Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA
General Description (1919 report):
"The Mare Island Navy Yard is situated at the extreme northerly end of San Francisco Bay and separated by Mare Island Strait from the mainland and the town of Vallejo. The greatly augmented force at the navy yard that the advent of the war made necessary could find accommodation neither on Mare Island nor in the adjacent town of Vallejo. The conditions became so bad that even the more responsible men frequently requested their discharge because unable to obtain proper accommodations within their means.
"The workers needing housing included a) chief petty officers and petty officers whom it was proposed to care for within the navy yard itself... and b) civilian employees who were to be housed across the Mare Island Strait near Vallejo. Housing these civilians was the task of the Housing Corporation...The nearest available site not held at lot prices was on the rather steeply sloping hillsides north of Vallejo faceing southwest across Mare Island Strait, near the end of a proposed causeway connecting with the navy yard."
1919 excerpt describing the design of the Vallejo Site:
Area Planned:
5.52 acres. Housing planned: Detached houses, 231 families; semidetached houses, 36 families; semidetached two-flat houses, 152 families. Total, 419 families. Housing constructed: Detached houses, 83 families; semidetached houses, 24 families; semidetached two-flat houses, 120 families. Total, 227 families.
Site for dormitories- Area Planned, 7.32 acres. Housing planned and constructed: Dormitories and cafeteria accommodating 400 men.
"The site for houses is a steep hillside slope with a beautiful outlook toward the mountains of Marin County. The side now being developed lies on the hillside facing Mare Island Strait, and rising to two rolling rounded summits with a dip between them... The whole site is open pasture land with neither houses nor trees.
"Surrounding the development is open ranch land, although toward Vallejo a rectangular layout for streets and lots has been projected and placed on the maps, and land set aside on one of the hilltops for a cemetery, whilc northwest of the property is an abandoned brickyard.
"The stores and schools of Vallejo are nearly 2 miles from the project, and in any case are inadequate. Approach to the site is by Wilson Avenue, along the shore, which leads to Vallejo and to the future causeway which is planned to connect the navy yard and the town. For the present there has been built a pier in front of the development, whence a ferry runs to Mare Island...
"The project in its entirety is, because of its situation and topography, one of the most picturesque of the Corporation's developments. The successfull result is due to the correct conception of the kinds of houses suitable for the site and to skillful adjustment of the streets and house locations to the steep and rolling hillside."
The Vallejo Site Today
Renderings, 1919
