Friday, January 25, 2008

Warden's House - More on Alcatraz





With 3 floors and 17 rooms, this former Warden's House was built in 1929 to overlook San Francisco Bay. In 1970, a fire gutted the building and the photos you see are its remains. The last photo shows the house's original appearance.

- AV

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your posts about Alcatraz make me wish that I would have spent more time in there, when I visited San Francisco for one week.
I am eagerly waiting what else is coming up from there.

Rune Eide said...

Very informative. I must have been a h... of a life for both prisoners and wardens.

The watchtowers reminds me a bit of pictures I have seen from concentration camps.

dot said...

Looks like the warden had a nice place but I believe I like it better now through your pictures than I would have when it was new.

lina said...

i enjoyed watching The Rock. must be peaceful for the wardens' families to stay there as it must have been a very close knit community

Happyone said...

Very interesting post. If I ever get out that way I would love to see it in person. You have taken some great pictures.

Isadora said...

That house had certainly seen better days and just think, if walls could talk. For location you could hardly ask for better - but...what a lonely life it must have been despite a lavish 17 rooms, no tv or internet

AVCr8teur said...

Juha, this gives you an incentive to come back & visit SF again.

Runee, I guess all guard towers look the same. I think the warden had a better time. During the tour, they actually showed visitors 3 cells which were the most desirable because it would get sunshine during a sunny day through the windows across the hall.

Dot, good point. It would just be another house if it wasn't in ruins.

Lina, it was a close knit community for the 200 residents. I wonder if they allowed visitors to come visit the families.

Thanks HappyOne. There are so many photo ops that I would have to go back several times to capture everything to my satisfaction.

You said it, Isadora. No tv or internet. What kind of life is that although they probably had b&w tv in the 50's & 60's.

Andrea said...

That is an interesting old building.