Page 126 - Historical Study of Yerba Buena Island, Treasure Island and Their Buildings

The foreign pavilions and most of the state buildings, the Gayway, and the Cavalcade were
demolished. The ponds were filled in to level the land. In their place came new buildings.
These were mostly barracks and multipurpose structures used for administration and
processing purposes.

Galley K, in its day, was considered to be the largest mess hall under one roof in the world. It
served one man per second, operated six feeding lines simultaneously, and seated three thousand
men at one time. See Figures 49 and 50. On occasion, eighteen thousand men were fed in a two
hour period. The galley employed one hundred cooks, five hundred mess cooks (line servers and
busboys), and one hundred bakers. The volume of food they prepared on a daily basis all but
boggles the mind. The average daily food preparation included:

• Five thousand pounds of fresh baked bread
• Fifty thousand doughnuts (when served)
• Four thousand pies(when served).
Note: Over five tons of apples were used for the pies for Christmas Day.
• Three hundred gallons of soup per meal
• Fifty gallons of freshly made mayonnaise per meal
• Two tons of steak per meal
• Two hundred gallons of gravy per meal

In 1946, a devistating fire destroyed Barracks I and J, as well as Galley K. During 1947, the
remainder of the Palaces were razed, except for Palace C-1 (swimming pool) and the Elephant
Gate Building.

For personal support of the military personnel stationed at Treasure Island, a large Ship's Service
was established. The Ship's Service consisted of three main stores located on Treasure Island,
and one additional store with a restaurant located on Y erba Buena Island. Each had branch
services covering everything from a tire change to a permanent wave. Visiting a main store was
equivalent to visiting a large department store. Under one roof was the general merchandise
section, the cigar, drug, and candy counter, a restaurant, barber shops, photography studio, travel
burea, jewelry store, watch repair shop, magazine counters, luggage shop, book store, florist,
frosted malt shop, officers' clothing store, and main dining room. A million candy bars were
sold each month; cigarette sales reached thirty-two thousand packs a day; and as many as ten
thousand frozen malts were sold daily. The laundry had a quota of ten thousand bundles of
laundry each week. The cobbler shop repaired fifteen hundred pairs of shoes each week. At the
barber shops, twelve hundred heads of hair were cut each day.

2-22 Historical Study ofYerba Buena Island, September l, 1995
Treasure Island, and their Buildings