The Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center was built between 1938 and 1941 by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style as part of the "

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

". The Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center was designated a California Historic Landmark (No.972) on Sept. 19, 1989. The site is currently known as the Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center and serves as the training center for the

Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD or LA City Fire) provides emergency medical services, Fire investigation, fire cause determination, fire prevention, Firefighting, fire suppression, Dangerous goods, hazardous materials mitigation, and Resc ...

. The Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center is located just north of

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...

Chavez Ravine Chavez Ravine is a shallow L-shaped canyon in Los Angeles, California. It sits in a large promontory of hills north of downtown Los Angeles, next to Major League Baseball's Dodger Stadium. Chavez Ravine was named for Julian Chavez, a Los Angele ...

, next to

Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ( ...

at 1700 Stadium Way. The Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center was the second Navy Reserve Center built in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. During its operation it was the largest Reserve Center, training over 250,000 sailors and Marines. The main building is two-stories tall and has 90,000 square-feet of floor space. The

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

ended operations in the building in 1995. Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center was built with a pool, damage control training room, rifle range and the mock up of a deck of a ship, a spaced that looked and worked sea vessel. On the "deck of the ship" has

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

antiaircraft guns and

cannons A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder dur ...

. During World War II 20,000 sailors were trained at the center. California architects Robert Clements and Associates declared the building "Designed as the largest enclosed structure without walls". The 1st Civil Affairs Group was activated June 6, 1985, originally as 3rd Civil Affairs Group, and stationed at Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Los Angeles, between 1987 and 1988, the group recruited and trained Marines to fulfill its mission of providing civil affairs support to active forces in training exercises in the United States and overseas. In 1988 the 1st Civil Affairs Group moved to

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by O ...

NavalandMarineCorpsReserveCenterLA_CA_Augustof1986_Reopening

Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center

Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center is now the training center for the

. The training center was named after LAFD

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

Frank Hotchkin (July 17, 1956 – Sept. 27, 1980), who died during a fire on September 27, 1980 after falling through a roof of the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center. Frank Hotchkin and other firefighters were on the roof cutting vent holes the building to reduce smoke and spread of the fire. The roof had been weakened by the fire and collapsed. Four other firefighters were injured in the firefight. The funeral service for Frank Hotchkin was at St. David's Episcopal Church in North Hollywood. Hotchkin was interned at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Hollywood Hills. Over 700 firefighters in uniform attended the service. Hotchkin was stationed at Fire Station 1 on Pasadena Avenue. The fire had been burning for 2 hours before the fire department arrived. It took 2 hours and about 160 firefighters to put out the Reserve Center fire, which resulted in roughly $500,000 in damage. Destroyed or damaged at the center were the banquet hall, admiral quarters, rifle range, the indoor pool and 40 years of centers documents. Trailers were set up to house up to 500 reservists in training. The repairs took six years and cost $4.5 million. The main center building did not reopen until August of 1986. The training facility has on display a pylon from the New York

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

in memory of the Firefighters lost in the attacks on September 11, 2001. The site has been used for many motion pictures and television shoots.

Marker

Marker on the site reads:hmdb.org 972
/ref> *''NO. 972 NAVY AND MARINE CORPS RESERVE CENTER – Designed as the largest enclosed structure without columns in the world by noted California architects Robert Clements and Associates, this Art Deco building, constructed between 1938 and 1941 by the WPA, is the largest and second-oldest Navy Reserve Center in the United Stages. It has served as the induction, separation, and training center for more than 100,000 sailors since World War II well as the filming site for countless motion pictures and television shows.''

References

California Historical Landmarks 1938 establishments in California {{California fire departments

Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center

Marker

See also

References