- City:
- Piedmont, CA
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Athletic Courts and Fields
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Completed:
- 1940
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
In the late 1920s, the city of Piedmont was outgrowing its schools and many classes were being held in temporary buildings. In the 1930s, voters passed a bond issue and the school district undertook a major rebuilding program. It took the assistance of the New Deal to get the job done, however.
One planned new school, in the St. James neighborhood, was never built. Instead, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built retaining walls and leveled the site in anticipation of the new school.
The extensive concrete retaining walls, with Art Moderne touches, are still there at the corner of Hampton and LaSalle Streets below the baseball diamond, as well as out in left field and behind the play school building in right field.
The WPA built the first dirt ballfields on the site which lasted through the 1960s. but the park’s facilities have been completely redone and upgraded over time. In 1973, the city Recreation Department built a baseball field, tennis courts, handball court, basketball courts and a restroom. In 2016, the field was renovated again and dedicated as Hampton Park.
Source notes
THE ATTIC TRUNK 9:4 (Summer, 2007). (Magazine of the Piedmont Historical Society)
The Piedmonter, August 22, 1940.
Gail Lombardi, Chair of the Piedmont Historical Society (communication of July 20, 2020).
Site originally submitted by Richard A Walker on June 4, 2020.
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