San Francisco

-1846: US  Navy places "a couple of" guns on the eastern shore of Telegraph Hill. 

Site known as Fort Montgomery and The Battery. 

Marines manned the Presidio at the same time. 

-01 December 1846: Montgomery succeeded by Commander Joseph B. Hull of the USS Warren. 

Lieutenant Watson USMC retains command of troops on shore, until succeeded by Ward Marston, Captain of Marines on the flagship USS Savannah. Marston, succeeded by Robert Tansill, Lieutenant of Marines on the Man-of-war Dale

-1847: Fort Montgomery closes

-15 May 1851: Fort Gunnybags, a two story granite building on Sacramento, operated by the San Francisco Vigilance Committee

-1861: pro-Union Camp Sumner established near the Presidio

-1861: Camp Wright established, somewhere near The City

-1861-62 OR 62-65: Camp Alert located in the Mission

-1862-63 & 64-66: a Fort Baker existed, near "Bridgeville"

-1865: Camp Sumner closed

-1878: Military Division of the Pacific headquarters moves to Presidio from downtown 

-1883: potato patch for Presidio soldiers on what is now Portsmouth Square

-1890s: Army Signal Corps maintained weather bureau on 10th floor of the Mills Building

-03 MAY 1898: Camp Merriam established, at Roger & Lincoln

-17 MAY 1898: Camp Merritt established on an old racetrack (2d- 3d, Balboa- Fulton? Bay District race track- Anza/ Fulton, 1st/ 5th?). 

Closed Bay District Race track (5th & Geary) listed as well.

-26 August 1898: Camp Merritt troops move to the Presidio

-18 February 1899: San Francisco becomes one of two ports for Army transports

-1906: Army stables on Pine, near Hyde

EARTHQUAKE

-0630: messenger arrives at Fort Mason to send all available troops to Mayor's office. They arrive at 0700.

-0800: arriving to patrol downtown are Coast Artillery Companies 10,29, 38, 66,67, 70 and 105, 14th Cavalry Troops I and K and Field Artillery Batteries 1, 9, 24.

Around 1700 men stationed in San Francisco Bayrea at the time. Two companies of 22d Infantry and all of the 14th Cavalry on rifle range at Point Bonita brought to SF. Pacific Squadron landed several hundred marines and blue-jackets, fighting fires and patrolling streets.

-1500 hours: Army Signal Corps establishes telegraph operations in the Ferry Building

 Medical

-Contagious Disease hospital at Harbor View Park

-Sick from city hospitals and many injured in earthquake sent to the general hospital on Presidio

-Field Hospital on one of the main drives in Golden Gate, 300 yards East of Spreckels Music Stand, lawn surrounded by a grove of pines and much foliage, median line of hospital occupying slightly grassy ridge, from which the ground fell away gradually toward each flank. 

108 bed field hospital inadequate, large number of Quartermaster Store tents and many hospital tents were supplied. Two additional sections of tents were erected, and using tented streets on either side of the center as mains, large Q. M. store tents erected, six on a side and facing these streets.

 Receiving Tent; sterilizing tent; large hospital tent (bathing purposes); Administration tent (central tent on the first row); Operating tent (hospital tents to rear of Dispensary. Front tent contained operating table, second contained dressings and sterilizer, third used for applying dressings); Dining tent was erected (behind the store tent in the center row, 3 kitchens immediately to the rear of hospital tent.  All of the tents were floored. Operationally, hospital divided into Administration, Receiving, Commissary, Surgical, Dispensing, Laundry and Bathing sections. Besides these divisions, a permanent guard was organized (four posts established daily).

-120 bed Pavilion Hospital (four ward buildings: nurses home, administration building, laundry and fumigating) in Deer Park, just to the right of the field hospital. Designated as typhoid fever hospital, under the administration of the field hospital. When certain of no epidemic of typhoid, hospital was utilized for other cases.

-Late May/ early June, health conditions in the city improved, cases dropping less than 100 (Pavilion Hospital could accommodate these). Field hospital gradually taken down and turned over to Company B, Hospital Corps. June 15, 1906, the Pavilion Hospital was turned over to Contract Surgeon Phelan.

-Alvord Tunnel used as a hospital facility, augmented by 10 army tents. Army camp in Sharon Meadow (medical and surgical wards, plus dispensary and commissary).

-20 April: 16 enlisted and 2 Officers rescue 20,000 fleeing fire, largest evacuation by sea to that date.

Refugees

-Major McIver, 5th Military Division, establishes two refugee camps in Golden Gate Park; one (1000 people) by old speedway which was near Strawberry Hill and extended west. 

All occupants in houses (mainly along Park Presidio) by Jan 1907. Other camp at Big Rec.

-Camp Richmond at 11th - 15th & Lake - Cabrillo

-Camp Merritt at Geary and Arguello

-Camp Forrest at Market & Laguna. 

-Another camp at the dump at the foot of Jones Street, name unknown

NON-EARTHQUAKE

-21 JAN 1911: Eugene Ely takes off and lands from a wooden platform on the cruiser Pennsylvania, moored off SF

-1914: State Armory and Arsenal built on Mission, housing California National Guard

-1922: Quarantine Substation established on Meiggs Wharf

-1923: Marine Corps Supply Depot San Francisco established

-1937: Battery Davis guns placed at Fort Funston

-05 November 1940: 125 Chinese men and 19 Chinese women moved from Angel Island Immigration Station to temporary facilities at 801 Silver Avenue

War War Two

-1941: Army took over Polo Field. US Army Transportation Corps took over Pier 15

-20 March 1941: 30th Infantry from Presidio sets up overnight bivouac in Golden Gate Park, anticipating upcoming training in Washington.

-April 1941: Optical repair Shop formed inside Academy of Sciences for fixing army and navy optical and navigational instruments

-Saturday, August 9th 1941: Civic Center Hospitality House opens. Opening festival in Civic Auditorium hosted by Mayor Rossi and includes Eddie Cantor. Opened the next day for use by the USO

-15 September 1941: War Department authorizes submarine net across Golden Gate

-04 October 1941: Kezar football game pits Moffett Field NAS against St. Mary's

-02 December 1941: start of 4 years military rule of the Cow Palace. Arena a motor pool (as was Place of Fine Arts), horse stalls were quarters for overseas bound troops.  For all five years of "occupation," the rent was $1 a year. As the war progressed, disembarking troops were supplanted by an Ordnance Department's repair garage

-05 December 1941: Harbor Defenses put on full alert. Troops issued 40 rounds of small arms ammo each

-20 December 1941: Oakland garbage scow Tahoe runs overtop Japanese submarine 9 miles south of Farallones

-early 42: submarine net from Sausalito to Marina Green with a Navy tugboat positioned at the center to open and close it. Backed up by 3 minefields.

-09 May 1942: 16" harbor defense guns fired for practice

-1942: Empire (nee William Taylor) Hotel taken over by Army Ordnance. Included Empire Sky Room. 

Transferred to the IRS after the hostilites, who used it until 1978 when twas given to the UC system

-1942: Navy takes over Aquatic Park. National Maritime Museum building used as barracks for Anti AirCraft gunners.

-12 SEP 1942: War Show at Union Square to show off new garage

-1942: USO at 989 Market

-1942: Naval Landing at Pier 14. Army Transport Docks at Fort Laguna

-06 March 1943: Pepsi's Hospitality House (in 8 story building at 948 Market) opens. 

Army & Navy Club at 560 Sutter. 

Harbor Club for Men in Service at Clay off Embarcadero run by Golden Gate Group of American Writers. 

National Lutheran Council Service Committee ran King George Hotel on lower Mason. 

The Merchant Marine ran a recreation center on Market near the water. 

The British Navy had the Union Jack Club on Pine. 

A USO at Geary and Buchanan was for blacks. 

The Red Cross Blood Procurement Center was on Jones at Chestnut

-June 1943: SF empties jail, putting prisoners on work probation

-18 August 1943: construction of Civic Center barracks starts

-12 September 1943: H Co, 23d Regiment, California National Guard practices camouflage in Golden Gate Park

-12 July 1944: Army takes over Polo Grounds (briefly)

-09 December 1944: Fleet Hospital #113 at Crocker Amazon Playground commissioned

-1944: Army returns Polo Field to SF

-1944: Immigration Station moves from Sharp Park to Appraiser's Building at 30 Sansome

-1944: USO at 111 O'Farrell

-early in the effort, Harbor Defense SF had it's 4th Interceptor Command control center in the Pacific Stock Exchange

-Crocker Amazon playground used by English Sailors for cricket

-USF had Coast Artillery ROTC

-Brigadier General Stockton (CG) ran the SF Harbor Defense; Fort Cronkite Regimental Commander was Colonel Drake

-US Maritime Service Enrolling Office at 1000 Geary

-Ft Funston closed pistol range to SFPD use, allowed before the war

-Ft Scott had the Log Cabin NCO Club and 1038-seat, air conditioned theatre

-sport team: Ft Scott Gunners

-USN hydroacoustic station by Sutro Baths

-SF Harbor Defense put out the weekly Golden Gate Guardian

-Ft Scott PX had two mobile canteens serving outlying areas

-US Navy had a concrete signal station just above the GG Bridge's toll plaza

-barracks for California National Guard at each end of Golden Gate Bridge

-Mason & Powell @ Northpoint & Beach: now a Muni Yard, from the War Department. Formerly an industrial site

-Ghirardelli Square used as a barracks, serving the purpose of tents in Funston Park

-Fairmont, along with other hotels, taken over by military and unionized

-Beach Chalet taken over by Army Corps of Engineers for Coastal Defense HQ. The members of the Coastal Signal Defense Station were housed there, the actual station being located on the field just behind.

-City College of SF trained Army and Navy personnel. The barracks, across Phelan Avenue, became married student housing after the war. 

Also across Phelan was the WAVES Separation Center (which CCSF took over afterwards)

-12 May 1945: speakers of Russian, French, Spanish for UN needed and requested to go to Civic Center Barracks "J"

-30 June 1946: Civic Center Hospitality House closed

-01 July 1946: Coast Artillery School at Ft Scott opens, having left Ft Monroe VA

-July 1946: all mines laid in the bay retrieved. Mines and cables stored at Forts Baker and Scott, extra cable going to the Coast Guard Depot on the southern end of Yerba Buena Island

 Postwar

-12 December 1946: Civic Center barracks demolished

-1948: Coast Artillery School becomes Seacoast Branch of Army Artillery School

-12 February 1948: second shipload of Pacific war dead, on the Army transport Cardinal O'Connell arrives

-23 March 1948: 3rd load of Pacific war dead, aboard Walter W. Schwenk

-27 June 1948: Army returns Funston Playground to SF. It had been used to house 159 WACs

-December 1948: Pierce Industrial Engineering Company takes apart Battery Davis gun, taking 5 weeks. Remnants of the Fort Funston gun smelted by East Bay's Pacific States Steel Company. Plan was to have a 1000 bed psychiatric hospital built there.

All of the sites coastal defensive batteries had their guns removed, at this time, in fact, except Milagra Knob and Ft Miley. 

-1950: Woolworth offers to tear down Flood Building, build a three story structure, lease it 50 years and give it back to the Floods. Doctors were evicted, and the Korean War caused government to use eminent domain to take it over for the duration.

-1951: On the Marina's Small Boat Harbor Seawall (8' above and before 1915 Fair Seawall), the Navy built a degaussing station, used to realign ship's compasses and demagnetize them so they wouldn't set off mines. 

The line still runs to Angel Island along bottom of the bay.

-1955: USMC Department of Pacific HQ was at 100 Harrison, directing operations of 12, 13 & 17th Naval Districts and USMC detachments afloat in the Pacific. 12th Naval District HQ in Civic Center 

-31 January 1963: USN closes SF Oceanographic Office in Appraiser's Building

-late 60s: Fontana factory demolished

-72: California National Guard leaves Mission Street Armory for Fort Funston 

-Naval Dispensary at 50 Fell Street

FORT MASON

-1775: Puntas Meanos (Sand Dune Point) developed for a battery, on Rincon Point

-1797: Bateria San Jose constructed at tip of Rincon Point. Also called Battery at Yerba Buena. Visited every other day by a sentry

-1822: Mexico takes over what is by now called Black Point, after the dark underbrush

-1850: Ft Mason reserved for military

-1851: President Fillmore sets aside Black Point

-1853: Captain E. D. Keyes clears away squatters

-1855: Ft Mason Officers Club [main building] built

-1863: Troops quartered at Black Point, squatters evicted

-6 am, 03OC63: War Department telegraphs General George Wright to seize Point San Jose. A few days later a company from the 9th Infantry seizes it. 

-1863:  gun battery built

-28 October 1864: Officers quarters at Black Point burn

-Late 1864: Battery from 3rd Artillery, Alcatraz relieves 9th Regiment infantrymen

-1864: Black Point Battery established  as a backup to Alcatraz & Ft Point. 15 large artillery pieces

-March 1865: post becomes headquarters for the 9th Infantry Regiment

-1882: Fort Mason established. Honors Fifth California Military Governor Col. Richard Barnes Mason (47-49)

-1889: start of control of harbor minefield

-11 June 1889: first mine planted

-16 July 1889: 63 mines in place

-12 August 1889: Armistice results in picking up of mines

-1890: Torpedo casemate built

-1898: Black Point Battery remodeled

-1900: Battery Burnham built at Ft Mason (for CW artillery officer. 

-1906: Japanese refugee camp in southwest corner of camp. Number 15 of the camps, number 9 (cat corner from the fort in Lobos Square) also under Military District 3, which included Fort Mason

-1909: Battery ____ Demolished,  gun and carriage to Ft Stevens WA

-1910: point of embarkation era begins

-1911: Eastern half of Battery _____ demolished 1911. Western half covered up.

-1911: construction starts on first pier. Others soon added, along with 

-1912-14: supply depot (3 piers and 4 warehouses) built

-01 November 1914: Belt Line Railroad tunnel opens. Cost of $273,149.30; 1537' long, 17' wide. Built under order of State Harbor Commission

1915: Construction for Pan Pacific International Exhibition brings 18 new acres to Fort Mason

-WW2: 

-08 December 1941: US Army Point of Embarkation and General Depot commissioned. 3 piers at Fort Mason augmented by 3 leased from Port of San Francisco

-Headquarters, Army Transport Corps. 1,644,243 troops and 23,589,000 pounds of materiel passed through en route to the Pacific Theater

-San Francisco Port of Embarkation had piers in Eureka, Alameda, Stockton and Richmond, in addition to a Presidio animal depot, and air shipment facilitites at Hamilton Army Airfield. Subposts at LA and Seattle ports.

-1942: Ordnance Automotive Shops added in Emeryville. Shipped 100,000 vehicles between AP42 and AU45

-POSTWAR:

-March 1950: SFPE transport ships transferred to US Navy

-1955: San Francisco Point of Embarkation functions replaced by Pacific Transportation Txxx Command

-1959: Ft Mason and Oakland Army base gain individual identities, no longer two branches of the SFPE's successor, PTTC

-1962: transportation operations transferred to Oakland Army Base

-1963: divided into Reserved and Working areas. 44.5 western aces declared surplus and transferred to GSA. 25 eastern acres retained for Oakland Army Base housing

-1997: Officer's Club transferred from Oakland Army Base's Military Traffic Management Command to Presidio of Monterey

Fort Miley

-1850: President Millard Fillmore signs Executive Order to set aside Point Lobos for military purposes

-1851: President Fillmore signs a second Executive Order rescinding the designation of Point Lobos as part of the coastal defense network of San Francisco Bay

-1853: U.S. Geodetic Map shows a semaphore signaling station on the site of the present San Francisco VA Medical Center

-1868 Two-hundred acres surrounding Point Lobos acquired by the City and County of San Francisco for Golden Gate Cemetery

-1891: federal Government begins proceedings to condemn land

-23 January 1893: Army buys 54 former acres of Francisco Guerrero’s Laguna Guerrero Estate (and later, more of 200 acre City Cemetery Reservation) for $75,000

-1897: Coastal Defense formed, a Presidio sub-post. Original boundaries: Vista Point, 40th- 48th, Clement

-1898: two buildings built, used by Army Signal Corps

-23 September 1899: road built and ground cleared

-1900: Reservation at Point Lobos becomes Fort Miley, honoring LTC John David Miley, planner of Golden Gate Coastal Defense system, died 1899 Manila

-24 September 1902: Coast Artillery Corps receives 2 gun Battery

-26 September 1902: Coast Artillery gets mortar battery. Batteries split into northern Livingston and southern Anton Springer (1st Infantry Captain, KIA Phillipines 01)

-1902- 1906: Complex built between batteries. Horseshoe-shaped Parade Ground had (clockwise from Northwest): Ordnance Storehouse (02), 2 story barracks, QM storehouse, HQ, duplex for 2 Captains, Captain’s Quarters. West of Captain’s Quarters were two more Officer’s duplexes; south of them was hospital. South of the Parade ground was an east- west road between batteries. South of this road were a guardhouse, engineering shop and NCO quarters

-1902: Fort Miley Main Post completed and officially garrisoned as a subpost of the Presidio of San Francisco.

-1903: 3 gun Battery James Chester (#d Artillery, Civil War veteran, died 03) to Coast Artillery

-1904: Battery LaRhett Livingston and Battery Anton Springer completed.

-1909: with closure of city cemetery, 50 additional acres added (SF got 150 extra acres)

-1911: peak military operational level

-1914: 2 gun battery Loren D. Call built, southwest of parade ground.

-14 April(?) 1930: City and War department offer VA Fort Miley (and Pine Lake Park, neighboring Stern Grove), instead of desired Presidio land. VA got 32.25 (25?) acres (and later an additional 4.25 acres)

-1915: Battery Loren H. Call completed

-1922: Fort Miley's Main Post mothballed

-1927: military spotlights established on Lime Point, Fort Miley, PSF and 2 at Point Bonita. To find and aid ships. Lights reached 12500 yards. Drills held with government tugs Golden Gate, Argonaut and Hartley

-1932: 25 Army acres to VA okayed by Congress. 4.25 acres added later

-1933: Demolition of the Main Post of Fort Miley undertaken, resulting in the destruction of several barracks, officers' club and support structures. Only Building 18 is left standing

-1934: most Army buildings demolished for hospital space

-November 1934: Medical Center opens. 331 regular beds, 120 in Nursing Home. Twenty-one building VA Medical Center campus at Fort Miley completed by Herbert M. Baruch Corporation of Los Angeles for $1,182,000

-1937: Army abandons batteries

-11 December 1941: After a general alert, Artillery moves in, on 12 public acres

-1943: Construction 243 built. Other guns removed

-January 1946: Artillery leaves

-1946: patients return

-1948: Declared surplus. To GSA, then 12 most eastern acres (East Fort Miley) to VA and rest to the City

-1949: guns of Construction 243 removed

-1965: GGNRA gets non-VA land, except 1 & 7/10ths acres used by Navy for inshore, undersea warfare installations (Pillar Point Military Reservation?)

-March 1970: plans for a GSA Archive (to be the size of a football field) led to protests; plan dead by July

Fort Funston

-1898: Laguna Merced Military Reservation established. On bluff between Lake Merced and Sand Dollar Beach

-December 1900: roughly 45 acres at $900 per acre acquired from Spring Valley Water Company

-Februart 1917: Engineers start temporary battery of four 12 and two 5 inch mortars.

-26 June 1917: Fort Funston opens

-July 1917: additional 150 acres (to the south) added

-30 January 1919: Coast Artillery Corps takes over batteries

-1942: 86 buildings, due to a wartime buildup

-13 October 1949: Truman signs Fort Funston Bill, giving SF 42 acres

-surplus by 1950s, 50 acres by Zoo & 117 acres east of Skyline Blvd were given to SF. 

The 71 acres west of roadway a Nike site (main parking lot's 3 center cement sections are remnants of the NIKE missile launch pads, the magazines directly are below the parking lot)

-1960s: decision not to build psych hospital

-1961: Public Off Limits rescinded (no more practice of amphibious landings)

-63: Army base closed

-1972: to Golden Gate National Recreation Area

-November 1973: SF voters give their part of the park to the GGNRA

-1975: City writes deed for transfer

-Original site encompassed today's Lake Merced, Zoo & Olympic Club

-original Guns, 16" barrels and 50' guns from Navy (couldn't be placed aboard ship due to Arms Treaty)

-named for Frederick Funston, who captured Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguilando

HUNTERS POINT

-1868: William C Ralston (Director, California Steam Navigation Company) built Hunter's Point dry dock. 465 feet long and 120 wide, it was replaced by a 1020 feet dock in 1916

-1868: California Dry dock Company builds a dry dock

-1901: Dry Dock 1 built. Number 3 built 1919, US Navy added 4 more in WW2

-1919: Dry Dock 3 built

-1939: USN buys 48 acres and 2 dry docks for $3.9 Million, leasing it to Bethlehem Steel

-1926 November 1941: USN takes over parts of it

-18 December 1941: USN takes over all of the facility, calling it San Francisco Naval Shipyard

-10March 1942: 12th Naval District announces expansion of shipyard facilities and seizure of 86 homes & 23 business houses ($250K) in area from water to Coleman, Oakdale to Fairfax, evicting 100 families

WW2: 

-Navy adds a 4 dry docks

-600 ships repaired

-1945: expansion brought it to 597 acres, and 18,000 employees. Supported a newspaper, church, fire department

-late 40s: emphasis shifted to submarine repair and testing

-1946: Opening of Navy Radiological Defense Laboratory, to clean ships involved in nuclear tests in addition to study effects of nuclear weapons. Used at least three dozen different sites, employed 100 military and 600 civilians at it's peak

-1946: Kaiser health plan offered to civilian workers at HP

-1946/ 47: Navy decontaminated about 60 ships used as targets in A-bomb tests. Seven months after the Independence was hit, still radioactive vessel first one brought to San Francisco for further decontamination. In dry docks, workers would flush salt water systems with acid and sandblast hulls down to the metal. Most went into the  bay. Independence moored at shipyard, used as nuclear waste storage dump and test lab for decontamination studies. 

???-30 June 1947: Hunters Point closed by USN???

-1951: Independence sunk about 30 miles off Half Moon Bay

-1955 Naval Radiological Defense laboratory occupies 7 story HP building 815

-1955- 69: At least 10 target ships sunk farther than 30 miles out to sea. Navy consolidates nuclear lab near Crisp Avenue in the seven story, windowless Building 815. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. At the time, the lab drains emptied into two 10,000-gallon steel holding tanks, then to the city sewer system.

-11 May 1965: USN merged it and Mare Island Naval Shipyard into the San Francisco Naval Shipyard

-1969: cleaning of nuclear- involved submarines ceased

-1969: NRDL closes

-1970: separated from Mare Island, becomes Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard

-1970: over past 24 years, test animals, paint from hot ships, clothing and other radiated waste put into 55-gallon steel drums, among 47,500 barrels coming from U.S. activities nationwide. Dumped in a 365- square-mile area four to 15 miles southwest of the Farallon Islands, where they broke and corroded. Also left behind in bay fill and the on-site dump were luminescent dials, gauges and deck markers containing radium-226 (decays to radon gas) and radioactive lead, both carcinogens. 

-1974: deactivated. Control shifted to Engineering Field Activity West

-01 July 1976: large portion leased to Triple A Shipyard (Triple A Machine Shop?), who sublet portions to warehousers and commercial firms.

-1979: Building 815 sold to a private party. Now leased by a records storage business

-30 June 1986: Triple A Shipyard given the boot, Navy takes over again. Annex of Treasure Island

-March 1994: control to Engineering Field Activity West in San Bruno

-01 April 1994: operational base closure

-October 1999: control transferred to Naval Facilities Engineering  Command, Southwest Division

-29 September 1999: Ship Dismantlement & Recycling Joint Venture (SDR) [co-owned by Tyco subsidiary Earth Tech and VSE unit Ship Dismantlement & Remediation] recieves Navy's IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery/ Indefinite Quantity) contract to start disposal of USS Lockwood,at HP.

-638 acres

-Mariners Village housing on HP's west end, on southern slope of hill

-Hunters Point Commercial Drydock Historic District includes Gatehouse (building 204), Pumphouse 2 (building 205), Pumphouse 3 (building 140), and the Tool & Paint Building (building 207)

Presidio

-3000 b.c.e.: Muwekma Ohlone village "Petlenuc" near Oja de Agua of El Polin

-June 1776: Moraga, a Sergeant, 2 Corporals and 10 Soldiers (all with wives and families except the Commander)plus 7 settler families, 5 servant boys, muleteers and vaqueros with around 200 cattle. These went to the Presidio, while others went to the Mission

-August 1776: Spain establishes the Presidio with 30 soldiers. Site selected by LTC Juan Batista de Anza, built by Lt Don Jose Joaquin Moraga and 8 soldiers, some colonists and the crew of the supply ship San Carlos. Fifteen hundred, sixty-two and a half acres

-17 September 1776: Presidio dedicated

-31 December 1776: report of the store-keeper (guarda almazen) on shows a force of thirty-eight men, including officers, eight settlers (pobladores), thirteen sailors and servants, two priests (Palou and Cambon), and one store-keeper, Hermenegildo Sal: total sixty-two men at the presidio and mission. The servants included mechanics, vaqueros, etc., and four sailors landed from the San Carlos to assist on the buildings and in digging ditches to bring water from the stream. During the winter the adobe walls of the presidio were begun

-December 1790: the Presidio had one lieutenant, one ensign, one sergeant, four corporals, twenty-eight privates, three retired soldiers, one prisoner, and three servants; a total, with their families and the missionary priest, of one hundred and forty-four souls

-1793:  on top of the cliff several Spaniards who, with a numerous body of Indians employed in erecting what appeared to be a barbette battery. 

-08 December 1794: Castillo de San Joaquin (battery; horseshoe shaped with 8 guns) built on Mesa Castillo (Table Fort) on flat on top of bluff for $6,400. Garrisoned by a Corporal and 6 Artillerymen. Was a prominent headland (Cantil Blanco, or white bluff) that became Fort Point

-1796: Detachment of 35 more soldiers (Catalan volunteers) arrives. Patrols and escorts, plus a guard at the mission, usually left Presidio almost vacant and small garrison unable to cope with deterioration of post

-1797 natives who assaulted mission workers had to work "on Presidio in shackles for a month or two"

-1800: two soldiers caught breaking into a trunk were sentenced to work on the Presidio for a year.

-1813: earthquake damages Cantil Blanco guns

-1817: rebuilding of Cantil Blanco, this time of stone and brick

-1821: Mexico got Presidio from Spain

-1830: the company had been reduced to about thirty men

-1831: force belonging to the Presidio had been from fifty-five to sixty men, guarding the missions of Dolores, San Rafael, San Francisco Solano, San Jose, Santa Clara, the pueblo of San Jose Guadalupe, and part of the time, the Villa de Branciforte and the mission of Santa Cruz

-1835: Garrison was reduced to seven artillerymen

-1836: All regular troops were recalled. A few retired soldiers and their families remained at ruined forts

-1840: Vallejo sent from Sonoma a sergeant and twelve privates to garrison San Francisco. In garrison in 1841, in 1842, and perhaps 1843. 

After this there seem to have been no regular troops at the presidio. The walls were down and the fort was crumbling to ruins

-1846: Marines seize Presidio. A few months later, a regiment of New York Volunteers relieved the Marines at the Presidio

-March 1847: Col Jonathan Drake Stevenson arrives, commanding a regiment of New York Volunteers. The regiment and two  Companies (H and K) stayed at the Presidio under command of Major James A. Hardie.  

-02 February 1848: Presidio to US

-August 1848: Volunteers muster out, Hardie resumed his position in the regular army lieutenant of Third artillery and remained as commandant of Presidio with small force of the First dragoons

-1851: Congress okays funds for Marine Hospital

-1853: Marine Hospital opens

-14 May 1853: work begins on Ft Point Flume Tunnel. Through bluff about 400' south of Ft Point's south wall at an elevation of 25 feet. From Lobos Creek to Black Point Cove.

-1853/4: building begins on Fort Point, for $300,000

-07 April 1853: US Marine Hospital established on Presidio

-03 May 1858: Camp Merriam established on Presidio

-17 May 1858: Camp Merritt established. Camp Merritt at Geary and Arguello.

-September 1858: Ft Point Flume Tunnel completed

-February 1861: Ft Point garrisoned

-1860s: flume built around Fort Point to City from Los Lobos Creek to provide agua.

-1861: Bay Shore & Fort Point Road Company gets state franchise for macadamized road frtom Francisco/ Mason to Fort Point  (entering Presidio at Lyon/ Jefferson). Finished at some point between 1863 and 1865.

-1861: Sumner found 500 troops in San Francisco, 115 at Presidio. Made all three Bay posts independent (Presidio, Point, and Alcatraz) and pushed completion of fortifications. Renamed quartermaster's brig the General Jesup (Army Quartermaster General, instead of its previous name honoring John Floyd, former Secretary of War who had gone south)

-1861- 1865: Camp Sumner, near Presidio

-28 October 1863: telegraph cable struÿng between Fort Point & Lime Point

-1864- 1899: Presidio's hospital was the Wright Hospital. Station Hospital (near present Administration Building) built of material shipped around the Horn

-1865: Fort Point finished. 126 cannon

-1870s: Presidio Railroad founded, running from Officers quarters to hospital to Steiner/ Union 

-1870s: valley by Lobos Creek levelled for soldier's gardens

-18 June 1875: US Marine Hospital opens. Wooden structure. [Marine Hospital Service became Public Health and then Marine Hospital Service in 1902]

-09 May 1876: eighty feet cut off from eastern frontage by act of Congress and given to the city of San Francisco for a street

-17 April 1881: Presidio railway Company had depot northeast of hospital

-01 August 1881: Fort Point folded into Fort Scott, as were Coastal defense west of the Presidio

-1883: Engineer Major William Jones devises "Presidio Beautiful". Trees (60K Monterey Cypress, Eucalyptus and Monterey Pine) planted between then and 84, 40 acres east of contemporar⁄y Funston Avenue. 

-12 December 1884: San Francisco National Cemetery (on Presidio) established on 9.5 acres (later expanded to 30 acres).

-1884: San Francisco Golf Club established

-1885: building 116 built as post trader's store, then became an NCO quarters (now home of Alexa Internet).

-1885-86: tree planting all over Presidio

-1886: Ft Point troops withdrawn

-1888-97: 100K trees planted, cost: $58K

-14 February 1890:  Life saving station erected on north side of current Crissy Field

-1890s: East Cantonment: Presidio Creek (south of Playground (MacArthur) and Western Cantonment (north slope of Cannon Hill (Simmons))

-03 June 1892: Presidio & Ferries Railroad acquires license and built cable car line to a depot north of the later East Terrace from Greenwich Street

-1894: 200 sailors had been buried at the Marine Hospital

-1894: US Marine Hospital accepts sailors (and keepers and crews) of foreign nations vessels

-1895: San Francisco Golf Club builds 9 hole course

-1895-96: 4 foot wall built along southern and eastern boundaries.

-1896: 3 Gates put in

-1897: Lombard Gate (pedestrian) put in

-12 May 1898: 12 companies of California Volunteers march from Presidio to Pacific Mail Dock to board ships for the Philippines

-Summer 1898: 6 Regiments, which later became 9th and 10th Calvary & 24th and 25th Infantry, of Colored Soldiers had elements stationed on the Presidio to prepare for embarking to the Philippines

-11 July 1898: Battery Cranston opens on Fort Scott

-August 1898: Camp Merriam established near Lombard Gate, while Camp Merritt (1st outside the reservation proper) set up for a brief life before closure (due to sanitary causes). Troops sent to Camp Merriam or Tenessee Hollow

-1898: Camp Miller established on Presidio

-1898: two artillery batteries and three companies of the 8th California Volunteers took over Ft Point

-07 November 1898: Camps Otis & McKinley close

-large encampment in Richmond between California and Golden Gate Park

-10 December 1898: Spanish- American War ends

-Spanish-American War: 30,000 troops organized and eq+uipped on Presidio

-16AP99: 1000 soldiers riot, resulting in 300 arrests

-1899: US Army General Hospital Presidio founded on 6 acre quardangle. 10 wards, each with 40 beds.

-1900: last cannon removed from Ft Point

-1901: US Army artillery divided into Field and Coast

-1902: Negro troops return, 4 units of the 9th Calvary remain at the Presidio 

-1902: south of Camp Merriam (near Lombard gate) were two Cantonments (East and West), divided by a small ridge

-31 March 1903: Repsonsibility for mines transferred from Corps of Engineers to Coast Artillery Corps.

-1904: 9th Cavalry leaves

-1905: San Francisco Golf Club leaves Presidio for new digs. Presidio Golf Club established, and soon made it into an 18 hole green

-1905: Presidio & Railways Ferry license for cable car line renewed. Muni got the franchise the same year

-1906: Ft Point abandoned

-1906: 90,000 refugees on Presidio, in Camps 1-4.  Refuge Camp #3, above Fort Point, for Chinese. 35,000 people in tents and temporary structures near current golf course, 16,000 in all on Presidio. Military District 1 oversaw the Presidio, 2 Golden Gate Park and 3 Fort Mason.

MG Adolphus Washington Greeley (and others) built shacks for habitation after the 1906 earthquake. 31 refugee camps, 12 of them using the shacks: Lobos Square (renamed Funston Field and then Moscone Playground; last one was closed 30 June 1930. Presidio housed Camp Richmond (also called Refugee Camp 25), Refugee Camp 9 (between Chestnut, Bay, Laguna and Webster) and Camp Lake. Type D shacks built by the US Army for $741 each

-1906: Presidio & Ferries Railway cable car line destroyed, replaced by streetcar service

-1906: Presidial Weekly Clarian published, uh, weekly

-1907-10: Coast Artillery Corps bulds depot and wharf east of Fort Point

-16 April 1909: mine planters Armistead and Ringgold arrive in SF Bay

-1909: Barracks on Ruger Street disused

-1909: Infantry Barracks on Ruger Street to accomodate Pacific- bound troops  

-1911: Letterman General Hospital established from USArGenHosp, Presidio. 2,200 beds by 1919 and 3,500 by 1945

-1911- 1914: 114 acres added to Presidio under 10 year contract with City. WW1 led to end of PPIE (spring 1917) and Crissy Field established a few months after that.

-19 June 1912: Coast Artilley seperated from Field Artillery

-1912: Fort Scott finished. 

-1912: new casemate built at Baker Beach 

-1914: batteries on Presidio abandoned

-1915: dunescape edged by a 110 acre tidal marsh (which once housed an Ohlone village) filled to build race track for Panama-Pacific International Exposition (which brought the Presidio 287 extra acres). Soon after, 28 acres ( half mile in length, 500' wide) of the former Grand Prix racetrack (which also had aviation and drill field uses) converted to grassy airstrip, the Army's first coastal defense airfield on the Pacific shore. Honors Major Dana Crissy (Commander, Mather Field), killed after taking off from this runway '19 for a transcontinental air race. Army also got rail link between the Presidio and Fort Mason, in exchange for 10 acres (under the Palace of Fine Arts) to SF. Army initially got the Palace of Fine Arts, but after a furor over its planned destruction in 1924, it was given to the City in 1927, although the Army took it over for World War 2 for storage

-1915: Commandants House on Pope Street built at Fort Scott for $12,200

-Presidio Creek was north of El Polin Spring on MacArthur Avenue. It ran north to Halleck Street and along it to the Presidio Slough, which was behind the Crissy Field sand spit, to Chestnut and Divisadero. The lagoon of the Palace of Fine Arts is an altered remainder of it

-Suds Side Road went between Fort Point and the Life Saving Station. A marsh protected by a sand-dune island, where wild strawberries sprouted profusely, stretched almost from Fort Point to the Marina Green.

-1917- 1918: Presidio housed concentration camp for enemy aliens

-03 November 1919: Crissy Field opens. Replaced an earlier temporary landing strips due to complaints of adjacent landowners. Kidney shaped airfield, planes chiefly assisted artillery emplacements, but also took pictures and spotted forest fires. Overseen by "Hap" Arnold, who extends sand strips on landfill near bay and covers them with a thin layer of clay. Over 12 acres formerly an Army dump

-29 July 1920: first transcontinetal air mail arrives at Crissy. SF leases some eastern acrage of former exposition area for air mail service

-31 July 1920: USPS gets temporary use of Crissy Field and is allowed to set up temporary buildings

-1920: $1M to enlarge & improve Crissy Field

-1921: Balloon hangar built for Ft Scott 's Coast Artillery. Across Lobos Creek (formerly known as Arroyo del Puerto) from 21st Avenue were a hangar, hydrogen generation building and maneuvering field (replete with wench) in southern part of the field.

-1921: permanent airfield (Crissy) established, under supervision of Major 'Hap' Arnold. Included a seaplane ramp, also home to 91st Air Squadron. Pigeons kept at Crissy Field sent with pilots.

-24 June 1921: Ft Mason QM accepted finished Air Coast defense Station and turns it over to Maj Hap Arnold, a Presidio subpost

-January 1922: new office building and hangar built by PO replace old hangar (to Army Reserves and later, trained Nisei)

-19 July 1922: 38 presumed Spanish soldiers' graves unearthed and reintered in SF National Cemetery, as were remains of 474 from frontier posts and Philippine stations (latter put in one grave)

-11 November 1922: two flights over Golden Gate Park to celebrate. 4 planes

-1922: Army dirigible C2 arrives from transcontinental trip. Crashes on return journey

-02 July 1924: first dawn to dusk transcontinental flight lands. From NY

-September 1924: Crissy Field began Air Mail Service

-October 1925: demolition of North Cantonment starts

-February 1926: demolition of North Cantonment stops

-26 May 1926: Air Mail Service leaves Crissy Field (it had built a radio station, too) for the new one it built in Concord

-29 December 1926: improved Crissy Field given CO of Crissy Field from Constructing QM, Ft Mason. $10,000 spent to level, drain, grade and surface runway. 5600 feet by 400, 

-1926: wall along Vallejo & Green built, by Army and residents

-1927: 1st nonstop flight to Hawaii leaves from Crissy Field. Fokker triplane Bird Of Paradise, flown by Army Lt.s Lester J. Maitland and Albert F. Hegenberger

-1927: military spotlights established on Lime Point, Fort Miley, PSF and 2 at Point Bonita. To find and aid ships. Lights reached 12500 yards. Drills held with government tugs Golden Gate, ˝Argonaut and Hartley

-1930s: CCC plants trees at golf club

-1931: Main Post Chapel built

-1932: 6 story Marine Hospital built, adjoining golf links. Old one, on terrace looking over Mountain lake demolished. New structure west of old one. Remaining buildings from initial era: 1807, 1809 & 1810. North of hospital proper is old cemetery, covered partially by parking lot

-30JN36: Crissy Field decommissioned (Hamilton Field opened). 30th Infantry Regiment takes over facilities, establishing HQ in Air Corps administration building and using landing field (progressively more paved) as assembly area. Kept ready for emergencies

-1939: excavations lowering grade of Funston Avenue approach to Golden Gate Bridge, dirt deposited into Mountain Lake, halving it.  Central Reserve Magazine built for $125,000 by Bridge district to replace lost batteries. Also built for the Army: rifle range, sewage system, gas station and artillery control stations. Bridge approach destoryed batteries Lancaster and Slaughter, which were both ”obsolete, but used for storage.

-01 February 1940: 1st Battalion, 18th Coast Artillery formed

-November 1940- February 1941: Area A (east of Crissy Field runway) and B (west of it) built.

-15 January 1941: 2nd battalion, 18th Coast Artillery formed

-August 1941: Letterman issues first Foghorn

-Fall 1941: Presidio cemetery full, new one near San Mateo was opened to replace it

-1941: Letterman General Hospital opens

-1941: Presidio Railway Company runs spur line to Steiner & Union

WW2

-100 soldiers manned searchlights & rapid fire cannon, protecting the anti-submarine net

-5 Cantonments built on north Presidio. Letterman took over the one east of Crissy Field, which had housed POWs.

-Niles and two other mine planters assigned to Golden Gate

-Military Intelligence Service Language School takes over air mail hangar for training of interpreters

-37 mine groups, each with 13 mines in the Bay. 481 mines

-voluntary Broadcasters of the Pacific linked for air raid alerts, under control of 4th Air Wing Commander, Presidio

-BG Stockton (CG) ran SF Harbor Defense; Fort Cronkite Regimental Commander: Colonel Drake

-May 42: Fourth Army Intelligence School graduates first class. Moves to Camp Savage then Fort Snelling, MN (to accomodate evacuation: training of Japanese citizens couldn’t be on the coast) before relocating to Monterey in 1946 as the US Army Language School (reorg’d JL63 as DLI)

-1943: Battery Cranston guns removed as obsolete

-23 March 1943: Xerces Blue butterfly goes extinct as last sample collected on balloon field. Previously found at Lake Merced, WOTP slopes, Lone Mountain Cemetery.

-1943: final SF Bay mine defense system casemate built, on Baker Beach

-1947: Letterman cared for 72,000 WW2 patients

-1948: George Bauer Company of Portland, Oregon leases land and builds 500 Wherry housing units as Presidio Park Apartments on 38 acres, for free.

-1949: harbor defense duties transferred to Navy

-1952: PHS Hospital adds wings

-mid 50s: Crissy Field reactivated

-19 November 1956: Postmaster's Wharf demolished

-1956: Army takes over Golf Club management

-1957: Battery Caulfield, aka SF-89-L, established

-1958: steel/ glass control tower moved from Castle AFB, ATC placed west of Bldg 640. 52’ high

-1959: rubble seawall built along north Presidio shore

-1960: 3100 feet of runway lit and upgraded, 3900 foot seawall built

-1962: Presidio becomes National Historic Landmark

-1964: Army buys Wherry housing from George Bauer Company

-September 1966: US Army Medical Research and Development Command establishes Medical Research site on Presidio (dental, dermatology and surgical research with 42 staffers). Became LAIR 04NV68. Groundbreaking for building on 28JL71 and 3 institutes added in 5 years.

-1969: Army Reserve Center replaces motor pool near Lobos Creek

-1969- 1971: Letterman maintains small herd of sheep (for medical experiments) on Battery Blaney

-14 February 1969- 1973: Letterman Army Medical Center

-26 March 1969: 10 story, $14.3 million, 550 bed -60% doubles (at first 340) Letterman General Hospital opens, one of ten Army General Hospitals, honoring Army of the Potomac surgeon. 56 structures on 48 acres (alternately: 47 structures on 55 acres).  Total LAMC cost $26 million. Built between 1965- 1971

-14 April 1971: Ft Point becomes first National Historical Site in SF

-1972: Boy Scouts plant 2000 redwoods. All die

-1973: Letterman General Hospital becomes Letterman Army Medical Center

-1973: The shore of Crissy Field was transferred to control of the National Park Service

-1973: Public Health Service hospital closes

-2400, 14 February 1974: Crissy Field closes to fixed wing aircraft, after years of 6th Army Flight Detachment handling Small Operational Aircraft. Shoreline goes to National Park Service

-May 1974: Medical Research and Nutrition Laboratory comes from Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center, Denver.

-1974: US Army Medical Research Laboratory (blood) to LAIR from Ft. Knox, as was Joint Laser Safety Team (from Frankford Arsenal, PA). Both to bluiding 668 (Mule Barn). 

-1975: 540 LAIR staffers at Mule barn

-1976- 1977: Eastern buildings on Crissy Field demolished

-1978: LAIR expands blood storage from 21 to 35 days. Then hits 42 days

-1978: Crissy Field ATC Tower demolished

-1981: 8 of 25 Public Health Service Hospitals (and 26 clinics) closed or given away. #9 PHS Hospital on Presidio. 36.5 acre site includes merchant marine cemetery and landfill

-1987: new Commissary built on site of motor pool

-1989: 12 hour insect repellant from LAIR

-08 June 1991: Letterman inactivated, becomes outpatient Letterman US Army Hospital

-1992: LAIR extends storage of frozen blood from 1 to 21 days. LAIR also developed gelatin block (for projectiles into bodies) and hypertonic Saline Dextras (replaced lost body fluids)

-13 May 1993: Last LAMC surgery

-28 May 1993: last Psychiatric class graduates LAMC

-01 June 1993: outpatient services at Letterman end

-03 June 1993: last US Army hospital service at LAMC

-15 October 1993: LAMC deactivated

-03 September 1993: Letterman to Director of Public Works

-15 October 1993: Letterman closed

-October 1994: Presidio to NPS. Last unit out: C Company, 864th Engineering Battalion

-December 1994: 6th Army eliminated, $12M to Presidio lost

-April 1995: Army gives Presidio Trust $64M for Crissy Field cleanup

-1997: Exploratorium to take over building 1188 (Supply Depot, built circa 1917) under a 5 year lease. San Francisco Film Festival 

got buildings 39 and 99

-1999: Army to give $100M for pesticide/metal/chemical cleanup at : PHS Hospital (beneath parking lot near 15th Ave & Lake street gate), Presidio Hill, Presidio Forest, near Fort Scott & Near National Cemetery

2003: 3 of 9 finalists to redevelop PHS hospitabl (and battery Caufield missile site): John Stewart Co, Forest City development and Avalon Beach Communities. Each to keep historic main building (two plans retain wings) and pay minimum $1M annual lease fees. 

Assorted

-Bldg 53: old Presidio & Ferries Railroad terminal

-building 1387: War Department Theater and Cafeteria/ Bowling Center built

-Coast Publishing put out the Star Presidian

-Tennessee Valley's "big" athletic field: Paul Good Athletic Field

-Golden Gate Reserve Center an old balloon site

-Lobos Creek only remainder of 12 in the City