Secret views from Yerba Buena
San Francisco has always been a Navy town, and still celebrates its heritage once a year with a roar-and-soar performance by the Blue Angels, a six-jet naval precision flying team. Indeed, the area’s naval legacy extends throughout the bay, from the Hunter’s Point shipyard in San Francisco, to the Mare Island yards in Vallejo, both long closed; to the naval air station in Alameda, where the WW II aircraft carrier USS Hornet is moored and is now a terrific museum; to Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, once home to Cold War submarine hunters and soon to become Google’s new headquarters.
And then there is Yerba Buena Island, which stands as an anchor point for the two spans of the Bay Bridge, and is a longtime military area. It’s connected by a short causeway to Treasure Island, and now includes various Coast Guard facilities, an operational home for the Department of Homeland Security, and below the new eastern half of the bridge at the intersection of Whiting Way and Garden Way, Quarters One, otherwise known as the Nimitz Mansion. In fact, it’s less a mansion than a fancy and fanciful officer’s house. Designed in the Classical Revival style, complete with double Ionic columns, it was built in 1900 as the naval station’s commandant’s residence.
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Address 1 Whiting Way, Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA, 94130 | Public Transport Bus: 108 (Treasure Island Rd Guard Station stop) | Tip The grounds are perfect for enjoying a Sunday picnic with a view of the Bay Bridge.
From the green grounds that sweep down to the bay in front of the white wood frame house, you are presented with the striking view of the Bay Bridge, and Oakland in the background. The estate is surprisingly quiet despite the traffic overhead, and the long vistas are befitting what was once home to one of America’s greatest naval heroes, Chester K. Nimitz, a fleet admiral during World War II and a superb tactician who orchestrated critical victories at Midway and Leyte Gulf.
These days the mansion, with its plantation airs, is used for Halloween parties or weddings under the cherry tree in the formal gardens.
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