Alameda Works Shipyard


The Alameda Works Shipyard, in Alameda, California, United States, was one of the largest and best equipped shipyards in the country. The only building remaining from the yard is the Union Iron Works Powerhouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.1956.

History

Established in the early 1900s by United Engineering Works, the yard was purchased by Union Iron Works in 1916 and came to be known as the Alameda Works.
During the World War I period the yard built cargo ships, tankers and 2 small tugboats.
For the UK Admiralty
For other private contractors
  • Talabot, Bessa
For Atlantic Refining
  • J. E. O'Neill, Herbert L. Pratt, W. M. Irish, W. M. Burton
For Standard Oil of New Jersey
  • W. S. Rheem
  • Franklin K. Lane, Crampton Anderson
For Standard Oil of California
  • W. S. Miller
  • K. R. Kingsbury
  • F. H. Hillman, H. M. Storey, W. S. Rheem
For Socony-Vacuum Oil
  • Algonquin, Yorba Linda
For Bethlehem's own Ore Steamship Company
  • Chilore, Lebore
For the United States Shipping Board
tugs Dreadnaught, Undaunted
Challenger, Independence, Victorious and Defiance were all launched on 4 July 1918.
The Lebore was the last ship delivered during that production period.
The site was expanded from to with facilities for constructing up to six major vessels simultaneously. After 1923, the Alameda Works ceased making ships but continued its dry docking and ship repair operations.
At the beginning of World War II, the Alameda Works was re-established as the Bethlehem Alameda Shipyard, and modernized and expanded to include new shipways and on-site worker housing. During the war produced P-2 Admiral-type troop ships, as well as some repair work and it continued to produce structural steel.

Union Iron Works Powerhouse

This power station was designed by San Francisco architect Frederick Meyer, one of many designed for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in Northern California between 1905 and the 1920s. It is a one-story rectangular industrial building, high, wide and long, that rests on a concrete base. Designed in a simplified Renaissance Revival style, the powerhouse is an excellent example of a building type-the "beautiful" power house-for which the San Francisco Bay Area was nationally known. It contained several large generators and was constructed specifically to meet the massive electricity requirements of the yards.1956.
Today, the little building that once powered an entire shipyard has been converted into private office space and is closed to the public.