A pending $1.1 million federal funding plan would enable the Mare Island Museum to upgrade the old commandant’s mansion on the former Navy shipyard – providing an interim home now that its former, much larger museum site can’t be reopened due to numerous problems that could cost $20 million or more to fix.
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-5th district) recently submitted the funding plan to the House Appropriations Committee, on a list of proposed projects described as “critical to the health, safety and economic well-being” of his constituents. The proposal is likely to win full House approval later this year and move to the Senate for final congressional action.
The funds would go to the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation, which operates the museum, and would be used mainly to upgrade the commandant’s mansion, designated as Quarters A, and the shipyard’s historic St. Peter’s Chapel.
“This is just awesome,” says Kent Fortner, foundation president. “I don’t think you can overstate the amount of work that is required for these historic buildings to bring them up to code for public use. The buildings have been deteriorating, and this should take care of Quarters A and the chapel for many years.
“The foundation had put together a plan that would have taken longer to accomplish, and this proposal just jumpstarts the whole process. Once this is final, we can go on to the next phase of finding a brick-and-mortar replacement for the old museum.”
The former museum was located in Building 46, which was built around the oldest structure on Mare Island, dating to 1855. But Dennis Kelly, the foundation’s vice-president, says the building had to be closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 health crisis, and in January 2021 a study identified major seismic and other problems that prevented a reopening.
The foundation already had estimated the cost of repairs to Building 46 at $16 million, and the follow-up 2021 study pushed that figure to $20 million, Kelly said, adding, “The bottom line is that Quarters A will give us a temporary place to have a museum presence until we are able to find something better.”
Fortner says the foundation’s goal of a larger museum building is contingent on Mare Island redevelopment projects by the Nimitz Group and Southern Land Company, which hope within two years to produce a new specific plan for the former shipyard. Until then, he says, “it’s too early in the development process for the foundation to try to identify a suitable new building.”
Quarters A and other mansions along Officers’ Row were built following a major 1898 earthquake that badly damaged original brick officers’ quarters built soon after Mare Island Naval Shipyard was established in 1854. A small amount of the museum’s extensive artifact collection could be displayed in Quarters A, but until a larger structure is available most of the artifact inventory will remain in the former museum site.
St. Peter’s Chapel is the oldest Navy chapel in the nation and the Navy’s first interdenominational church, dating to 1901. The chapel, designed by architect Albert Sutton, features a one-of-a-kind collection of Tiffany stained-glass windows. Numerous plaques and tablets inside the chapel honor Navy heroes going back to John Paul Jones and the Revolutionary War.
The Mare Island Historic Park Foundation’s role on the shipyard dates to 1996, when the city of Vallejo selected the foundation as the operator of the yard’s historic district. Since then, it has overseen more than $2 million in facility upgrades, paid a similar amount in fees, developed a large crew of hard-working volunteers, hosted more than 100,000 visitors and nearly 2,000 events, and maintained the largest collection of Navy artifacts in private hands. A USS Mariano Vallejo monument was dedicated on the waterfront in 2019, and the nuclear submarine’s control room was salvaged after the sub was decommissioned and reassembled in the old museum building.
Mare Island was the site of the U.S. Navy’s first permanent base on the West Coast. Its first commandant was David Farragut, who ran the yard from 1854 to 1858, transforming a desolate site into a bustling Navy base capable of handling many types of ship repair work. Following Mare Island, he returned to sea duty and became a Civil War hero. He was the Navy’s first admiral.
During its 142-year history, the shipyard turned out 513 ships – including nearly 400 during World War II. The vessels included 17 nuclear subs constructed between the mid-1950s and 1970. Thousands of other vessels underwent overhauls and other repairs over the years.
The USS Saginaw, launched in 1859, was the first Navy warship built on the Pacific Coast. Other shipyard firsts included the only Navy dreadnought, the USS California, to be built on the Pacific shore; the Navy’s first aircraft landing deck, a 157-foot-long wooden platform on the USS Pennsylvania; and the oldest ammunition depot on the West Coast.
During WWII the shipyard employed more than 44,000 civilians, a fifth of them women. Naval operations ceased and the shipyard was decommissioned on April Fool’s Day 1996.
(Here’s a link to a new website highlighting the shipyard: www.mihpf.org)
— Vallejo and other Solano County communities are treasure troves of early-day California history. My Solano Chronicles” column, running every other Sunday, highlights various aspects of that history. If you have local stories or photos to share, message me on Facebook.
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Brendan Riley’s Solano Chronicles: Fed funds flow to Mare Island Museum - Vallejo Times-Herald
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