National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco
The Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-40 was held to celebrate the monumental achievement of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, but was also designed to help bring the United States out of the Great Depression of the 1930s with a positive show of harmony between nations.
The shoals of Yerba Buena Island were chosen as the site of the fair, and also as the location for a future local airport for San Francisco. Appropriately, the Exposition was designed in line with the planned airport.
Three permanent buildings were constructed to serve both the Exposition and the airport. The Administration Building, pictured here, would be the airport terminal, and the Hall of Transportation and Palace of Fine and Decorative Arts would be hangars.
As a result of WWII, the airport was never built.
These three buildings are the only ones on Treasure Island that date to the Exposition period, and the Administration Building is one of the few Art Moderne buildings in San Francisco.
(Source: Historic American Buildings Survey)
Points of interest on Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island: