Forts Cronkhite and Mason

Preservation of Historic Houses for the National Park Service

Fort Cronkhite

The historic houses lining the hills near Rodeo Lagoon in the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco are part of California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area. They once served as officers’ housing for Fort Cronkhite, a WWII U.S. Army coastal artillery post. Although the buildings had been renovated some years before, by 2023 unsightly signs of deterioration from dry rot, resulting from deferred maintenance and missing paint, were visible in the windows and other architectural features of the buildings. When contractors for the National Park Service were given the task of repairing the damage, they used Restore-Rite’s StrongBond Wood Restoration System.

The workers detached the houses’ double-hung windows before removing the dry-rot and applying deep-penetrating StrongBond Sealer to strengthen the frames. A few hours later when the Sealer became tacky they reconstructed areas of missing wood and stabilized the frames with StrongBond Filler. After the Filler had cured enough that it didn’t stick to their sandpaper, the frames were promptly sanded and painted. Other parts of the buildings were similarly restored, including the greenhouse windows and moldings on the enclosed porches.

Using the StrongBond System the workers saved time and money, and achieved beautiful results in restoring these historic houses for future generations.

Fort Mason

Fort Mason is a former WWII U.S. Army post located in the northern Marina District alongside San Francisco Bay. After it became a recreational urban national park, some of the Fort’s elegant bayfront homes that historically had housed Army officers were converted into rental housing. But the mid-19th century buildings needed repair, and contractors for the National Park Service were called in to restore them.

Constructed of irreplaceable old-growth wood, many architectural features of the houses were suffering from dry rot, including doors, double-hung windows, and the end grain of beams and rafter tails. Using Restore-Rite’s efficient StrongBond Wood Restoration System the workers were able to complete the job in record time, lowering the cost of repairing these beautiful buildings and allowing the Park’s budget to cover other needed upgrades at the old fort.