Alameda Works Shipyard

Infobox_nrhp | name =Union Iron Works Powerhouse
nrhp_type =


caption =
location= Alameda, California
lat_degrees = 37 | lat_minutes = 48 | lat_seconds = 43.52 | lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 122 | long_minutes = 15 | long_seconds = 54.77 | long_direction = W
locmapin=California
area =
built =
added = January 10 1980
governing_body = Private
refnum=80000793 cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2006-03-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service] Infobox Military Structure
name= Alameda Works Shipyard
location= Alameda County, California


caption=
type= Shipyard
built= 1900s
materials=
used= 1900s — 1956
controlledby=
garrison=
commanders=
battles= The Alameda Works Shipyard, in Alameda, California, United States, was one of the largest and best equipped shipyards in the country. The only building remaining from the yard is the Union Iron Works Powerhouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

Established in the early 1900s by the United Engineering Company, the yard was purchased by Union Iron Works (later called Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation) in 1916 and came to be known as the Alameda Works.

The site was expanded from seven to 75 acres (2.8 to 30.4 ha) with facilities for constructing up to six major vessels simultaneously. After 1923, the Alameda Works ceased making ships but continued its dry docking and ship repairing operations.

At the beginning of World War II, the Alameda Works was re-established as the Bethlehem Alameda Shipyard, and modernized and expanded to include new shipways and on-site worker housing. During the war, the yard repaired more than 1,000 vessels and produced P-2 Admiral-type troop ships, and it continued to produce structural steel. Shipbuilding came to an end in the early 1950s, and the yard was closed in 1956.

Union Iron Works Powerhouse

This power station was designed by San Francisco architect Frederick Meyer, one of many designed for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in Northern California between 1905 and the 1920s. It is a one-story rectangular industrial building, 25 feet (7.6 m) high, 53 (16 m) feet wide and 110 feet (33.3 m) long, which rests on a concrete base. Borrowing imagery from classical antiquity and the Renaissance, the powerhouse is an excellent example of a building type-the "beautiful" power house-for which the San Francisco Bay Area was nationally known. It contained several large generators and was constructed specifically to meet the massive electricity requirements of the yards.

Today, the little building that once powered an entire shipyard has been converted into private office space and is closed to the public.

Footnotes

References

*cite web | url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/uni.htm | title=Union Iron Works Powerhouse | work=World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area | publisher=National Park Service | accessdate=2007-03-27