1965, the remaining naval facilities became the Western Division-Bureau of Yards and Docks-West Docks. In the 1970s, Interstate 380 was constructed to the south of the remaining barracks. In December 2000, the remaining land that the government held was sold and by December 2001, the government moved out of the facility. In May 2002, all the remaining barracks were razed. In 2003, 20 acres of ‘Navy Land’ were sold for $20 million and construction of Phase I of the apartments for the "Crossroads” complex was begun.-Fredricks**On what is now Bayhill were 88 quonset huts used to house civilian personnel, plus recreation facilities including a swimming pool and a 16-lane bowling alley. The government continued to operate facilities on the land well past the end of World War II, until the mid-1960s, when what had become Naval Facility, District Public Works Office, officially shut down. Less than a decade later, the quonset huts came down and modern Bayhill began to take shape.-Burlingame Realty**-In 1938, the Sneaths sold 162 acresfor $180,000 to the United States government for the purpose of creating the Golden Gate National Cemetery.-The Navy established another base in 1944. Camp Terry B. Thompson, at its height of activity, consisted of 113 buildings on some 80 acres. This included a hospital, recreation hall, bowling alley and barber shop. The swimming pool there has been said to have been the largest in California at the time. Through the years, the Navy has let go of most of the real estate. Today, the 23rd Marine Regiment, a reserve infantry unit, occupies 20 acres of the site.-La Peninsula
-December 2001: Navy left.
-2002: last of the Navy barracks in San Bruno that had been built in the mid-1940s came down. These "temporary” Navy facilities, along El Camino Real, lasted for almost 60 years. They were built during the height of World War II but were now making way for civilian housing on the Peninsula. Apartments, condominiums, a hotel, retail space and recreation area were to be constructed for the owners of these apartments and condominiums.
-2003: