Masefau Defensive Fortifications | |
Nearest city | Masefau, American Samoa |
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Coordinates | 14°15′15″S170°37′52″W / 14.25417°S 170.63111°W |
Area | Lucile |
Built | 1940 |
Built by | US Navy |
NRHP reference No. | 12000919 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 14, 2012 |
The Masefau Defensive Fortifications consist of a pair of concrete pillboxes on the shores of Masefau Bay on the island of Tutuila in the United States territory of American Samoa. These octagonal structures differ from others found in western Tutuila in that they have no separate interior space for the storage of ammunition. The structures were exposed by a typhoon in 2009. [2]
The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. [1]
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.
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.
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, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
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.
Afao is a village in southwest Tutuila Island, American Samoa. It is located on the island's short southwestern coast, between 'Amanave and Leone, to the southwest of Pago Pago. It includes the settlement of Atauloma. Afao is home to two places listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places: Afao Beach Site and Atauloma Girls School.
A'asu or Āsu is a village on the north coast of Tutuila Island, American Samoa. It is located to the west of Fagasa and northwest of Pago Pago. It is one of multiple villages involved in an archaeological survey of the island. A'asu lies on Massacre Bay and can be reached from a hiking trail in A'asufou. Massacre Bay can be visited by car, aiga buses, or through excursions offered by North Shore Tours.
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 Poloa Defensive Fortifications are a set of historic military structures on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa. Consisting of three concrete pillboxes along the beach, these fortifications were built by American Marines as part of a system of defenses against a feared Japanese amphibious invasion of Samoa during the early part of World War II. The Poloa pillboxes stand out from other emplacements on Tutuila for their relatively less robust construction, possibly reflecting American tactical planning for greater defense in depth at this location. The threat of invasion eased by late 1942, and the fortifications never saw combat.
The Atauloma Girls School is a historic parochial school building in Afao village on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa. 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.
The A'a Village Site, designated "AS-34-33" by archaeologists, is an abandoned village site on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa. Located on a bay on the northwest coast of the island, the site was first surveyed by professional archaeologists in 1985. The site has four distinct areas, in which features interpreted as house foundations have been located, as have rock walls, grave sites, and platform mounds. The site was not known to be occupied within the living memory of nearby residents, and the size of trees in the site suggests it has been abandoned since the 1860s.
The Maloata Village Site is a prehistoric village site on the northwestern coast of the island of Tutuila in the United States territory of American Samoa. The archaeologically sensitive site includes a variety of stone features, principally stone fences and retaining walls, with evidence from excavation of human habitation. Radiocarbon dating from one of its test pits yielded a date range of CE 550–1000, identifying the site as one of the oldest known on the island. According to oral tradition, the Maloata area was reserved for use by relatively high-status chieftains.
Site As-31-72 is a prehistoric archaeological site on the island of Tutuila in the United States territory of American Samoa. Located on the Tafuna Plain, an inland area on the western half of the island, its principal feature is a long stone wall, 300 metres (980 ft) long with a maximum height of 5.4 metres (18 ft). Set on sloping ground, the top of the wall is roughly level, and is only 2.8 metres (9.2 ft) high at the upper end of the slope. Platforms and other features have been identified during archaeological examination of the structure and its surroundings in the 1990s. Its purpose is unknown; the researchers conjecture it was built because of warfare.
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.
The Satala Cemetery is located on the north side of Pago Pago Harbor on the island of Tutuila, the largest in American Samoa. The cemetery was established, apparently late in the 19th century, by the United States Navy, as an interment site for foreigners on the island. Traditional Samoan burial practice is to bury family members on their property, a method not available to outsiders. One section of the cemetery is dedicated to graves of Korean fishermen.
The Tataga-Matau Fortified Quarry Complex, designated Site AS-34-10, is a major archaeological complex on Tutuila, the largest island of American Samoa. Located in an upland area on the western side of the island above the village of Leone, the complex consists of a series of basalt quarries and structures that archaeologists have interpreted as having a military defensive purpose. The site has been known since at least 1927, and was first formally surveyed in the 1960s. Features of the site include extraction pits, from which basalt was quarried for the manufacture of stone tools and weapons, as well as domestic features such as grinding stones. Archaeologists in 1985 noted that some of the features of the site were, including trenches and terracing, were made in areas that were unsuitable for the production of stone tools, and closely resemble known military defensive structures in other areas of the Samoan islands. The site extends along with a network of ridges for more than 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi). Radiocarbon dating of elements of the site indicate periods of occupation and/or use from c. 200 CE to the period of European contact.
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.
Itū'au, together with Aitūlagi, make up the village of Malaeloa.