St. Peters Chapel
BUILT IN 1901, ST. PETER’S Chapel is the oldest surviving Naval chapel in the United States. It is home to one of the largest collections of Tiffany stained glass windows under one roof and is filled with historic naval memorials.St. Peter’s was the second chapel built on a U.S. Navy property. (It was preceded by the original chapel at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, which was replaced with a new building in 1904.) The single-story chapel was designed by Albert Sutton. The walls are lined with 29 striking stained-glass windows, 25 of which were created by Tiffany Studios. While they look quite dull from the exterior, from the inside they are luminous! Surrounding the chapel are a host of eucalyptus trees, redwoods and pine, some of which still host monarch butterflies in the winter months when they hibernate. If you arrange a tour of the chapel, plan for the late afternoon. The windows come alive; it is a vision to see the light dance through the stained glass as the leaves move in the breeze. You can schedule a tour of the Chapel to see the interior. Visit MIHPF.org to book your tour!
Admiral's Mansion
As the name suggests, the Admiral in charge of Mare Island and his family lived in the spacious, Neo-Classical style mansion. You may also notice as you walked along Walnut, other officer's mansions, which are similar but smaller than the Admiral's mansion. This structure, built in the early 1900s, stands at 10,500 square feet. It has a large back yard for the many events the Admiral and his family would have hosted. The original mansions built along Walnut Avenue were originally built in the 1880s, but an earthquake destroyed them. This structure is built on the original basement foundation.It is not open at this time, due to the need for seismic upgrades.
Alden Park
This lush and old fashioned-looking circular park, is centered around a quaint, 19th-century bandstand—that, and a 28-foot intercontinental ballistic missile launched from a Cold War-era nuclear-powered submarine.Taking a closer look, Alden Park is surprisingly unique in more than one way. It is at once—and rather incongruously—a slightly mournful celebration of forgotten firepower and a lovely place to have a picnic (if somewhat disheveled since the US Navy moved out of the large base in the 1990s).The strangest attraction, the Polaris missile, used to be deployed and maintained from Mare Island. It was in service with U.S. and U.K. submarines from 1960 to 1975, and had a range of 1,000 nautical miles with a 600-kiloton nuclear warhead.And aside from the now slightly rusting shell of the giant missile, the park displays an assortment of naval weaponry from the last 200 years. Dotted around the edge of the park are the body of a U.S. nuclear-tipped anti-submarine missile, Civil War-era torpedoes and cannons, and a German World War II submarine. There are also a few monuments to military units and who were based at Mare Island during the wars.Also, don't miss walking through the park to see the wide variety of plants and trees from all over the world. They were planted in the 1860s, thanks to Navy commander James Alden, who the park was named after. The green-thumbed commander began encouraging his captains to bring back trees from their excursions overseas. Thanks to this project, there are now elm, apple, bay, olive, apricot, locust, fig, and eucalyptus trees all growing on the curious California island.
