American interest in Tutuila Island began with the American Samoan Treaty of 1878 which provided the United States with a non-exclusive right to establish a naval station on the Pago Pago Bay. The United States recognized the need to create a naval coaling station on the shipping route between Hawai'i and New Zealand, and shortly after the treaty proceeded to rent land in Pago Pago at $10 a month. In 1889, Rear Admiral L.A. Kimberly USN visited Tutuila and selected a site for a future U.S. naval station. Roughly seventeen acres of land were purchased for a total price of $3,241.79. The construction of the wooden-floored steel dock, storehouse and manager's dwelling did not commerce for another ten years. A water reservoir in the hills behind the station was also constructed, and the expansion of the site begun by filling in Pago Pago Bay to the edge of the fringing reef. The Naval Station was made up of eight shorefront acres as of 1907. The official U.S. Naval Station occupation began by the signing of the Deed of Cession by the High Chiefs on Tutuila- and Aunu'u Islands and the raising of the United States Flag on April 17 in 1900. By the end of the navy administration period in 1951, the Naval Station occupied 216 acres and was made up of 105 structures. As of 2001, only twelve of the structures remained. Most remaining naval structures were entered onto the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1988 as a part of the U.S. Naval Station Tutuila Historic District.