Photo Credit: Courtesy of East Bay Regional Park District
California’s East Bay Regional Park District was conceived during the Great Depression. In 1929, when the local water utility declared 10,000 acres of hillside property surplus, residents of communities on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay organized to create a special district to preserve these open spaces as public lands for all time. The campaign was triumphant, and in a November 1934 election the regional agency became a reality. Today, 8 decades later, the district has grown to encompass 114,000 acres, 65 parks, and over 1,100 miles of intra-park trails.
Temescal Regional Recreation Area, an oasis set in the bustling city of Oakland, was one of three initial East Bay regional parks. Nestled in a small canyon, a reservoir provides opportunities for fishing and swimming. In 1940 the federal Works Projects Administration designed, commissioned, and constructed the park’s picturesque stone beach house and its adjacent waterfall.
An Aging Treasure During its heyday years in the 1940s and 1950s, the Temescal waterfall was a beautiful outdoor feature, enhancing visitors’ enjoyment of the surrounding gardens and park. An electric, centrifugal pump surged lake water to a 25-foot fall, where it cascaded into an artificial creek and down a second 40-foot fall, before returning to Lake Temescal. Once a scenic backdrop for park visits, special events, and even a bathing-beauty contest, by 2012 the waterfall was in poor condition, and water flow had diminished to a trickle. A major renovation would be required to restore the historic waterfall to its original flow and capacity.