{"nrhp_refnum":"79000530","name":"Fort Mason Historic District (Boundary Increase)","other_names":["Bateria San Jose","Punta Medanos","Battery Yerba Buena","Point San"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by Van Ness Ave., Bay and Laguna Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.80674248750006,"lon":-122.42877890501242,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-04-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Military","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Fort Mason is a military reservation and historic district on a point on the south side of San Francisco Bay, bounded by Van Ness Avenue, Bay Street and Laguna Street. It was established in 1870 and enlarged in 1909, and holds about eighty structures from the 1850s through the 1940s.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the reservation as 100 years of army architecture and military history, from Spanish-era earthworks and Civil War batteries to the San Francisco Port of Embarkation. About fifty-five of the roughly eighty structures contribute to the historic scene. Reviewers noted state and national significance in military history, architecture and historic archeology.","narrative":"Fort Mason occupies a point of land on San Francisco's northern waterfront, once a sand-dune headland the Spanish called Punta Medanos. Spanish gunners placed a battery there in 1797, and squatters, including John Charles Fremont, built houses on the ridge in the 1850s. The Army took the site over during the Civil War and built batteries, officers' quarters, a hospital and support buildings. Later additions include Endicott-era Battery Burnham, a 1889 mine casemate, and a 1911 searchlight shelter. After 1908 the post became the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, with piers and concrete warehouses designed by Rankin, Kellogg, and Crane in Mission Revival style. The post also served as a refugee camp and relief headquarters after the 1906 earthquake. Roughly fifty-five of about eighty structures contribute to a district that traces a century of Army construction and the supply role of the port.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Rankin, Kellogg, and Crane of Philadelphia (planned the Port of Embarkation structures)","architectural_style":"Mission Revival, Italianate, Gothic Revival elements, Victorian-period variations, and Endicott-period battery works","criteria":[],"status_note":"Largely occupied and in good condition; some World War II temporary structures are dilapidated and slated for removal. Many port buildings are being adapted to new uses, and the park headquarters is in the former hospital complex.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.709936-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/79000530.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861114","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/fort-mason-historic-district-boundary-increase-79000530/"}