Naval Air Station, San Diego, Historic District

Naval Air Station San Diego Historic District occupies the northeastern corner of North Island, across the bay from downtown San Diego. It contains the surviving core of the Navy's first West Coast air station, built mostly between 1918 and 1919 on a plan by New York architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and the Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks. The plan follows Beaux-Arts ideas of axiality and symmetry, organizing an administration building, barracks, officers' quarters, shops and seaplane hangars. Buildings are stucco-clad with red tile roofs and Spanish-inspired ornament, echoing the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. The 110-foot Administration Building tower, once used for aerological equipment, is the visual focus. The district includes twenty-three contributing buildings and three contributing structures. The site also relates to earlier naval aviation, including the Navy's 1911-1912 flight training camp. Alterations and newer buildings have affected some parts, but the original design remains readable and the district is still an active Navy facility.