Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, California, was established in September 1854 as the U.S. Navy's first permanent installation on the Pacific coast. The nominated district is made up of four areas covering about 150 acres of a much larger working yard. Area A holds the earliest brick shops, the 1855 administration building, the Steam Engineering Complex and Foundry of 1858, steel coal sheds of about 1900, Drydock 1, officers' quarters along Walnut Avenue and Saint Peter's Chapel. Area B has stone and brick powder magazines and a base cemetery established in 1856. Area C includes the 1889 hospital, a stable and Marine officers' quarters, and Area D has four relocated 1888 officers' residences. The yard is significant for naval firsts on the Pacific: the first warship built there in 1859, the first drydock, the Navy's first oil-burning conversion, and later nuclear submarines. It also turned out nearly 400 ships in World War II.