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Overview

Building History

According to the Oakland Wiki, the site later occupied by the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden was thought to have been a borrow pit, a site whose soil was excavated for use at another construction project. In the 1910s, the City of Oakland purchased the land and laid out Linda Vista Park here. During the depths of the Depression, in 1932, a local businessmen's group, the Businessmen's Breakfast Club, sought to build a civic amenity that would help brighten the mood locally. They seized on the idea of a public rose garden, and commissioned Oakland landscape architect Arthur Cobbledick to design it and an ampitheatre.

Oakland Mayor Frederick Morcom (1874-1955) planted the first rose bush in the garden in 1932, and served as a booster for the project in its early stages. The CIty of Oakland's Board of Park Directors voted to rename the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden as the "Morcom Rose Garden" in 1953.