Picnic area, Montclair Park - Oakland CA
Description
The seven-acre Montclair Park in Oakland was built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-40. This gem of a park lies just north of Montclair Village in the Oakland hills and below Montclair Elementary School.
The park features a picnic area, children’s playground and a play area under a group of large trees, as well as a large lawn area for general play. The park also includes a recreation center, duck pond, baseball field, tennis courts and extensive rock walls and stairs.
The City of Oakland Recreation Department put in $90,000 for the park and recreation center (Beebe 1938). The amount of federal funds is not certain. We know that $55,000 was allocated for this and another WPA project in 1937-38 (Gray 1938). More was likely added in 1939-40, but we have not been able to track down those figures.
The old fire station done in “Hansel & Gretel” style at the far north end is not part of the park.
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Picnic area, Montclair Park - Oakland CA
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Picnic area, Montclair Park - Oakland CA
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Play area under trees, Montclair Park - Oakland CA
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Play area under trees, Montclair Park - Oakland CA
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Play area under trees, Montclair Park - Oakland CA
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Playground area, Montclair Park - Oakland CA
Source notes
Clare Beebe, "Work started on Montclair Recreation Center project," Oakland Tribune, March 27, 1938.
Jane Gray, "Highlights of playground activities: City releases year's survey", Oakland Tribune, September 18, 1938, p. 8-A
https://localwiki.org/oakland/Montclair_Recreation_Center
WPA Plaque on site (see photo)
Project originally submitted by Dr. Tanya Lyn March on July 10, 2022.
Additional contributions by Ben Stone, Richard A Walker.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
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