WARREN G. MAGNUSON PARK
History - Second World War Period

Figure 6: Overview Looking to North, dated February 1941 (PDF) Figure 6b: Naval Air Station Seattle, 1944 (PDF 1.3M)

• 1939, Commander A. W. Radford noted in a memo that grading of the airfield involved more than 1,500,000 cubic yards
• August 1940-September 1941, runways were paved with asphalt. Main runway 400 feet wide, 3,700 feet long, another 300 by 3,000 feet, and three others 200 by 3,000 feet. Eventually, five runways were constructed and offered eight landing directions. Concrete warmup strip was 200 by 1,800 feet. Likely constructed munitions storage, Buildings 54, 55 World War II, peak work force 7,400 military personnel and civilians
• November 1941, station size at 459.62 acres
• 1941, reported that many new barracks were constructed, "the product of months in which tractors and bulldozers moved earth night and day". Likely Buildings 173-176 southeast corner of NE 65th Street/Sand Point Way NE; Buildings 177-184 northwest corner NE 65th Street/Sand Point Way NE (demolished before 1953); Building 185, footbridge over Sand Point Way NE from end of Building 9 to a point south of NE 70th Street
• 1941-42, constructed Buildings 47 (recreation center), 67 (motor shop), 138 (gatehouse, brig). Likely constructed officers bathhouse, Building 53 (now picnic shelter 2), base expanded to 537.5 acres
• 1941, Seattle urban development had come close enough to the base that aircraft were no longer permitted to carry live bombs
• 1942, station size at 471.11 acres
• 1942, construction began on the Sand Point Housing Project (located south of NE 65th Street and site of the current day Radford Court Student Apartments
• 1943, main runway expanded to 5,050 feet long
• 1943-44, constructed Buildings 193 (hangar), 40, 141/192, 222-224 (barracks)
• 1945, constructed Building 275 (boathouse shed)

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