California Nursery Historical Park
The California Nursery Office
under construction
This .....r.
The historical artifacts of
the California Nursery Company widely vary, from photos and
letters to physical belongings. The living legacy of the company
can be found in the California Nursery Office Museum, a building
dating back to over a hundred years ago.
The early 1900s
was the California Nursery’s height of expansion as it began to
garner recognition. This recognition caused William J. Landers,
who served as the company’s president for ten years, to update the
infrastructure of the nursery. The upgrade included the
construction of an office and a cottage to be used as a summer
home. Unfortunately, the 1906 earthquake negatively impacted the
plans for this upgrade but also led to the death of Landers.
Thankfully, the infrastructure plans were continued and completed
by Landers’ son, William H. Landers. The California Nursery
Office was built in 1907. It is rumored to have been designed by
the famed San Franciscan architect Bernard Maybeck, according to
Maybeck’s daughter. Maybeck also built the nursery’s Presidential
Cottage.
The office was used for administrative, export,
import, and domestic sales purposes. The construction was
considered modern at the time, with areas such as a telephone
switching room, a men’s bathroom, an outdoor patio, and amenities
including gas heat and electric lighting. A women’s bathroom was
also incorporated outside of the Nursery Office and is now known
as the Woman’s Changing Room. An office was created for the
company’s president and manager. The patio was replaced with
windows to propel the progression of sales activity by noted
architect Edward T. Foulkes in 1939.
After the
California Nursery was taken over by the City of Fremont in 1972,
the Nursery Office was used for various local groups such as the
Fremont Animal Control from 1972 to 1983 and the Fremont Police
Department as a Security and Communication Network Training Area
(SACNET) from 1983 to 1998. Between 1998 to 2011, the office
remained vacant. This unfortunately caused many infrastructural
problems including a leak in the roof, which led to the volunteer
work of non-profit Math Science Nucleus (MSN). The City of Fremont
requested Math Science Nucleus to save historical documents about
the nursery’s history from Bruce Roeding, the last owner of the
California Nursery Company. Roeding had kept California Nursery
Historical Company files on his property in two large containers
since 1972.
Due to the substantial amount of
documentation, the vacant California Nursery Office was an ideal
space to organize and archive. However, to begin using the space,
Math Science Nucleus first spent time cleaning up the building.
Board President of Math Science Nucleus Dr. Joyce Blueford
explains, “The inside was very musky and so intense that workers
could only stay inside for about twenty minutes.” The City of
Fremont also contributed to fixing up the paint and other
remaining concerns. Math Science Nucleus then used the 2,000
square feet space to assemble the many historical documents. The
archiving project was a significant contribution towards Fremont’s
agricultural and horticultural history as well as the entire
county and state. After consulting with historians and school
districts, it was decided that the archived material should be
seen by all residents. The office was marked as a field trip
destination for schools. Today, the building holds displays of a
wide assortment of historical artifacts that center around the
John Rock and Roeding family contribution to the birth and growth
of the California Nursery. The California State University of East
Bay has also contributed towards the archive exhibit by making
visual displays and signage.
Contribution by: Joyce Blueford, Charlene Dixon
(TriCity Voice)
|