Fort McDowell, Post Exchange, Angel Island State Park, Angel Island, Marin County, CA

Significance: The Post Exchange at Fort McDowell was part of a major building campaign during 1910-14 to create permanent improved facilities at the Depot of recruits and Casuals, later known as the East Garrison. Like the other buildings constructed simultaneously such as the mess hall, administration building, and officers' quarters, the Post Exchange featured a reinforced concrete structural system and Mission Revival architectural forms and decoration. Using stone quarried and crushed on site and convict labor from Alcatraz Island Military Prison, the army was able to create a simplified version of fashionable architecture for an acceptable cost. Coinciding with a larger effort to improve recreational facilities at army installations, the Fort McDowell Post Exchange provided a restaurant, soda fountain, barber shop, and other services to the permanent garrison and continually changing roster of recruits and casuals stationed at the East Garrison.
Survey number: HABS CA-2721-H
Building/structure dates: 1910-1911 Initial Construction