Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay - Samoa CA
Description
The US Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay at the end of the Samoa Peninsula across from Eureka, Calif0rnia was built in 1936-37 as a federal military project, with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its relief workforce. (HABS, p. 17)
The structure replaced a considerably smaller station built in 1878, known as the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station. This was part of a nationwide effort to upgrade Coast Guard facilities during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt (as ardent sailor and Undersecretary of the Navy in the early 1920s). (The Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service had been merged to become US Coast Guard in 1915).
The style of the 3-story building is Colonial Revival, sometimes known as “Roosevelt Revival” because so many new Coast Guard stations were constructed during the New Deal era. The HABS report calls it, “the finest example in the United States of a station from this period. The quality of the station’s architectural detailing (door, window, porch moldings, decorative ironwork, porch brackets, etc.) is especially fine and the building exterior retains a high level of historic integrity.” (HABS, p. 2)
The station is still in service, doing boat rescues in the treacherous waters off the northern coast of California. (Air rescues are done from the McKinleyville-Eureka airport at the north end of Humboldt Bay. The interior was remodeled in 1977, but the structure is otherwise unchanged. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
The facility is not open to the public.
-
-
Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay - Samoa CA
-
-
Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay - Samoa CA
-
-
Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay - Samoa CA
Project Details
| Federal Cost | Local Cost | Total Cost | Project #'s |
|---|---|---|---|
| $78,000 | $78,000 |
Source notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Bay_Life-Saving_Station
"U.S. Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay and Marine Station," Historical American Building Survey, HABS-CA 2810, 2009. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca3600/ca3645/data/ca3645data.pdf
Ralph Shanks and Wick York. The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard. San Anselmo CA: Costano Books. 1996.
https://www.pacificarea.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/District-11/Units/STA_HUMBOLDTBAY/
Project originally submitted by Don Barrett on January 27, 2023.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
SUBMIT MORE INFORMATION OR PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS SITE