PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, AAA BATTALION HABS CA-2919 HEADQUARTERS FACILITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING HABS CA-2919 (Building 1648) Golden Gate National Recreation Area Langdon Court, east of Battery Godfrey San Francisco San Francisco County California PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA FIELD RECORDS HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY PACIFIC WEST REGIONAL OFFICE National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 333 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94104 HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, AAA BATTALION HEADQUARTERS FACILITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING (Building 1648) HABS No. CA-2919 Location: Langdon Court, in the northwest quadrant of the Presidio of San Francisco; approximately 600’ east of Pacific Ocean; San Francisco San Francisco County, California USGS San Francisco North Quadrangle; Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: 4184141 (north), 546035 (east) Present Owner: Golden Gate National Recreation Area National Park Service Present Use: vacant Significance: In 1957, the U.S. Army constructed this utilitarian, one-story, concrete block rectangular building for the 740th Antiaircraft (AAA) Battalion Headquarters, a group that oversaw operations for the Presidio’s Nike missile operations at Battery Caulfield. In 1974, the army remodeled the building for its new tenant, the 902nd Military Intelligence Group of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. Part I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION A. Physical History 1. Dates of Erection: The U.S. Army constructed this building in 1957. 2. Architect: The architect for this building was Corlett & Dewell, Architects and Engineers, 847 Clay Street, San Francisco, CA in coordination with the Army Corp of Engineers. PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, AAA BATTALION HEADQUARTERS FACILITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING HABS No. CA-2919 (Page 2) 3. Original and subsequent owners: The U.S. Army was the original owner. In 1994, the US Army transferred ownership of the Presidio of San Francisco to the National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. 4. Builder, contractor, suppliers: The building plans were prepared under the direction of J.A. Graf, Col. C.E. District Engineer. The name of the building contractor is unknown. 5. Original plans and construction: The earliest building plans, dated September 7, 1956, are located in the Park Archive and Records Center (PARC), Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The 1956 floor plan shows a long, rectangular building. A central hallway runs the entire length of the building, with a series of small and large offices to the east and west side of the hallways. The rooms on the east half of the building include the Rations Breakdown room; separate toilet rooms for both the Enlisted Men and the Officers; the front entry hall with designated telephone shelf; the mail room and the message room; the Personnel and Files room; the S-1 (Administration) Admin room; the Executive room (Executive Officer to Commander) and the Battalion Commander’s office. The rooms on the west half of the building include the Battalion Supply #1 room; the Battalion Supply # 2 room; separate storage and heater room; the Conference room, the S-2 (Intelligence) and the S-3 (Operations) Office and the S-2 and S-3 Missile room. 6. Alterations and additions: In 1974, the 902nd Military Intelligence Group, San Francisco Military Intelligence Detachment, Military Intelligence Battalion, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command moved into the building. To accommodate the new tenant and its new use, the army modified the building, most notably adding a security vault in one of the building’s largest office spaces (Room 111). The walk-in vault included two separate rooms and functioned as a secure and controlled office space. The army installed an intrusion detection system for the vault as well as buzzers in three offices that would activate when someone opened the building’s front door. The army installed dry and metal walls into the larger office rooms to partition them into smaller rooms. In the front hall mail and message space area, some walls were modified to open up the PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, AAA BATTALION HEADQUARTERS FACILITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING HABS No. CA-2919 (Page 3) hallway configuration. In the Rations Breakdown room, the army installed kitchen base cabinets. As part of the 1974 modifications, the army also removed two doors at the west façade (one was replaced by a window and one door opening was filled in with concrete masonry units); removed one door at the south façade (this opening was filled in with concrete masonry units); and added security grilles to twenty-three windows. The total cost of the modifications made in 1974 was $16,446.00. In the 1980s, the army made some additional minor structural repairs and modifications to the building. In 1992, the 902nd Military Intelligence Group moved to Building 1201 in Fort Winfield Scott. Between 1991 and 1993, the National Park Service remodeled the building for the U.S. Park Police occupancy. They installed a new intrusion detection system, made handicap access improvements to the bathroom and removed asbestos. In possible in the mid to late 1990s, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area maintenance division made plans to move in to the building and dug trenches in the flooring. Their work was never completed. B. Historical Context The Cold War and the Missile Defense System In the years following World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union entered an era of highly strained foreign relations. This new type of world conflict centered around competing ideologies, atomic arms development, military build-up and the management of their respective spheres of influence. During this time, fear of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union became real and widespread throughout the United States. In 1947, the Truman’s Administration adopted the Containment Policy, asserting that the United States must contain Communism to its present boundaries and that further expansion of the Communist empire would be devastating to American interests. The U.S. policy was to peacefully block, through nuclear deterrents, the Soviet threat of domination over Eastern Europe and to limit Soviet intervention and assertion in other parts of the world. During WWII, American became painfully aware of the damage caused by enemy aerial attacks. Lessons learned from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing forced the United States to focus national defense energy, research and budgets on protecting the country from high-altitude aerial threats, and later, enemy aircrafts carrying nuclear weapons. By 1945, the U.S. military was conducting research on a new missile defense system, with the code-name “Project Nike” after the Greek goddess of victory. These weapons, guided PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, AAA BATTALION HEADQUARTERS FACILITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING HABS No. CA-2919 (Page 4) by a complex system of radars and tracking computers, had a range of up to 37 miles (under the Nike Ajax program) and 87 miles (with Nike Hercules program) and could shoot down planes traveling at two to three times the speed of sound. In 1947, the War Department created the United States Air Force. As part of subsequent military agreements, the U.S. Air Force gained operational control of air defense and the U.S. Army was charged with staffing air defense units and development of Nike missiles. In 1950, the Army organized the Army Antiaircraft Command (ARAACOM) which controlled thirty-eight antiaircraft artillery battalions by 1951 and was assigned control of the Nile missile program by 1956. The Nike Missile Program was the most significant American military response to the Cold War. The Nike Missile Program in the Bay Area The U.S. Army has had a significant presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, since California became a state in 1848. From 1856 up through World War II, the army protected the valuable San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate strait from enemies. As each new generation of military advances made the previous seacoast fortifications obsolete, the army would replace the fortifications with new, state-of-the-art guns. In 1947, the Army declared the current coastal defense batteries, the hulking 16” casemated guns that hugged the San Francisco and Marin coastlines, then obsolete because they could now be attacked from the air. By the mid-1950s, the army constructed twelve permanent Nike missile launch sites throughout the Bay Area. In the East Bay, there were launch sites at San Pablo Ridge, Rocky Ridge, Lake Chabot, and Coyote Hills. In the south, in the City of San Francisco and San Mateo County, there were sites at Milagra Ridge, Fort Winfield Scott (Presidio) and Fort Funston. To the north of the Golden Gate Bridge, in Marin County, there were sites constructed at Fort Cronkite, Fort Barry, Angel Island and San Rafael. The army believed this circle of defense protected the area from potential aerial attacks (at least until the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.) Fort Baker, located in Marin County, was established as the new headquarters for the Western Army Antiaircraft Command. Battery Caulfield, the Presidio’s missile site Battery Caulfield, the Presidio’s Nike missile site, was located in the center of the southwest quadrant of the Presidio, a quarter mile north of the former Public Health Service Hospital. As the army identified all the Nike missile sites by numbers, Battery Caulfield was assigned SF-89L; however it was the only Nike missile battery to be PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, AAA BATTALION