History of The Oakland Rose Garden

Back in the 1930s, under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, built numerous landscaping projects throughout the Bay Area. Notable were the Aquatic Park in San Francisco, The Mountain Theatre on Mount Tamalpais, the Berkeley Rose Garden and John Hinckle Park in Berkeley, and the Woodminster Theatre in Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. But, one of the most beautiful of these WPA projects is the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses designed by landscape architect Arthur Cobbledick.

In this wild canyon just off Grand Avenue, Cobbledick laid out a formal Italian garden inspired by the gardens of Florence and Rome. If you enter from Jean Street, there is a classical curved colonnade. Beyond the colonnade you will come to the Florentine: the garden, oval pool and loggia. Before and after the pool are a maze of beds containing from 6,000 to 8,000 varieties of roses. Recent scholarship has determined that all of the specimens in this area of the park hold significant historic value, some dating back to the 1800s and others extinct in the rest of the world. Rose enthusiasts come here to see varieties they can see nowhere else.

Surrounding the Florentine is The Oval, intended by Cobbledick to frame the roses planted within the Florentine with an oval backdrop providing a visual transition to the wilder hillsides above. Beyond The Oval comes The Ring, a collection of trees intended to anchor and frame this historic area with a defined landscape element that blocks the wilder hillsides beyond from below, but does not block the Florentine section from the streets above and bordering the park; Oakland, Monte Vista and Olive Avenues. Cascading down the wild West side of the park, through the upper area, the Ring, The Oval, and into the Florentine is a ten level waterfall beginning at a terraced amphitheater ringed with Italian stone pines.

The Rose Garden Neighborhood

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Grand Lake District

Surrounding the Rose Garden is a vibrant and distinctive urban neighborhood where people live, work and play. It is a neighborhood where people know each other.

On Saturdays, neighbors meet walking to and from the local Farmer's Market--just across from the historic Grand Lake Theater. Our neighborhood is rich with music and art. Many Sundays, from 3 to 6 PM, the Coffee Mill Restaurant and Cafe features live jazz music from local artists. Across Grand Avenue from the Coffee Mill, chocolatier Michael Mischer serves up handmade bonbons, truffles and gelatos. At nearby La Taza de Cafe, the wonderful Cuban cuisine is complemented by Andalusian Bellydance, Flamenco, Cuban Son and Latin Jazz every week. Walden Pond Bookstore has been selling great books and records on Grand Avenue since 1973.

There are numerous cozy cafes and quality restaurants on Grand and Lakeshore Avenues. Along with Trader Joes, a renovated Safeway, Gap and Gap Bay, lots of great boutiques. And of course the beautifully restored Grand Lake Theatre is the piece de resistance.

Besides the Rose Garden, there are several nearby neighborhood playgrounds. There is a nice branch of the Oakland Public Library nearby as well as Gold's Gym, numerous yoga studios, and Gymboree. Lake Merritt offers miles of trails for strolling, jogging and biking.