The Recycled Land
Liberty Station throughout the years
By Karina Sufflé
By Karina Sufflé
My grandpa was just waking up from a nap, so I decided to have our interview in his bed. It was very nostalgic laying next to him while I listen to his scratchy voice and thick Tagalog accent. “I was there in 1977 to 1980, but nothing’s changed ever since then,” said my grandfather Roberto Canare. He was a drill instructor in the San Diego Naval Training Center (NTC) working on the parade grounds, saluting to other marines, or even training them in the areas that are now NTC Park accompanied by the residential area. What was the NTC has been preserved and renovated for the public and became Liberty Station.
I find it interesting that I’ve been attending school in Liberty Station for seven years, yet I’m just realizing how much it has changed since it was a Naval base. The NTC wasn’t constructed until 1921 when 142 acres and an additional 135 acres of land was donated by the San Diego’s Chamber of Commerce. By 1923 the first recruits arrived and a San Diego military history had begun. Over the next 15 years the Navy expanded the size of the campus and the number of buildings to educate the marines ashore and afloat. In 1944, the training center became a group command and was redesigned as the U.S. Naval Training Center. It continued to meet the nation’s defensive needs from the 1950’s until the end of the Cold War. “You know, if I remember correctly, your uncle Rene was part of the company command that closed down the training base.” noted my grandpa. The U.S. Navy announced the closing of NTC in 1993, under terms of the Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990. After its closing the NTC became one of the several projects in California that were aimed to preserve historic military sites and structures and adapt them for public use. On May 13, 1997 San Diego created a plan to redevelop NTC. The idea of housing opportunities, the acquisition of park and recreation facilities, the preservation of historically and architecturally significant building and landscaped areas, and the conversation of the environmental habitat at the base were sadly too pricey for the city to do alone. To renovate the NTC, the San Diego City Council decided to hold a competition to decide who would help develop the new site. In June 1999, Corky McMillin Companies was chosen to develop the NTC into something more interactive for the public. In 2000, Civic, Arts, and a Cultural Center were rehabilitated by the NTC Foundation that was created by the Corky McMillin Companies, they were also responsible for renaming the NTC to Liberty Station. Over the next 7 years, houses and condominiums, new office buildings and High Tech High Schools were constructed. My three other siblings and I are currently attending the High Tech High Schools. My family has been coming to Liberty Station ever since it was the NTC and we will probably keep coming here until my 10 month-old brother graduates high school. Most of time when my grandpa picks us up from school, he tells us what some of the marketplaces use to be. “The Corvette Dinner use to be a club for the company command,” he explains to me and my siblings. Other buildings that weren’t turned into retail stores they are either used for museums, open space or they’re just left alone. I visited a building that was turned into a mini museum about Point Loma and an open space for public use. The former barrack was called the NTC Command Center. The first thing I saw was a door that lead to the back of the building. Upon opening the door, I found a mini garden. I studied the various plants and flowers there, I spotted plaques honoring a family or family member, a soldier or in some cases someone special. There was over 113 flower bushes honoring someone. Where my grandpa once shouted as a drill instructor, I now eat my lunch, and where injured recruits received medical attention, I now go to school, and where recruits marched, I play soccer. |