Historic California Posts, Camps,
Stations and Airfields
Naval Receiving Hospital, San
Francisco
(Fleet Hospital 113)
Crocker-Amazon Park
Established: 1934 It started out in 1933
as the Crocker Amazon Reservoir site, 55 acres at Geneva Avenue
and Moscow Street belonging to the Public Utilities Commission.
In 1934, the Recreation Commission requested and received permission
to develop the property for recreational purposes, and truck
farmers, who had been working the land, were paid for their leases.
The Recreation Commission leased 42 acres for $150 per month.
From 1934-1937, workers from the WPA (Works Progress Administration)
developed the playground, grading the baseball diamonds and installing
a sprinkler system. During the war years, the Navy commissioned
the property for a hospital. When the Navy vacated the site in
1946, it was turned over to the San Francisco Housing Authority
to provide housing for veterans during the post- war housing
shortage. Crocker Amazon was reborn as a playground when,
in 1957, the PUC granted the Recreation and Park Commission the
right to 'occupy, use and improve it.' In the ensuing dispute
over who would be responsible for its restoration, the job fell
to the SF Housing Authority and the PUC.
