The last few weeks, off and on, I’ve paid some close attention to the landscape and stones in the Morcom Rose Garden.

First, I’ve managed to find some facts about the land’s geology and previous history.

The site is a short ravine cut into the ancient gravel hills (the Fan) between Lake Merritt and Piedmont; it might have had a seasonal tributary stream to Pleasant Valley Creek. Just to its east is a similar pocket valley that did have a small stream, now landfilled and occupied by Linda Avenue and the ballcourts and buildings of Piedmont’s Egbert W. Beach elementary school. I believe the Fages expedition came up “Beach canyon” on its way through Ohlone territory in 1772.

There’s no evidence the area was ever anything but open land at the edge of Oakland’s expanding frontier, awaiting subdivision. Leland Stanford owned it in the 1880s, and Monte Vista Avenue once had a right of way through it connecting with today’s dogleg in Jean Street. Oakland acquired the tract in 1911, during the dynamic mayorship of Frank Mott, and established Linda Vista Park in partnership with the city of Piedmont. It was briefly proposed as a site for a zoo in 1913, citing its steep topography as “not serviceable for ordinary park purposes.” In 1925 an archery range was opened there (later moved near the civic auditorium, then up by Chabot Observatory).

The idea for a rose garden was proposed in 1931 by the Businessmen’s Garden Club, and the city Board of Park Directors chose to put it in Linda Vista Park in part “because of its availability to autoists.” Thus are civic land uses decided. At first, people would park on Olive Street, in the Piedmont portion, and reach the roses down a long flight of steps that is no longer there. You can see it in the original 1932 garden plan, at the top left. The garden’s address was given as Olive Street in the early years before the Jean Street entrance was completed.

^{Cleaned up from the 5 June 1932 Oakland Tribune}

The rock work around the garden is hard to document, but I can infer things with help from the newspapers and a couple of useful sites, oaklandrose.com and livingnewdeal.org. My question was which parts are genuine WPA work, products of the famous federal employment program called the Work Progress Administration, what we think of as classic public infrastructure of the Depression era. I learned that most of it wasn’t, but some of it was.

Construction began in 1932 and was done by the city parks department with support from the recently founded Eastbay Rose Society and Businessmen’s Garden Club. The large main garden plot (the Florentine Circle) came first with its five-foot stone wall built by unemployed men, paid three dollars a day from city funds. The Oakland Post Enquirer reported in 1933 that “rock for 700 feet of walls came from the city’s quarry,” wherever that was.

It’s sound work, but not especially skilled. The stone is mixed sandstone of uncertain source and familiar volcanic rock from Oakland’s Leona Heights. The city never operated a formal quarry, to my knowledge — it didn’t need to because several private quarries could easily have donated the rough rock. My guess is that the operators of the Leona Heights Quarry were the most likely donor. Alternatively, the rock have have come from road-related excavations along upper Broadway or in Temescal Canyon.

The garden was opened and dedicated in May 1933, while work on the terrace garden and entryway plantings were under way. This photo from American Nurseryman is the earliest I’ve found (oaklandrose.com has the best images from later years).

The garden was formally dedicated again on 13 May 1934. That year California’s short-lived State Emergency Relief Administration, a precursor of the WPA, doubled the city’s funding for the project. In 1935 (the year the WPA was established) the Tribune reported that SERA workers were building the cascade.

A photo in the 24 April 1935 Oakland Post Enquirer shows that the loggia at the entrance, cascade, reflecting pool and upper paths had yet to be built. A 1936 photo in the 27 April Tribune, and 1937’s in the 9 May issue, show modest progress, mainly the building by the pool that is sometimes confusingly called the loggia.

Its steps consist of a rustic slate, not found locally.

The stonework here is of much higher quality, typical of WPA artisanship.

A July 1937 article on garden improvements cited WPA funding for the lily pond and loggia, which might mean the poolside building or the colonnade at the Jean Street entrance. These were finished by 1938, and the masonry is fully consistent with WPA work.

Photos at that time also appear to show that the stonework on the upper paths was complete. Which brings me to my favorite bit, up among the redwoods.

The famous cascade likewise has the fit and finish of a WPA product, although I can’t speak for its upper end or for the terrace garden, which looks more rugged like the walls of the main oval.

All of this stone is harmonious rock consistent with our Leona volcanics, a light-colored material with no particular fabric and a reddish iron-oxide surface that nicely sets off both the greenery and the blooms.

The stonework along the Mothers Walk dates from the 1950s and uses sandstone ashlars from an ordinary source, although there is a resemblance to the Midwestern sandstone recycled from Oakland’s first high school.

Can any of you tell me more? I may be modifying this post as I glean new facts. In the meantime, pay this exceptional place a visit!

This entry was posted on 4 August 2025 at 7:43 am and is filed under Geoheritage, Oakland stone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.