Naval Training Center San Diego

Naval Training Center San Diego is a former United States Navy base located at the north end of San Diego Bay. The Naval Training Center site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and many of the individual structures are designated as historic by the city of San Diego.The base was closed by the Base Realignment and Closure 1993 commission at the end of the Cold War. It is now the site of Liberty Station, a mixed-use community being redeveloped and repurposed by the City of San Diego.OriginsIn the mid-1920s, the City of San Diego hoped to strengthen its economic ties with the military, and offered the Navy more than 200acre of land in Point Loma at the north end of San Diego Bay, in an effort to entice it to move the Recruit Training Station from San Francisco. Then-congressman William Kettner is credited with key leadership in the effort to establish the Naval Training Center and other Navy bases in San Diego. Congress authorized the center in 1919, construction began in 1921, and the base was commissioned in 1923. The first commandant was Capt. David F. Sellers.Construction and expansionThroughout its 70-year history as a military base, the mission of Naval Training Center San Diego was to provide primary, advanced, and specialized training for members of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. In support of that mission, NTC expanded to include 300 buildings with nearly three million square feet of space. In designing the first buildings at the training station, architect Frank Walter Stevenson adopted the Mission Revival style. The initial buildings were oriented along two main axes running north-south. Within a few years, harbor improvements deepened the channel and anchorages in San Diego Bay and added 130acre of filled land to the Naval Training Station, later renamed the Naval Training Center. Development of the base occurred in phases, often in direct response to national defense priorities. As a result, there was no comprehensive plan for NTC, and buildings are scattered throughout the base or exist in small clusters. The base eventually expanded to almost 550acre.