Executive Offices of the Governor American Samoa Government

13
Magazine/Navy Brig

The date of construction of the naval station Magazine (Navy Building No. 78) is unknown. It appears on a 1934 map of the naval station where it is labeled the magazine. (The naval station would have had at least a store of small arms ammuniction for the Fita Fita Guard and blank rounds for the salute guns in front of the administrative building.) Located behind the former Samoan Jail, it measures about forty by thirty feet. Of complicated construction, its walls are primarily concrete and the roof is corrugated iron. As first constructed, verandas ran along the north and west sides. By 1949 these porches had been reduced to a short veranda running aling half of the north wall. The rest appears to have been enclosed to enlarge the interior. Today the veranda has been enclosed with plain concrete blocks and a window.

In the World War II build-up of the naval station, this building was converted into a naval brig for members of the U.S. Navy and white civilians (contractors, employees, etc.). The Police Department now uses it for storage. This building is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Tutuila Naval Station Historic District.