Back to the Future

During WWII, the Army Reserve Building was the administration building for the army’s military hospital on the site of the golf course. Before that, the golf course was a private airfield.

Las Positas did not exist, and State Street was the highway that then went down De La Vina.

They treated over 8,000 sick and wounded from the Pacific Theater. — Ernie Salomon

Correction

To correct this letter — as well as an urban legend that is going around — the U.S. Army reserve center at State and Las Positas, which is proposed for the American Indian Health Center, was not the administration building for the military hospital operated during World War II at what is now MacKenzie Park and part of the municipal golf course.

Hoff Hospital was declared surplus in early 1946, and many of its buildings became a public housing neighborhood called Hoff Heights. But before that, the hospital campus along State Street was used as the parade ground and athletic area. The reserve center, called Fremont Hall, was built in 1955. The property was part of Hoff Hospital, but the building was not. A history of the hospital that can be found in a 1991 issue of the S.B. Historical Society’s Noticias. —Mary Louise Days

The original letter first appeared online February 13, 2022.