Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNSY), a San Francisco Bay yard, was established in 1868 by the California Drydock Company.  This yard which encompasses 638 acres of waterfront, was the site of the first drydock for commercial use on the West Coast. Hunters Point serviced shipbuilding and repair demands for over 100 years until its close in 1974.

One of the earlier feats at the yard was the repair of the Great White Fleet that was on its famous around-the-world cruise in 1908. In 1939, the Seventy-sixth Congress purchased the site including the two dry docks and then leased it to Bethlehem Steel Company. In 1941 the Navy gave the yard its new name, San Francisco Naval Shipyard, upon taking over the yard. From this point on until 1974, the yard's work included mainly shipbuilding as well as naval ship and submarine modification, maintenance, and repairs. The yard saw other activities in the form of base housing and naval ordinance training exercises.

During the Second World War the yard repaired 600 fighting and support ships while many laborious efforts were spent on liberty ship maintenance. In the late 1940s the Navy Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) was established at Hunters Point and the yard was detailed for the decontamination of ships formerly involved in nuclear weapons testing. The decontamination project ceased in 1969 after a significant budget cut.

Hunters Point experienced expansion and a dramatic increase in work during the Korean conflict, of the early 1950s, taking aboard 11,000 employees.  In 1965 another expansion took place when the yard joined forces with Mare Island Naval Shipyard and San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard.  The maneuver, made to cut costs, did not accomplish its goal and the yards separated again. In 1970 the San Francisco yard took the identity Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. After the closure of the yard on June 30, 1974, by the Department of Defense Shore Establishment Realignment Program, the San Francisco site was designated to Triple-A Shipyard, Hunters Point Division. During the Triple-A years, the recently abandoned buildings were leased to small businesses. Also during this time there were repeated reports of improper waste disposal by Triple A. of Vallejo, California, merging into

In 1985, the City of San Francisco and the Navy deliberated the possibility of the yard's housing the USS Missouri battleship group. However, residents of the area, numbering 900, wanting to take action protested against their removal. In 1988 this idea was dismissed. Other protests from the residents, as well as from various public safety organizations, demanded a higher standard of living to depressed area. In fact a lawsuit in October 1994 charged HPNSY with 19,000 violations of the Clean Water Act.  With this lawsuit and an order from the House Armed Services Committee (that required the Secretary of State to join forces with the City of San Francisco) a development plan was implemented to increase employment and prosperity in the community.

Hunters Point has been a yard for mainly ship repair but has also seen other activities over the years including a Launch Test Complex, Printing and Publications, and Planning and Engineering for Repair and Alterations for Combat Support Ships (PERA) (CSS). Currently, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command's Engineering Field Activity West (the San Bruno location) holds HPNSY under check. Portions of the yard have been leased to private parties. The contamination caused by years of improper waste disposal and decrepit facilities continues to be an issue that the yard and the nearby inhabitants must confront.