In 1966, the Army, which owned the property on the river's east bank, transferred ownership to the Navy, thus establishing the command known as Naval Support Activity New Orleans.

The land underlying the Naval Support Activity is part of an immense West Bank concession given to Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founder of New Orleans, in 1719 by the Compagnie des Indes.

The land changed hands numerous times before being purchased by the United States government on 1849-02-14 for the site of a proposed Navy yard.

During the Great Depression, the Louisiana Emergency Relief Administration and later, the WPA, operated the third largest transient camp in the United States on the Naval Station.

Opened in May 1934, the transient camp sheltered, worked, and trained approximately 25,000 homeless men before it closed in March 1936.

In August 1940, the Navy transferred the YFD-2 to Pearl Harbor, where it was sunk during the attack on December 7, 1941 as it drydocked the USS Shaw (DD-373).

The latter name came about to reflect the fact that the Headquarters, Eighth Naval District was aboard the station as the senior-most tenant command.

With the advent of World War II, the lease was canceled and the installation reverted to complete use by the military as the New Orleans Port of Embarkation under the United States Army Transportation Corps.

With this change in mission and designation, both sides of the river began serving as the Naval Support Activity for the first time.

In honor of the Louisiana congressman who chaired the House Armed Services Committee, the three buildings were renamed to F. Edward Hebert Defense Complex in 1975.

Apparently this idea was accepted, because in the September 8, 2005 BRAC Commission Final Report Submitted to the President, the Naval Support Activity was not included in the list of facilities to be closed.