California State Military
DepartmentCalifornia State Military
Department
The
history of coast defense weaponry from the American acquisition
of California in 1848 to the end of such systems a century later
is the history of increasing range and accuracy of the guns. When
the first American fort was built to guard the Golden Gate, the
strait which is the sole entrance to San Francisco Bay from the
Pacific Ocean, the largest and most powerful guns had a range
of a little over two miles, or barely twice the width of the strait.
Hence the early defenses were located at the narrowest part of
the strait and at harbor points just inside which commanded the
entrance, such as Alcatraz Island, Angel Island, Fort Mason and,
later, the Presidio. As time passed and the trend continued toward
guns of increasing accuracy and longer and longer ranges, the
inner harbor points tended progressively to be abandoned in favor
of emplacements for newer and larger guns which were built farther
and farther westward toward the sea, climaxing with the installation
of the 16-inch guns, largest and last permanent batteries to be
built, as far north as Fort Cronkhite, four miles northwest of
the Golden Gate, and as far south as Fort Funston, six and a half
miles southwest of the Golden Gate, yet with their mission still
to defend that strait. By that time the range of the largest guns
had increased from a little over two miles in the 1850s to roughly
26 miles in the 1940s.
Similarly the history of the forts which housed the men to man these guns was a history of westward movement toward the ocean. On the San Francisco shore this meant at first Fort Point, Fort Mason, and the Presidio which lay between them. But as the new long range gun batteries began to be built in the 1890s, there was a progression seaward, first to Fort Winfield Scott which comprised the hitherto undeveloped western portion of the Presidio, then to the Point Lobos Military Reservation farther west and south, where battery construction in 1899 was followed by renaming of the reservation Fort Miley in 1900, then to the Lake Merced Military Reservation about six miles southwest of the Golden Gate, renamed Fort Funston in 1917 and destined to be-the location of the first 16-inch guns in San Francisco's defenses.
On the north or Marin County shore a similar
progression began with the old Lime Point Military Reservation
established in 1850 being transformed in 1897 into Fort Baker,
followed by the creation of Fort Barry to the west in 1904 as
the-garrisons followed the big guns seaward, concluded by construction
of 16-inch Battery Townsley roughly four miles northwest of the
Golden Gate in 1937 and the creation that same year of Fort Cronkhite
to house its gun crews.
The Lime Point Military Reservation was
set aside by President Millard Fillmore in 1850 as the site for
a strong defense fortification across the-strait from Fort Point,
which had been recommended by the first board of officers to study
defense of San Francisco Bay. But the reservation was beset by
long litigation for acquisition of land, and it was not until
1866 that the government acquired title.' The Civil War was over,
and in passing had seen many demonstrations of the vulnerability
of forts of the Fort Point type to the shells fired by rifled
artillery. Plans nevertheless continued to be drawn for a counterpart
to Fort Point at the base of Lime Point, and Major George Mendell
undertook blasting of the cliffs three times in 1868 and 1869
to begin preparing a shelf near sea level similar to that on which
Fort Point stood for construction of a similar multi-tiered brick
and masonry casemated fort. But the project went no farther than
this preliminary blasting. Instead, between, 1872 and 1876, barbette
batteries were constructed at Point Cavallo (Battery Cavallo),
on the ridge above Lime Point (Cliff and Ridge Batteries), and
on Gravelly Beach to the west (Gravelly Beach Battery). These
consisted generally of brick and concrete emplacements behind
breast-height walls over which the guns were to fire, protected
by massive earthworks to the-front and over the brick and concrete
magazines and traverses between the gun emplacements. The only
'garrison' buildings on the Lime Point Military Reservation were
barracks-like quarters for construction crews, storehouses, and
offices, all built on the west side of Horseshoe Bay (today immediately
beneath the northern trestle approach to the Golden Gate Bridge).
At least five wood-framed, gable-roofed buildings stood there
for many years, but are gone now.
Plans were drawn up in 1890 by a Board of
Engineers for modern Endicott-type batteries stretching on this
northern shore from Point Cavallo westward to Point Bonita. Construction
soon began on Battery Spencer (transferred from the Engineers
to the Artillery in 1897), Batteries Kirby and Duncan (both finished
in 1900), and Battery Orlando Wagner (completed in 1901). To man
these batteries, the Lime Point Military Reservation was renamed
Fort Baker in 1897, and 
Battery
I, Third Artillery, established a tent camp there as the first
garrison. Construction began in 1901 on the first eleven permanent
buildings, including two duplex officers' quarters, barracks for
one company of artillery, a post hospital, a guardhouse, a bakery,
storehouses, and other structures. More buildings were-added as
time passed, including a large World War II temporary frame hospital
down near the beach at the foot of the parade ground, completed
in October 1941and in the process of demolition in 1981. Other
temporary structures brought the total number of buildings in
Fort Baker to 159 by mid-December of 1942. Most of these temporary
buildings are now gone, but the complex of older permanent structures,
built mostly between 1901 and 1910, is largely intact today (1981),
and most are still occupied by resident army officers or provide
offices and other space for the Western Region Recruiting Command
and the 91st Division (Training)'. The Presidio Yacht Club is
also at Fort Baker.
The historic buildings are grouped together in four contiguous complexes. Facing the Parade Ground, clockwise from the southwest, are Bldg. 407 whose age and original function are unknown, Officers' Quarters 631 and 629 (completed June 1904), 607 (finished in May 1903). 606 and 605 (both built 1901-1902), the Commanding Officer's Quarters (built in 1902-1903), Post Headquarters (completed in May 1903), Artillery Barracks No. 601 (completed May 1903) and 602 (completed in August 1902), the Post Exchange and Gymnasium (built in 1903-1904 with the 1915 addition of a bowling alley), a brick artillery barracks No. 636 (completed in May 1907), and the Guardhouse, Bldg. 615 (built in 1901-1902).
Behind the head of the Parade Ground are the Post Hospital 533 and Hospital Steward's Quarters No. 523 (both completed in August 1902) as well as senior Non-Commissioned Officers' Quarters 523 (completed August 1902), 527 and 529 (both finished in June 1904), 530 and 531 (both built in 1908-1909).
To the southeast of the Parade Ground, on both sides of the road to Battery Yates, are various service buildings: Bakery No. 557 (built August 1902, enlarged 1.908), Quartermaster & Commissary Storehouse No. 559. (August 1902), Wagon Shed 561 (c. 1903); Pumphouse 671 (c. 1902), Commissary Storehouse 637 (1908), Blacksmith Shop 644 'and Carpenter & Paint Shop 645 (both finished in March 1910), and Ordnance Storehouse 645 (built during World War I in 1918).
Southwest of the Parade Ground is the Submarine Mine Depot, consisting of the Mine Wharf (1937' and Mine Storehouse 407, Mine Cable Tank Building 670, Mine Power House 409, Mine Explosives Magazines 410 and 411, and the Mine Loading Rooms, Bldg. 412, all of which were built in 1941.
The historic timbered tunnel between Forts Baker and Barry was built in 1917-1918 and later enlarged and concreted in 1935-1937.
All of these historic buildings are proposed by the National Park Service for preservation.
Since the above article was written in in 1981, very little changed at Fort Baker until 2000 when the final uniformed elements of the US Army left the Presidio complex. In that year units of the US Army Reserve's 91st Division (Training Support) moved to Camp Parks. Today Fort Baker is another unit of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Today, the US Coast Guard maintains a station at Fort Baker's former Mine Depot
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Pintle Mounted Barbette Carriage |
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Pintle Mounted Barbette Carriage |
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Pintle Mounted Barbette Carriage |
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Pintle Mounted Barbette Carriage |
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For more information of Fort Baker, click on the National Park Service's Fort Baker WEBSITE