Roeding Park
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| Roeding Park | |
|---|---|
 Roeding Park Entrance Sign | |
 Interactive map of Roeding Park | |
| Type | Urban park |
| Location | Fresno, California |
| Coordinates | 36°45′12″N 119°49′22″W / 36.75333°N 119.82278°W |
| Area | 145.27 acres (58.79 ha) |
| Created | 1903 |
| Operated by | City of Fresno |
| Status | Open all year |
| Public transit access |  FAX: 33 |
Roeding Park is a 90-acre (360,000 m2) regional city park in Fresno, California established in 1903 via a gift from the Roeding family.
The Fresno Chaffee Zoo occupies approximately one third of the acreage in the middle of the southern half of the park. The southwest corner includes Storyland, Playland and a lake between them. The rest of the park includes several ponds, groves of ash, cedar, pine, and eucalyptus, maple, and redwood trees as well as picnic areas, tennis courts and a Southern Pacific train engine. The park also has a Japanese War Memorial.[1]
Roeding Park was a gift of Frederick and Marianne Roeding to the City of Fresno on May 2, 1903.[2][3] The gift of 70 acres of land came with the stipulations that it be used for a public park and that the city spend $3,500 per year, for ten years, improving it. On April 7, 1908, the Roedings donated an additional 46 acres. Sixteen years later, on January 2, 1924, the City of Fresno purchased an additional 40 acres from the Roedings, bringing park's total size to 159 acres.[1]
Landscape architect Johannes Reimers from Stockton, California, was retained to design the park, for the sum of $300. By the end of 1906, the park had been planted with trees and by 1910, a hard surface had been applied to the roads inside the park. The Fresno Traction Company constructed a Roeding Park branch line, completed in 1912, to transport visitors there by trolley.[1][4]
A zoo component was added in the 1920s, and grew substantially over time. Members of Fresno's Rotary club raised funds to build Playland amusement park in 1955, and Storyland was added in 1962.[1]
From 1954 to 1996, Roeding Park hosted the reconstructed in Fort Miller Blockhouse, which was the oldest structure in Fresno County, dating from 1851. It had been dismantled and moved from the Friant Dam area. While in Roeding Park, it was re-dedicated as the Fort Miller Blockhouse Museum where relics of early Fresno County history and other exhibits are contained in the building, which is listed on the local register of historic places.[1]
In July 2009, Page & Turnbull inventoried and evaluated Roeding Park as a historic district as part of the Roeding Park and Fresno Chaffee Zoo Facility Master Plans Draft Environmental Impact Report.[5] Accordingly, Roeding Park is identified as meeting National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) Criteria A and C and California Register of Historical Resources (CRHR) Criteria 1 and 3 in the areas of Entertainment/Recreation, Community Planning & Development, and Landscape Architecture. The district contains 25 contributing resources and the period of significance was 1903–1953. A qualified Architectural Historian meeting the Secretary of Interior Professional Qualification Standards conducted the 2009 Roeding Park survey.[1][6][7][8]
