Quarters 1, Yerba Buena Island, Naval Training Station - San Francisco, CA
Posted by: 
DougK
N 37° 48.758 W 122° 21.802
10S E 556036 N 4185217
Constructed between 1899 and 1900, Quarters 1 is a three-story Classical Revival-style residence. It is also known as the Nimitz House, or the Residence of the Naval Base Commander.
Waymark Code: WMHD9C
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/26/2013
Views: 6
Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet during WWII, had full use of Quarters 1 from 1946 and died there in 1966, but his principal residence was in the East Bay.
From the description in the NRHP nomination form:
Quarters 1, the Commandant's residence on Yerba Buena Island, is a two-story, rectangular building of 5,886 square feet with a wood frame, clad in weatherboard siding. The Classical Revival style building has a central block with a hip-roof from which two brick chimneys rise on the NE and SW ends. Three hip-roofed dormers are centered above the symmetrical SE facade. The central block is flanked by wings. Both wings have two stories capped by parapeted gable-roofs inserted into the main hip-roof on the back sides. On the front, the SW wing has a solarium on both floors; the NE wing has a solarium on the ground floor only. A three-bay porch with fluted Doric columns and paneled square columns at the corners is centered on the SE facade. The NW, or service, side is assymetrical and has several projecting elements: a one-story, boxlike bay supported on a square post with angled braces off the second floor on the SW end; a three-sided, two-story bay with a ground floor entrance in the center;
and a one- and two-story rear wing on the NE end, which has a brick chimney rising through the ground floor roof. In 1934, a fire damaged the upper floor, but it was immediately rebuilt as it had been before the fire, except that the central dormer, originally larger than the other
two, was rebuilt to match them. Other minor alterations that occurred before the 1934 fire were the closing in of the ground floor porches on the wings and the addition of the solarium up the upper level of the SW
wing. The main, ground floor rooms: the livingroom, diningroom, study, and central reception hall, have handsome Classical detail and other features such as Ionic Columns. In summary, although the house has been modified since its construction in 1899-1900, the alterations occurred before 1940 and are therefore historic. The building is also in good
condition.
In respect to the setting of Quarters 1, it occupies a site bounded by a driveway on the NE side and an access road on the SE side. A greensward sweeps down toward the bay and up to the slope above the site on
the SW side. On the NW side is a formal garden designed in 1938 by Landscape Architect Lucille Woolpert, which has a brick terrace with a sunken pool, clipped box hedges, and planted areas retained by brick walls
on several levels. Planking the driveway on the NW side of Quarters 1 are two wooden, Craftsman-style buildings with living quarters above automobile garages. To the NE of Quarters 1 are six houses which were built in 1900 to house the other officers staffing the Naval Training Station. The Classical Revival style houses were built from the same plans and have had minor modifications over time which have not resulted in a loss of integrity. The houses face a road that curves around to the NE and joins the access road to the compound.