Government House | |
Location | Fagatogo, Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa |
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Coordinates | 14°16′38″S170°40′59″W / 14.277224°S 170.683006°W |
Area | 1.4 acres (5,700 m2) [1] |
Built | 1903 |
Architectural style | Victorian [2] |
Part of | U.S. Naval Station Tutuila Historic District [3] (ID90000854) |
NRHP reference No. | 72001443 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | March 16, 1972 |
Designated NHL | December 14, 1990 |
Government House, also known as Building No.1, Naval Station, Tutuila or Government House, U.S. Naval Station Tutuila, is a historic government building on the grounds of the former United States Naval Station Tutuila in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Built in 1903, it has served as a center of government on the island for much of the time since then. Government House was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1972, [4] and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990. [5] [6]
It has a tropical Victorian military style. Guided by Benjamin Franklin Tilley, the first commandant of the U.S. Naval Station Tutuila, it was intended to accommodate future governors. The construction, which cost $15,000, relied on Samoan laborers overseen by naval architects and two skilled carpenters from the U.S. [7]
Government House is located in Fagatogo on Maugaoalii Mt. and overlooks the Pago Pago Bay area on all sides of its mountaintop location. [8]
Government House is set on Observatory Point, located at the crook of the L-shaped Pago Pago Harbor, between the villages of Utulei and Fagatogo. The original block of the house is a wood frame cruciform structure, mounted on concrete piers. It is two stories in height, with a corrugated metal roof and clapboard siding. As built it was nearly encircled by porches on both levels, but portions of these have been enclosed. A one-room addition extends the building to the east. Due to its siting on a ridge sometimes exposed to hurricane-force winds, the building is secured by ten-foot metal spikes embedded in the ground. [1]
The interior of the house has features unique to its location and status. The ground floor has five public rooms, including a large dining room, a formal sitting area, and a distinctively Samoan room, lined with tapa cloth and housing Samoan artifacts. Another aspect of the property's public role is the presence of a ceremonial guest house (fala tele) on the property. [1]
When the United States gained control of what is now American Samoa due to the Tripartite Convention of 1899, the island was placed under the administration of the United States Navy. This house was built on the orders of Admiral Uriel Sebree in 1903. From this house naval governors administered the territory until 1951, when administration was turned over to the United States Department of the Interior. It has since been the official residence of the territory's civilian governors, and has been host to virtually every major dignitary to visit the island. [1]
Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa. It is in Maoputasi County on Tutuila, the main island of American Samoa.
Tutuila is the largest and most populous island of American Samoa and is part of the archipelago of the Samoan Islands. It is the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain of the Central Pacific. It is located roughly 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) northeast of Brisbane, Australia and lies over 1,200 kilometers (750 mi) to the northeast of Fiji. It contains a large, natural harbor, Pago Pago Harbor, where Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, is situated. Pago Pago International Airport is also located on Tutuila. The island's land expanse is about 68% of the total land area of American Samoa. With 56,000 inhabitants, it is also home to 95% of the population of American Samoa. The island has six terrestrial and three marine ecosystems.
The American Samoa Fono is the territorial legislature of American Samoa. Like most states and territorial legislatures of the United States, it is a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives and a Senate. The legislature is located in Fagatogo along Pago Pago harbor.
Fagatogo is the downtown area of Pago Pago. Located in the low grounds at the foot of Matafao Peak, it was the location of the first American settlement on Tutuila Island. It includes the sub-village of Malaloa. Today, Fagatogo is the government, commercial, financial, and shipping center of Tutuila. It is also the administrative capital of American Samoa. It is the location of the American Samoa Fono (legislature), and is listed in the Constitution of American Samoa as the territory's official seat of government. Its population is 1,737.
Utulei or ʻUtulei is a village in Maoputasi County, in the Eastern District of Tutuila, the main island of American Samoa. Utulei is traditionally considered to be a section of Fagatogo village, the legislative capital of American Samoa, and is located on the southwest edge of Pago Pago Harbor. Utulei is the site of many local landmarks: The A. P. Lutali Executive Office Building, which is next to the Feleti Barstow Library; paved roads that wind up to a former cablecar terminal on Solo Hill; the governor's mansion, which sits on Mauga o Alii, overlooking the entrance to Goat's Island, and the lieutenant governor's residence directly downhill from it; the Lee Auditorium, built in 1962; American Samoa's television studios, known as the Michael J. Kirwan Educational Television Center; and the Rainmaker Hotel. Utulei Terminal offers views of Rainmaker Mountain.
The Eastern District is one of the primary districts of American Samoa. It consists of the eastern portion of Tutuila, American Samoa's largest island, plus the island of Aunu'u. The district has a land area of 67.027 km2 (25.879 sq mi) and a 2010 census population of 23,030. It contains 34 villages plus a portion of Nuʻuuli village. Among these are Pago Pago, Fagatogo, and Utulei.
Aūa is a village on Tutuila Island in American Samoa. It is located along American Samoa Highway 001, and is the southern terminus of American Samoa Highway 006. Aūa is located at the foothills of Mount Peiva on the eastern shore of Pago Pago Bay. The hamlet of Leloaloa is also a part of Aūa.
Leone is the second-largest city on Tutuila Island's west coast. The village is on the south-west coast of Tutuila Island, American Samoa. Leone was the ancient capital of Tutuila Island. Leone was also where the Samoan Islands’ first missionary, John Williams, visited on October 18, 1832. A monument in honor of Williams has been erected in front of Zion Church. Its large church was the first to be built in American Samoa. It has three towers, a carved ceiling and stained glass. Until steamships were invented, Leone was the preferred anchorage of sailing ships which did not risk entering Pago Pago Harbor. Much early contact between Samoans and Europeans took place in Leone. In the early 20th century, Leone was one of the centers for the Mau movement in American Sāmoa.
United States Naval Station Tutuila was a naval station in Pago Pago Harbor on the island of Tutuila, part of American Samoa, built in 1899 and in operation until 1951. During the United States Navy rule of American Samoa, from 1900 to 1951, it was customary for the commandant of the station to also serve as Military Governor of the territory. Benjamin Franklin Tilley was the first commandant and the first officer responsible for the naval station's construction.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the United States Territory of American Samoa.
The Blunts Point Battery, also known as Blunts Point Naval Gun or Matautu Ridge Gun Site, is a gun battery on Matautu Ridge near Pago Pago, American Samoa. It was part of the fortification of the Samoan Islands which took place after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and is a rare example of a World War II Pacific coastal gun which remains in relatively pristine condition. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the South Pacific Ocean. Centered on 14.3°S 170.7°W, it is 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the island country of Samoa, east of the International Date Line and the Wallis and Futuna Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 310 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States, situated 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii, and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island and the Ofu-Olosega peak, which is a volcanic island in American Samoa.
Pago Pago Harbor on Tutuila Island in American Samoa is one of the world's largest natural harbors. The capital, Pago Pago is located on the inner reaches of the harbor, close to its northwesternmost point. It has the highest annual rainfall of any harbor in the world. It is also considered one of the best and deepest deepwater harbors in the South Pacific Ocean or in Oceania as a whole. Pago Pago Bay is over 400 feet (120 m) deep and two miles (3.2 km) long. As part of the Pago Volcano caldera, the harbor is 50% landlocked.
The Courthouse of American Samoa, formerly Administration Building, Navy No. 21, is a historic building near Pago Pago Harbor in Fagatogo, American Samoa. It is a two-story wood-frame building mounted on concrete piers, with a two-story veranda on three sides. A concrete vault is located at the back of the building. The court house was reported by the local commander to have been completed about 1904. It housed the offices and other facilities from which the United States Navy administered the island from its construction until 1952, and was where advisory councils of the island's indigenous leaders were held. The building is one of the oldest standing in American Samoa, having survived typhoons and other perils.
The Atauloma Girls School is a historic parochial school building in Afao village on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, United States. The London Missionary Society opened it in 1900 as the second secondary school on Tutuila, and the first to admit girls. For most of its history it prepared girls primarily to be pastors' wives, and after 1913 provided graduates to the nursing school at the naval station at Pago Pago. Its establishment saved Tutuila girls the necessity of travel to Upolu for secondary school, which separated them from their families and exposed them to the dangers of the international port at Apia. Atauloma was abandoned by 1970.
Navy Building 38 is a historic building on Route 1 in Fagatogo, American Samoa. Located on the north side of the road, it is a roughly square single-story building with a shallow-sloping pyramidal roof, that extends beyond the concrete block walls to create a lanai supported by fluted cast metal columns. The concrete blocks used in its construction were locally manufactured. The building was constructed about 1917 by the United States Navy as part of Naval Station Tutuila, to provide a home for high-powered radio transmission equipment capable of communicating directly with naval facilities in Hawaii during the First World War. It is one of three buildings known to have been built at the time with this combination of materials.
The Jean P. Haydon Museum is a museum in Pago Pago dedicated to the culture and history of the United States territory of American Samoa. It contains a collection of canoes, coconut-shell combs, pigs’ tusk armlets and native pharmacopoeia. It also houses exhibits on natural history, tapa making, traditional tattooing, as well as a collection of war clubs, kava bowls, and historic photographs. Constructed in 1913 as U.S. Naval Station Tutuila Commissary, the building was home to Tutuila Island's Post Office from 1950 to 1971. The museum has displays of various aspects of the Samoan Islands’ culture and history. It is the official repository for collections of artifacts for American Samoa. Funded by the American Samoa Council on Arts, Culture and the Humanities, it is the venue used for numerous of the cultural resource activities in American Samoa.
Vatia is a village on Tutuila Island in American Samoa. It is a north shore village located on Vatia Bay. The road to Vatia, American Samoa Highway 006, is the only road going through National Park of American Samoa. Vatia is a scenic community at the foot of Pola Ridge and surrounded by the national park. It is only reached by Route 6 which traverses the national park before reaching Vatia. There was once a hiking trail over Maugaloa Ridge from Leloaloa, but since the completion of Route 6, this trail is now overgrown. It is home to a beach, and panoramic views of jungle-covered peaks surround the village on all sides. Vatia is the center of the Tutuila-section of National Park of American Samoa. It is located in Vaifanua County.
Maʻopūtasi County is located in the Eastern District of Tutuila Island in American Samoa. Maʻopūtasi County comprises the capital of Pago Pago and its harbor, as well as surrounding villages. It was home to 11,695 residents as of 2000. Maʻopūtasi County is 6.69 square miles (17.3 km2) The county has a 7.42-mile (11.94 km) shoreline which includes Pago Pago Bay.
Satala is one of Pago Pago’s constituent villages and is located in Pago Pago Bay on Tutuila Island. Satala is in Maoputasi County in the Eastern District of the island. It is home to the historic Satala Cemetery, which is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and the government-owned Ronald Reagan Marina Railway Shipyard.