{"nrhp_refnum":"92000313","name":"Alvarado Park","other_names":["Grand Canyon Park","Ca-Cco-553h"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Jct. of Marin and Park Aves.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond","county":"Contra Costa County","state":"CA","lat":37.952717043000064,"lon":-122.32053277243392,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-04-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Entertainment/Recreation","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Alvarado Park is a 42-acre urban park district along the Wildcat Creek canyon in the Richmond Hills, Richmond, California. It was developed from 1909 as Grand Canyon Park by Bernard Shapiro and later improved by the City of Richmond with state and federal work relief funds.","why_significant":"The park is significant as a product of Depression-era state and federal work relief, notably CWA and State Emergency Relief Administration funds spent on a city-run recreation project. It is also a distinctive urban version of NPS-style rustic park architecture, built to plans by Richmond City Engineer Edward Hoffman. Its features and layout retain excellent integrity.","narrative":"Alvarado Park is a 42-acre public park in Richmond, California, set in the canyon of Wildcat Creek. Bernard Shapiro began it in 1909 as Grand Canyon Park to promote his nearby real estate subdivision, and the City of Richmond took it over in 1923. Most of what visitors see today dates to 1934-1939, when state and federal work relief programs paid unemployed local craftsmen to build it. Working from plans by City Engineer Edward Hoffman, crews built a single-arch stone bridge, stone light poles, thousands of feet of stone and concrete walls, barbecue stoves and six creekside picnic sites. Additional stacked-concrete walls and barbecue areas were added in 1943. The park is notable because work of this kind is usually associated with rural Civilian Conservation Corps projects in state and national parks, while here it appears in a city setting. Its layout and Depression-era features remain well preserved.","period_of_significance":"1909-1943","architect_builder":"Hoffman, Edward A., Richmond City Engineer; stonemason \"Pete\" Merlo worked on the stone bridge","architectural_style":"NPS-type Rustic Architecture","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Five of six creekside picnic sites are in fair to excellent condition and still in use; picnic site 6 is severely deteriorated. The stone bridge is restricted to official vehicles because of a crack in its arch.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:28.04214-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/92000313.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000313/cceecfc1da-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000313/cceecfc1da-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alvarado_Park_(Richmond,_CA).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alvarado_Park_(Richmond,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858501","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvarado_Park","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4737881"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/contra-costa-county/alvarado-park-92000313/"}