Oakland’s Nineteenth Century Parks and Resorts: "Lungs of the City," Commercial Sporting Venues, and Instruments of Civic Boosterism

In 1850, California became the nation’s thirty-first state. Just two years later, Oakland was incorporated as a city and very soon thereafter its leaders set aside valuable downtown space for parks and declared their intention to expend considerable public funds on maintaining them. This action was motivated, in part, by many people of the time believing that urban gardens and parks could help defend and recover the physical and psychological health of city residents. Oakland’s early entrepreneurs capitalized on the city’s pastoral setting and the public’s desire for healthy and entertaining outdoor recreation by establishing numerous for-profit parks, pleasure gardens,...