by Dorothy Baum

Created on: October 29, 2008   Last Updated: November 15, 2008

The Presidio of San Francisco, once an active Army military post, is a sprawling guardian at the northern point of the San Francisco Peninsula as you cross the Golden Gate Bridge from the Tiburon headlands. Throughout the Presidio's 219 years as a military stronghold, it gained a wealth of cultural history, architecture and notable people. In 1994, the Presidio was closed as a military based and is now a part of the California Park Services, specifically the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

*History

It was in 1776 that Spanish Captain, Juan Bautista de Anza, led 193 souls, consisting of soldiers, women and children, to San Francisco Bay from Tubac, Arizona. There he established a Spanish garrison to preserve Spain's claim to San Francisco Bay and to support Mission Dolores. The fort was a simple complex of adobe and wood, often damaged by earthquakes and severe storms common to the area. Six cannons remain today from that original artillery emplacement in 1794.

The Presidio later fell under the rule of Mexico in 1821. In 1846 with the decline of Mexico's need for the garrison, it was seized by the U.S. Military and re-established as the home to several Army headquarters and units. It became the stronghold and major defense for the West Coast of the US.

Over the next 149 years, the U.S. Army transformed the sand dunes and scrub to the lush landscape of today.

*Architecture

The architectural styles changed with each passing era. The 469 buildings of the Presidio showed a diverse representation of each style earning the post a designation by Congress to be a Historical Landmark District in 1962. Here are just a few samplings of the architecture used.

From 1840 to 1880, the Italianate and Greek Revival architecture, which were popular styles during the Civil War, used for the residential homes. They were replete with the styles of Northern Italy villas of low roofs, decorative brackets, ornate cupolas and arcade porches to the examples of Greek temples with elegant columns and heavy cornices.

From 1880 to 1890, the Queen Anne style, which is similar to the more ornate and colorful Victorians found throughout San Francisco, as seen in the large officers' quarters with their wrap-around porches, turrets and angled roof brackets.

In the 1890s, the U.S. Army began to favor the Colonial Revival style, an eighteenth century, East Coast colonial architecture with clean, simple lines, and classic elements of pediments and columns.

Several other architectural styles were implemented

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