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The Morcom Amphitheater of Roses, a 7.5 acre city park in north Oakland, is in bloom now through late October.
During the Great Depression, as municipal rose gardens became popular in many communities across the nation, the city established the garden on an arroyo that slopes downward from Oakland Avenue and opens to the south end of Jean Street just above Grand Avenue through the federal Works Progress Administration. It was designed by landscape architect and Alameda native Arthur Cobbledick and planted in V, according to The Living New Deal.
Named as one of the top 10 municipal rose gardens in America, it was laid out in 1933 and will celebrate its 87th anniversary this year. The project sprang up as members of the Businessmen’s Breakfast Club, a local businessmen’s garden club, wanted to boost the city’s mood amid the historic economic downturn.
Oakland’s then-Mayor Frederick Morcom planted the first rose bush in 1932 in a site that’s since become home to at least 5,000 roses. Half of those flowers are “historic rose cultivars,” estimated to have been included in the garden from the beginning, according to a Historic American Landscapes Survey conducted by the National Park Service in 2014.
The gardens were considered a manifestation of the so-called City Beautiful Movement, which called for the establishment of public parks to “invigorate the body and spirit” by bringing nature into the urban setting. The undeveloped parcel that became Oakland’s rose garden formed a natural bowl shape that protected the roses from winds and offered opportunities to view the garden while standing on lookouts above.
Formal Florentine-style rose beds were laid out, with pathways on an axis. A Mediterranean-style loggia was installed, housing restrooms and a shed to store tools.
The rose garden achieved official landmark status in 1980.
