About Alvarado Park at Wildcat Canyon

For those of you who want to know, the location (Alvarado Park, near the entrance to Wildcat Canyon Park) is significant to us for a number of reasons. Primarily, Heather's love of all things 30's and Jacob's passion for natural history. From the Wildcat Canyon Regional Parks website:

Alvarado Park . . . was a private park beginning in 1909, with ferry boats and a trolley bringing families from East Bay towns, and even San Francisco. The park was taken over by the City of Richmond in 1923 and transferred to the East Bay Regional Park District in 1985. The original facilities at Alvarado Park included an open-air pavilion and dance hall (later converted to a popular roller rink). These are now gone; what remains is the extensive stone work, including stone walls, stone light standards, and a beautiful stone arch bridge across Wildcat Creek. Because of the unique history and depression era WPA stone work, Alvarado Park is included in the National Register of Historic Places. [click on the link for some really old and cool planning documents]

(Grand Canyon Park, c. 1918)

The Richmond Museum of History further elaborates: "Once known as Grand Canyon Park, this area along Wildcat Creek has long been a favorite place to picnic, dance, and listen to music. The attractive stonework within its borders was added by the WPA during the Depression years. The “Chateau” in this photo still stands and is now a private residence."

The East Bay Regional Parks site also describes the natural elements of the larger park:

On east-facing slopes of Wildcat Canyon grow large coast live oaks, bay laurels, and a scattering of bigleaf maples and madrones. North-facing hillsides support some beautiful, nearly pure stands of bay laurel, fringed with coast live oak. Moist chaparral of coyote brush, poison oak, elderberry, snowberry, bracken fern, and blackberry grow in thickets high on the north-facing slopes.

In the gorge of bedrock-cutting Wildcat Creek grows a riparian forest of alder, willow, creek dogwood, and bay laurel. The forest extends the length of Wildcat Creek and part way up the tributaries. The west- and south-facing canyon slopes are covered with introduced annual grasses (oat, rye, barley, etc.). A few stands of native bunch grasses persist. There are many native wildflower species.

We can't wait to share this beautiful site with you for the special day - Don't forget to R.S.V.P!