If you're ever in the Harbor area of Los Angeles, take a quick trip to the Fort MacArthur Museum in San Pedro, CA. Step back into W.W.II era Southern California at Battery Osgood-Farley, where the Museum is housed. Inside this concrete fortress you will get a taste of what it was like to be guarding the California coast in the 1940s.
Built from 1916-1919, Battery Osgood-Farley lies on the upper reservation of Fort MacArthur, and is now part of Angels Gate Park. The Battery was in military service until 1975. It was then placed on the Register of National Historic Places in 1976. The Fort MacArthur Museum was founded nine years later, in 1985.
Still a work in progress, Fort MacArthur Museum is committed to preserving and collecting the relics that played an important role in Los Angeles' historic Harbor Defenses. Battery Osgood-Farley itself has not gone through much modification since it was built, and could probably be the only type of gun battery of its kind left in the continental United States.
Although Fort MacArthur has taken part in several wars, from World War I to the Cold War, the main focus of the Museum is World War II and the technology available to the military at the time. According to the director/ curator, Mr. Stephen Nelson, one of the most significant exhibits in the Museum is the Eda Hall exhibit, located in a room left of the Museum's main entrance, accessible from outside. This exhibit displays footage taken from the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
More exhibits await you as you enter the Museum's main entrance and wander in and out of its corridors: photos, relics, old newspaper articles and dioramas show what life was like for both the military and civilian in wartime Los Angeles.
Topside of the Museum is the Battery Commander's Room, a small room overlooking the Pacific Ocean that was used for observation and range finding. On either side of the Museum are the loading platforms and gun pits of Battery Osgood-Farley. Also outside you will find examples of guns used during the military campaigns that Fort MacArthur participated in.
A contribution is suggested to help preserve and maintain Fort MacArthur's history, as well as to enable the Museum to put together more exhibits. Don't forget to stop at the Museum shop for a self guided tour pamphlet; they go for about 50 cents, and will definitely help explain the history of many of the exhibits in and around the Museum. However, because the Museum concentrates on exhibits specific to Los Angeles and its history, the best way to experience the Museum would be to book a tour with Mr. Nelson, or one of the Museum Volunteers. Tours can be arranged by calling the Museum at (310)548-7705 during weekend afternoons, or the Park Office during the week from 8am to 4pm at (310)548-2631.
The Museum Shop is open Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays from 12pm to 5pm. To get to the Museum, take the 110 Freeway south and exit on Gaffey Street North. Make a left, and continue on North Gaffey Street then turn right on Leavenworth Drive. Parking is available across the street from the entrance to the Park.
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