| Designations | |
|---|---|
| Designated | 1980 |
| Reference no. | 45 |
The Morcom Rose Garden (formerly the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses) is located in a residential neighborhood (the Rose Garden neighborhood [1] ) in Oakland, California, near the Piedmont border. The street address is 700 Jean St., Oakland, CA 94610.
The site of the rose garden was originally a regular public park named Linda Vista Park, opened in 1915. The conversion to a rose garden began as a project of the Oakland Businessmen's Garden Club in 1930, and the main force behind it (and the later Berkeley Rose Garden) was Dr. Charles Vernon Covell, a dentist and member of the Garden Club. Initially the garden was named the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden and the project was covered in the local press.
Rose Park to Be Built at Linda Vista
Announcement has been made that Oakland is to have a Rose Park, a composite of the famous gardens of Italy, and that its site is to be the Linda Vista Park. The project was sponsored by the Business Men's Garden Club, and has the support of the city government, which will carry out the work through its park department, according to the plans of Arthur Cobbledick, landscape architect. Work has commenced on the first unit, at once affording employment, and providing a new link in Oakland's chain of municipal parks.
— Oakland Tribune, June 5, 1932, page B-7 [2]
The New Deal played a vital role in building the rose garden, but it was not the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that did the work. Instead, help came from the State Employment Relief Administration (SERA), which completed the garden in 1934–1935 (before the WPA was enacted). SERA was funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). [3]
As well as thousands of roses, the garden has winding walkways, a reflecting pool, and a cascading fountain. The garden is available for weddings by making a reservation with the City of Oakland and can hold up to 200 people.
The garden is in a natural bowl in the foothills of Oakland, a ← site purchased by the city in 1915 as Linda Vista Park. The design is by Arthur Cobbledick, a member of the Garden Club, who laid out a formal plan inspired by the gardens of Italy.
The garden has three sections. The Jean Street entrance on the south end welcomes visitors with a classical curved colonnade, backed by stone walls, and a rose-lined walkway, flanked by a small service building.
The middle section features a reflecting pool encircled by rose beds and an elegant, 14-step cascade down the hillside to the west. Above the cascade is an octagonal wedding terrace in stone and more rose beds. Facing the pool and cascade from the east is a Mediterranean style loggia, which serves as an office and storage space.
A large Florentine oval garden at the north end has terraced flower beds rising on all sides, held in place by elegant rock walls. Access is possible from every direction by stone stairways, and path wend their way among the trees above the garden.
A renovation in the early 2000s created "The Mother's Walk," from the reflecting pool to the Florentine, with brass plaques in the ground with the names of women honored each year in an annual ceremony for Mothers Day. The tradition began in 1954 and has wooden placeholders for much of the 21st century.
Work was begun on the garden in 1931 or 1932 and it officially opened in 1934 – with only the Florentine oval garden finished by that time. Soon after the opening, the Oakland Tribune reported an offer from the SERA of $29,460 in labor, if the city would match it with $14,600 in materials (June 27, 1934). Later, the Tribune reported that SERA workers had completed the gardens in 1934 (Tribune, Jan 1, 1935), but that can't have been true because in Spring 1935 the Tribune was reporting that SERA laborers were still at work on the cascade (April 5, 1935). Presumably, that work wrapped up in 1935.
As the Tribune described various improvement made around the city in 1934, “Great economy has been observed by the city government and few actual improvements have been made except those done by the PWA and SERA.” (Jan. 1, p 14). The Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was launched in mid-1935, would not have played any role in the gardens, despite being credited by the Oakland Heritage Alliance and by an historical marker near the park entrance (which puts the date in 1932, before the New Deal). The official brass plaque for the gardens does not mention New Deal aid.
In 1954, the garden was renamed The Morcom Amphitheater of Roses, in honor of former Oakland mayor Fred N. Morcom. Morcom had planted the garden's first rose in his role as mayor during the construction period. The park has been refurbished at least twice, in the 1950s and 1990s, with many of the old roses (some going back to the 19th century) being regrafted on new rootstock.
In the early 2000s, a lead city gardener organized a group of volunteers called the "Dedicated Deadheaders," given the greatly reduced hours of city staff to maintain the irrigation lines, weed, and deadhead and prune the roses. The garden of over 2,400 roses bushes was originally slated to have eight full-time workers, but now has one city worker one day a week overseeing it. The Deadheaders established a website, www.FriendsofOaklandRose.org, as well as a Facebook Page. "Friends of Morcom Rose Garden," with photos of the garden often updated and contacts for ways to volunteer.
The Works Progress Administration was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal.
Rose Garden may refer to:
The International Rose Test Garden is a rose garden in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, United States. There are over 10,000 rose bushes of approximately 650 varieties. The roses bloom from April through October with the peak coming in June, depending on the weather. New rose cultivars are continually sent to the garden from many parts of the world and are evaluated on several characteristics, including disease resistance, bloom formation, color, and fragrance. It is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the United States and exemplifies Portland's nickname, "City of Roses". The garden draws an estimated 700,000 visitors annually.
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Herbert Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Cascade is an urban neighborhood abutting Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States, located adjacent to South Lake Union. It is bounded by: Fairview Avenue North on the west, beyond which is the rest of the Cascade Neighborhood; the Interstate 5 interchange for Mercer St to the north, beyond which is Eastlake; Interstate 5 on the east, beyond which is Capitol Hill; and Denny Way on the south, beyond which is Denny Triangle. It is surrounded by thoroughfares Mercer Street (eastbound), Fairview Avenue N. and Eastlake Avenue E., and Denny Way. The neighborhood, one of Seattle's oldest, originally extended much further: west to Terry Avenue, south to Denny Hill on the South, and east to Melrose Avenue E through the area now obliterated by Interstate 5. Some recent writers consider Cascade to omit the northern "arm", while others extend it westward to cover most of South Lake Union.
The Berkeley Rose Garden is a city-owned park in the North Berkeley area of Berkeley, California. The rose garden is situated in a residential area of the Berkeley Hills between the Cragmont and the La Loma Park neighborhoods, occupying most of the block between Eunice Street and Bayview Place along the west side of Euclid Avenue, and west of Codornices Park.
Astoria Park is a 59.96-acre (24.26 ha) public park in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The park is situated on the eastern shore of the Hell Gate, a strait of the East River, between Ditmars Boulevard to the north and Hoyt Avenue to the south. The Robert F. Kennedy (Triborough) and Hell Gate Bridges respectively pass over the park's southern and northern sections. Astoria Park contains a playground, a soccer field, a running track, a skate park, and courts for tennis, basketball, and bocce. Astoria Park also includes the Astoria Play Center, which consists of a recreation center and a pool. The park and play center are maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Butler Stevens Sturtevant was an American landscape architect.
The Deerwood Auditorium is a community center in Deerwood, Minnesota, United States. It was built as a New Deal project from 1935 to 1937. In 1995 the auditorium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its local significance in the themes of architecture, politics/government, and social history. It was nominated for being an exemplary multipurpose municipal building funded by the New Deal, as well as Minnesota's largest project by the State Emergency Relief Administration, and a longstanding venue for community events.
The West Side Community Garden is a privately owned park in Manhattan, New York City, United States. It is located between West 89th Street and West 90th Street in the middle of the block between Amsterdam Avenue and Columbus Avenue.
Hamilton Fish Park is a public park in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The park encompasses two blocks bounded by Houston, Pitt, Sheriff, and Stanton Streets. It contains a playground, basketball courts, and an outdoor swimming complex with general swimming and wading pools. Hamilton Fish Park also includes a Beaux-Arts recreation center designed by Carrère and Hastings. It is maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Woodward Park is a 45-acre (18 ha) public park, botanical garden, and arboretum located between 21st Street and 24th Street east of South Peoria Avenue and west of South Rockford Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the Midwestern United States. The park, named for Helen Woodward, the original property owner, was established in 1929, after a lengthy court suit over ownership.
WPA Rustic architecture is an architectural style from the era of the U.S. New Deal Works Project Administration. The WPA provided funding for architects to create a variety of buildings, including amphitheaters and lodges. WPA architecture is akin to National Park Service rustic architecture.
Howard Ellsworth Gilkey (1890–1972) was an American landscape architect known for his civic works in Oakland, California and as a designer of garden shows.
Cleveland Park is the largest park in Greenville, South Carolina, much of its more than 120 acres being greenway along Richland Creek and the Reedy River near the city's "most elegant neighborhoods."
The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most famous examples are the skyscrapers of New York City including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. It combined modern aesthetics, fine craftsmanship and expensive materials, and became the symbol of luxury and modernity. While rarely used in residences, it was frequently used for office buildings, government buildings, train stations, movie theaters, diners and department stores. It also was frequently used in furniture, and in the design of automobiles, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as toasters and radio sets. In the late 1930s, during the Great Depression, it featured prominently in the architecture of the immense public works projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam. The style competed throughout the period with the modernist architecture, and came to an abrupt end in 1939 with the beginning of World War II. The style was rediscovered in the 1960s, and many of the original buildings have been restored and are now historical landmarks.
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Sunset Park is a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) public park in the neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York City, between 41st and 44th Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues. The modern-day park contains a playground, recreation center, and pool. The recreation center and pool comprise the Sunset Play Center, which was designated as both an exterior and interior landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also known as NYC Parks.
Thomas Jefferson Park is a 15.52-acre (6.28 ha) public park in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The park is on First Avenue between 111th and 114th Streets. It contains a playground as well as facilities for baseball, basketball, football, handball, running, skating, and soccer. The Thomas Jefferson Play Center within the park consists of a recreation center and a pool. The park and play center, named for former U.S. president Thomas Jefferson, are maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
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