Old Richmond greenhouses captured in photos

San Francisco Chronicle / sfgate.com ^ | Tuesday, October 5, 2010 | Joe Eaton,Ron Sullivan, Special to The Chronicle

[thecodont]

Driving south on Interstate 80, you get a tantalizing glimpse of the old greenhouses near the Richmond-El Cerrito border. Closed in 2006 when the Sakai and Oishi families sold their properties to the city of Richmond, they're the vestige of a once-thriving community of Japanese American cut-flower growers. The greenhouses will be demolished to make way for a housing development called, in the fine tradition of necronyms, Miraflores. Fortunately, several local photographers found the site before the bulldozers arrived, and the nurseries and the families who ran them star in concurrent special exhibitions at the Richmond Art Center and the Richmond Museum of History.

At street level, the scale is impressive: acres of greenhouses, boarded-up residences, water towers and other structures. Chain-link fences bristle with "Keep Out" signs, and feral cats flicker in and out of the weeds. The short-lived carnations the Oishis grew are long gone to straw, but on the adjacent Sakai property, the roses have pushed through the glass, covering buildings with a canopy of vines and blossoms. According to Bill Sakai, these survivors are rootstock varieties to which the commercially valuable hybrid roses were grafted.

It's a mix of decay and exuberance few photographers could resist. Ellen L. Gailing got the Redevelopment Agency's permission to document the site just after the businesses closed; Matthew Matsuoka, Fletcher Oakes and Ken Osborn followed.

"We created the Richmond Camera Club, an official body, so the city could let us in," Matsuoka said. "At first, I was looking for source material for my paintings. I was overwhelmed by the visual spectacle of the place, and the scent in the greenhouses. You see the hardiness of the plants and what nature is capable of. How does a rose break glass?"

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/05/DDD71FJKR8.DTL&feed=rss.homeandgarden#ixzz11YVpZfws

[thecodont]

Another bit of local history.

[Carry_Okie]

Sad that the bulldozers are getting them, I wish I'd known.

I would love to have salvaged a glass greenhouse. I have room for one.

[Beowulf9]

I’m so sick of ‘developers’ who tear down what has already been developed in much better style and grace than they ever imagined, and who put up boxlike cheap structures that usually fill up with trashy people anyway and ruin the landscape.

Liberals love people to be all squashed together in housing projects and developements.

[thecodont]

Good read here!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/creepy-abandoned-greenhouses-richmond

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Sad story. There were gladiola farms around here after WW2, all gone now. You could find bundles of glads in almost any “dime store”. I don’t recall seeing gladiolas since about 40 years ago.

[dennisw]

If it were up to me, you reverse course and rehabilitate the greenhouses which can be productive enterprises. Why bulldoze to build more Gov’t subsided housing when there is a glut of housing in California.

The bankruptcy of this project is shown by the 14 acres of greenhouses being bought in 2006 for 7.6 million but no movement to build the housing yet. Millions of dollars were wasted buying these properties not to mention the hundreds of thousands in bribes paid to connected hacks. My translation is the Japanese-American sellers made out like bandits and connected Hispanics will fill this “non-profit” built housing. Non-profit meaning taxpayers are paying

[Spudx7]

A college friend used to bring garbage bags full of gladiolas from her family’s garden to share with us. Wish I had her green thumb.

[Right Wing Assault]

http://www.greenhouse-bbs.com/bbs/clasequi.htm

[Think free or die]

We have similar greenhouses just outside Philadelphia. There are 2 or 3 of them, with roses breaking through the glass. It just breaks my heart to see them going to waste. It was a thriving family business for many years, until they went under a few years ago. My understanding is that the US created a new tariff structure which greatly favored rose growers outside the US. It was an attempt to encourage South American drug growers to grow roses instead. It put our local firm out of business. I really miss the fresh and fragrant roses they used to sell.

I don't think the greenhouses will be returned to productive use. The land was intended to be developed and a sign went up at one point for high-end homes. The housing market stalled, and the sign came down. I suspect the developer would be happy to get rid of the greenhouses if someone wanted to dismantle and move them out.

[tubebender]

Have you ever toured any of the greenhouse growing operations near Half Moon Bay? Sun Valley Floral Farms has a operation near Arcata Ca growing cut flowers that must be 50 acres under glass plus 250 acres of open field growing. They have a open house once a year in early fall and we try to go every other year...

[Carry_Okie]

Have you ever toured any of the greenhouse growing operations near Half Moon Bay?

A little. Beautiful location for a grower in that the energy costs for cooling are lower.

[tubebender]

Sun Valley donated a 4,000 sf glass green house and erected it on the Humboldt Botanical garden site near College of the Redwoods overlooking south Humboldt bay. My temporary green house is a 8 X 8 plastic popup tent like structure that will be replaced with a 8 X 10 or 10 X 12 glass structure depending on how much money I get for a car I am selling

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