Fort MacArthur

Coordinates: 33°42′43″N 118°17′46″W / 33.71194°N 118.29611°W / 33.71194; -118.29611
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the military training camp in Texas, see Camp MacArthur.
500 Varas Square – Government Reserve
(Fort MacArthur)
(Battery Osgood-Farley)
Spanish Revival
NRHP reference No.86000326[1]
LAHCM No.515
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMarch 12, 1986
Designated LAHCMJanuary 22, 1991

Fort MacArthur is a former

Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur. His son, Douglas MacArthur, would later command American forces in the Pacific during World War II
.

History

Battery Farley in action

In 1888, President Grover Cleveland designated an area overlooking San Pedro Bay as an unnamed military reservation intended to improve the defenses of the expanding Los Angeles harbor area. Additional land was purchased in 1897 and 1910, and Fort MacArthur was formally created on October 31, 1914. The fort was a training center during World War I, and the first large gun batteries for harbor defense were installed in 1917. The effectiveness of these fixed gun emplacements was debated for many years, and test firings were extremely unpopular with nearby residents, the concussion shattering windows in buildings and houses for miles around.

Men from Fort MacArthur marching on South Spring Street, c. 1917

In

Los Angeles metropolitan area a target for attack
.

By the end of World War II the large guns were already being removed, with the last decommissioned in 1948. Battery Osgood-Farley is probably the best preserved example of a United States coastal defense gun emplacement, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. A second site, Battery John Barlow and Saxton, was added to the Register in 1982.

Air defense

During the early years of the

Nike surface-to-air missile
battery was activated at the fort in 1954, remaining in service until the early 1970s.

The Fort MacArthur Direction Center (DC) was the U.S.

Los Angeles Defense Area
. It was located at Fort MacArthur from 1960.

Purpose

The Direction Center provided radar coverage for integrating the area's Integrated Fire Control (IFC) sites (

Los Angeles Air Defense Sector
defended by fighter aircraft.

History

During the Korean War, the fort's L-43 Lashup Radar Network site provided radar surveillance for the area from 1950 to 1952.[5] The 669th Radar Squadron was assigned to the fort on January 1, 1951.[6] On February 16, 1960, Lt Col James L McCallister was the Missile Director for the defense area.[7]

The Fort MacArthur Direction Center (DC) began in 1960 with an

San Pedro Hill Air Force Station.[8]
[9][5] Fort MacArthur's 47th Artillery Brigade operated the DC,[10] and the vacuum tube AN/FSG-1 was replaced on January 31, 1967, with a solid-state Hughes AN/TSQ-51 Air Defense Command and Coordination System.[11]

On November 15, 1968, the 19th Artillery Group (Air Defense) replaced the 47th Artillery Brigade in command of the DC and its batteries.[12] The 19th Group deactivated July 1, 1974, after Project Concise ended Nike operations.[13] The tennis courts next to the bunker remain at the former site of the AADCP's building 554,[14] and the Missile Master nuclear bunker (building 550) was razed c. 1985.[15]

Rundown of the fort

In 1975 Fort MacArthur became a sub-post of Fort Ord, and the Army transferred ownership of the fort's Upper and Lower Reservations to the City of Los Angeles two years later. The Lower Reservation was cleared off and dredged and is now the city's Cabrillo Marina.

Fort MacArthur's remaining Middle Reservation was transferred to the United States Air Force in 1982 for use by Los Angeles Air Force Base for administration and housing.[16]

Angels Gate Park

The Upper Reservation is now a city park: San Pedro's Angels Gate Park, home of the Korean Bell of Friendship.

Remains of railway gun mount at Fort MacArthur military base in San Pedro, CA.
A gun battery emplacement, just west of Battery 241 (beneath the Korean Bell of Friendship, seen in upper left), at Fort MacArthur military base in San Pedro, CA.

Hostelling International USA (part of Hostelling International) maintained a 57-bed youth hostel in the refurbished military barracks of the reservation.[17]

Museum

The Fort MacArthur Military Museum, located at the site of Battery Osgood-Farley, displays exhibits on the history of Fort MacArthur, its role in defending the Los Angeles area,

Indo-Pacific Theater
military campaigns, and the role of Los Angeles as a military port.

Appearances in popular culture

The Battle of Los Angeles and Fort MacArthur Museum are featured in California's Gold episode 6005 with Huell Howser.[18]

It can be been seen in such television series as The A-Team and 24, and in films including Dragnet, Midway and Tora! Tora! Tora!.

In 1989,

Madonna filmed some portions of her "Like a Prayer" video there.[citation needed
]

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ^ "Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA, District 35) -- the Almanac of American Politics". Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  3. ^ "Army Installing First of 19 Midget Missile Master Systems" (PDF). Army Research and Development Newsmagazine. Washington D.C. October 1961. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2011-09-27.
  4. ^ "Bear Divide and 'the good ol' days'". Archived from the original on 2012-05-28. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  5. ^ a b Winkler, David F; Webster, Julie L (June 1997). Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program (Report). U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-26.
  6. Peterson Air Force Base: Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center. p. 33. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2016-02-13. Retrieved 2012-03-26.
  7. ^ "Tucson Daily Citizen Archives". 1960-02-16. p. 26.
  8. ^ "New Missiles Based Near 18 Important US Targets". The Daily Telegraph. Nashua, New Hampshire. December 16, 1960. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  9. ISBN 9781437921311
    . Retrieved 2011-09-29.
  10. ^ "The Fort MacArthur Museum Association: Air Defense Units in LA".
  11. ^ "'Missile Mentor' to Coordinate L.A. Weapons Unveiled". Los Angeles Times (archives). February 1, 1967. Retrieved 2011-09-30.[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ Berhow, Mark A; Gustafson, David (2011) [1st published 2002]. Fort MacArthur (PDF) (Report) (electronic ed.). Fort MacArthur Military Press. p. 55. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
  13. ^ [1]: 30 
  14. tbd
    . 1972. map published in Berhow/Gustafson 2002, p. 55.
  15. ^ Page, Tom; Morgan, Mark. "Nike 'Missile Master' / 'Missile Mentor' at Fort MacArthur (Site LA-45DC)". Radomes.org. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
  16. ^ "The History of Fort MacArthur". Fort MacArthur Museum. 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
  17. ^ "HI Los Angeles Youth Hostel South Bay – Los Angeles Cheap Hostels California". Archived from the original on 2011-10-20. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  18. ^ "L.A. Air Raid – California's Gold (6005) – Huell Howser Archives at Chapman University".

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fort MacArthur.
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