Existing comment:
Army Radio Station:
The United States Army constructed this building in 1918 to serve as its first radio station for harbor defenses in San Diego. Since then, it has had many other uses.
During World War II, the building housed a meteorological station to support coastal artillery. Wind speed and direction, air pressure, and other variables that affect the range and accuracy of artillery fire were measured and sent to artillery officers from here.
When the National Park Service reopened Cabrillo National Monument after the war, the station became the monument's headquarters ,and then a storage building when the current Visitor Center/Headquarters complex opened in 1966. Today the station houses a permanent exhibit about San Diego's WWII harbor defenses.
Inside the reinforced concrete walls of the radio station, the army housed a one-kilowatt radio set, batteries, a motor-generator, and a sleeping room for the soldiers, allowing the station to be staffed around the clock. |