Berylwood, the Thomas R. Bard estate, became the Officers Club of the Naval Construction Battalion Center after serving as the home of U.S. Senator Thomas R. Bard of California, who lived there with his family in their third house built near the same site on a sixty-two acre estate named Berylwood. The mansion was designed by architect Myron Hunt, a leading figure in the development of Southern California's regional architecture, whose Classical Mediterranean style helped shape the distinctive identity of many important public buildings and large residential estates across the region. Hunt designed more than four hundred buildings, including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the Huntington Library in San Marino, Occidental College in Los Angeles, Pomona College in Claremont, the Bank of Hueneme, and the Thomas R. Bard Mansion at Port Hueneme.