Quote:
Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug
Mr. Welch was the manager of the Long Beach Naval Base Officer's Club during WW II.
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First I looked to see if I could find a photo of the Officer's Club. When built, it was called the Allen Center.
Roosevelt Naval Base - Long Beach Naval Station - Construction - Allen Center, Gym , Boating Center - Navy Yard under Construction - March 6, 1942 [Ocean at bottom.]
[For closer views, click the photo below, and then click that photo again.]
WikimediaCommons PicClick
A completed 1943 view: [Ocean at right.]
Construction of this complex, named Roosevelt Base, took place between 1940 and 1943, and cost $18 million, funded by Congressional appropriations. Included were the gymnasium (Bldg. #23), squash/handball courts and locker rooms (#22), a swimming pool (#233) and tennis courts (#221), arcade (#234), lounge and bowling alley (#20), officers' club (#24), and fleet landing building (#10), administration building (#1), dispensary (#2), fire station (#3), central heating plant (#4), labor board building (#41), gatehouse (#40), and main gates (gate 1), and a net pier (pier 7, structure 126), and extensive landscaping.
Roosevelt Base | Officers Club
(Building No. 24)
Corner of Pennsylvania Street and Richardson Avenue
This photo below of the building is from the Historic American Buildings Survey done in 1996 when the Long Beach Naval base was being decommissioned.
VIEW OF BUILDING 24, WEST AND SOUTH SIDES, FACING NORTHEAST - Roosevelt Base, Officers' Club, Corner of Pennsylvania Street & Richardson Avenue, Long Beach, Los Angeles County, CA
Library of Congress
Building 24, built in 1942 at the cost of $350,586, was designed for use as a recreational area with swimming pool, dining facilities, locker rooms, and lounges for officers. It is currently used as an Officers' Club. [1996] Its construction was part of a plan to provide recreational and administrative facilities for the Pacific Fleet anchored in San Pedro harbor. The construction of this complex was part of a nationwide military effort to replace deteriorating World War I temporary buildings with new permanent facilities to attract and retain post-war peacetime forces. Rather than using a standard design from the Bureau of Yards and Docks, the Navy, through Allied Engineers, hired local civilian
architects Adrian Wilson and Paul R. Williams. As a result the buildings, designed in the International Style with Mediterranean Revival details, are unique to the Base. From:
Bldg. 24/Historic American Buildings Survey
Of the originally designed building, the survey concludes:
Building 24, the original Officers' Club called the Allen Center, was once a dominant building in the recreation complex, but has been so remodeled that its original International Style attributes have been overwhelmed. The dramatic port cochere, now hidden by landscaping, the pool side door, set within window walls, and the entry door are the only original elements remaining with architectural integrity.
The dramatic port cochere, now hidden by landscaping...
Library of Congress
The pool side door, set within window walls...
Library of Congress
The entry door...
Library of Congress
Here's a couple photos of interiors and exteriors taken from the
Paul Williams Project Website gallery section:
Interior, 1944:
Library, 1994:
Lounge, 1944:
One of the major features of the Wilson and Williams Roosevelt Naval Base design was the importance of landscaping. Created by Walter Hammond Sadler, a noted landscape architect, considerable funds were included in both the initial and continuing budget for building and maintaining the base grounds. ($175,000 in 1944) Roosevelt Naval Base was one of the last significant government sponsored landscape projects undertaken after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Basing his plan on City Beautiful movement principles, Sadler incorporated large-scale lawns, native plants (date and fan palms, Moreton Bay fig, olive trees, laurel fig, etc.) and over-sized concrete planters. His design gave the government facility a residential California flavor.