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.
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.
The Direction Center provided radar coverage for integrating the area's Integrated Fire Control (IFC) sites (16 sites for MIM-14 Nike-Hercules missiles until 1968).[3][4] The DC had High Frequency Crosstell communication with the 1959–1966 Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Master Direction Center at Norton Air Force Base (DC-17) for coordinating Army intercepts of targets penetrating through the larger USAF 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]
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.
The Upper Reservation is now a city park: San Pedro's Angels Gate Park, home of the Korean Bell of Friendship.
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.
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.
^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.
^Lower Reservation of Fort MacArthur (Map). available at Fort MacArthur Museum Archives: military publisher tbd. 1972. map published in Berhow/Gustafson 2002, p. 55.
