page_title: Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco
section_title: Shipyard
hierarchical_section_title: Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco / History / Shipyard
context_page_description: Bayview–Hunters Point are two major neighborhoods — Bayview and Hunters Point — in the southeastern corner of San Francisco, California, United States. The decommissioned Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is located within its boundaries and Candlestick Park, which was demolished in 2015, was on the southern edge. Due to the South East location, the two neighborhoods are often merged. Bayview-Hunter's Point has been labeled as San Francisco's "Most Isolated Neighborhood".
  Redevelopment projects for the neighborhood became the dominant issue of the 1990s and 2000s. Efforts include the Bayview Redevelopment Plan for Area B, which includes approximately 1300 acres of existing residential, commercial and industrial lands. This plan identifies seven economic activity nodes within the area. The former Navy Shipyard waterfront property is also the target of redevelopment to include residential, commercial, and recreational areas.
context_section_description: Shipbuilding became integral to Bayview–Hunters Point in 1867 with the construction there of the first permanent drydock on the Pacific coast. The Hunters Point Dry Docks were greatly expanded by Union Iron Works and Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation and were capable of housing the largest ships that could pass through the locks of the Panama Canal. World War I increased the contracts there for building Naval vessels and, in 1940, the United States Navy purchased a section of property to develop the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. Beginning in the 1920s, a strong presence of Maltese American immigrants, along with Italian Americans, began populating the Bayview, focused on the local Catholic St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church and the Maltese American Social Club. They were a presence until the 1960s when they began moving into the suburbs.
  The shipbuilding industry saw a large influx of blue collar workers into the neighborhood, many of them African Americans taking part in the Great Migration. This migration into Bayview increased substantially after World War II due to racial segregation and eviction of African Americans from homes elsewhere in the city. Between 1940 and 1950, the population of Bayview saw a fourfold increase to 51,000 residents. The Hunter's Point shipyard at its peak employed 17,000 people and it was also where the first atomic bomb sailed for Japan in 1945. 
  Until 1969, the Hunters Point shipyard was the site of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL). The NRDL decontaminated ships exposed to atomic weapons testing and also researched the effects of radiation on materials and living organisms. This caused widespread radiological contamination and, in 1989, the base was declared a Superfund site requiring long-term clean-up. The Navy closed the shipyard and Naval base in 1994. The Base Realignment and Closure program manages various pollution remediation projects.
  Environmental Impact Report
  On January 10, 2010, Ohlone representatives, Ann Marie Sayers, Corrina Gould, Charlene Sul and Carmen Sandoval, Ohlone Profiles Project, American Indian Movement West and International Indian Treaty Council penned a letter to then mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom about preserving the Ohlone historical sites at the Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard stating “This is an important opportunity to work together to protect these ancient historical sites, honor our ancestors and insure that development pressures do not further damage critical Ohlone Indigenous sites, the sites affected by the development are extremely significant and are believed to be burial or ceremonial sites, in addition to protecting these sites, we also want to work with the local community to protect their health, the land and the fragile Bay marine environment.”
  On June 12, 2014, Vice published an article on the history, environmental bigotry and radiation effects on the residents of the neighborhood.
caption: Enlisted men, wounded in battle, on board the USS President Hayes in 1945 at Hunter's Point shipyard.
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