The History and Future of El Cerrito’s Depression Era-Buildings

By Abigail Yee

This defaced marker, most likely dated May 1939, was placed at the top of an outdoor fireplace built as part of a WPA project at Huber Park. Photo by Jon Bashor

In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt enacted the New Deal, an economic plan to get the United States back on its feet after suffering from extreme debt and unemployment during the Great Depression. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an agency within the New Deal that employed over 8.5 million Americans in the building of public facilities. El Cerrito saw the construction and repairs of five city amenities during the 1930s, four of which are still standing. How do they reflect El Cerrito’s history, and what’s in store for their future?

The Great Depression hit America hard with record high unemployment rates, leaving over 12 million Americans without jobs. While El Cerrito remained more economically sound than other parts of the country due to the prospering housing industry, the effects of the era can still be seen today. According to Living New Deal, a public research project dedicated to preserving New Deal history, the WPA sponsored repairs to the Veterans’ Memorial Building, and the construction of Huber Park, Poinsett Park, the Camp Herms Swimming Pool complex and Wildcat Canyon’s Target Range.

El Cerrito’s depression-era sites have held up with varying amounts of success, from being abandoned, to debates over demolition, to 90 years of structural integrity.

Veterans’ Memorial Building

The plaster on the front of the El Cerrito Veterans’ Memorial Building is peeling away and breaking off in places. Photo by Jon Bashor

On Stockton Avenue lies the Veterans’ Memorial Building, dedicated in 1932 according to an El Cerrito Journal article written for the occasion In 1922, Contra Costa County approved the construction of 13 memorial veterans’ buildings to honor those who served their country during World War 1, although each city had to raise funds on their own.  The hall was home to "American Legion, Louis Hagen Post 340," named to honor the first local person killed in World War I. The El Cerrito building was the first steel-reinforced structure in the county, a technique much more common now. The original construction of the building was organized by the American Legion Post, and repairs to the building were sponsored by the WPA the next year. The repairs to the building, largely consisting of painting, employed 14 people during the Great Depression. The El Cerrito Veterans’ Memorial Building is one of only eight of the buildings that are still standing.

There have been many conversations within the county, which owns the building, about the future of the historic site. County Supervisor John Gioia expressed his wishes for the building. “We want to make this historic building become a more integral part of the civic life of the El Cerrito-Richmond area,” Gioia said. “We hope to make the Veterans’ Building a place where seniors, veterans, and parent, student and community groups gather and hold events that enrich the lives of local residents.”

Suggested immediate repairs for the building include installing a new fire alarm, repairs to the concrete spallation, and making the wheelchair ramp, installed in 2014, compliant with the updated Americans with Disabilities Act. Gioia hopes to get $600,000 dollars from the county to start the repairs and hopes to work with the historical society and other local non-profits to maintain the building.

New Deal Parks

This stone retaining wall, reaching up to more than 13 feet tall, was built at Huber Park as part of a WPA project. Photo by Jon Bashor

The WPA was responsible for the construction of two of El Cerrito’s earliest parks, Huber Park and Poinsett Park, both of which are still standing today. Huber Park is located on Terrace Drive. Poinsett Park is located on Poinsett Avenue, near Mira Vista. Both parks feature strong stone walls built during the depression era that have held up very well over time. In addition to their walls, both parks feature playgrounds and basketball courts that were installed in 1939.

Construction on Huber Park began in 1935, according to a plaque on one of the park’s many walls. SERA refers to the State Emergency Relief Administration, which sponsored the park along with the WPA. The walls are rumored to have been built by Italian stonemasons, according to local folklore. The walls hold back significant amounts of the hill behind the park, and the largest one measures 13 feet and 3 inches at its tallest point, and is approximately 189 feet long.

This fireplace was built into the upper stone retaining wall at Huber Park. Photo by Jon Bashor

Prior to the construction of both Huber and Poinsett Park, parks in El Cerrito were almost non-existent, according to a 2014 Forge article by Rich Bartke, a former El Cerrito mayor and co-founder of the El Cerrito Historical Society. Bartke wrote that El Cerrito was one of the last small cities in the nation to establish a public park system. Huber and Poinsett parks helped shape the city into what it is today, as parks now play a prominent role in the El Cerrito community.

Camp Herms Stone Walls and Swimming Pool

These stone walls, enclosed swimming pool and changing room (at rear) were built at Camp Herms by WPA workers. EC Historical Society photo

Camp Herms, formerly known as Camp Berkeley, is a Boy Scout camp located near Arlington Park. The Boy Scouts of America designed the camp in 1929 and began construction in 1930. At the time, the WPA didn’t work on any private property, so the local Boy Scouts council which owned the camp at the time surrendered property rights to El Cerrito. The city returned ownership to the camp after the building of the walls and pool. The camp was built in what used to be a quarry, and was to contain a lodge, fences, bathrooms, and a pool complex including a changing room and stout stone walls enclosing the pool. The WPA began sponsoring the building of the pool project in 1936, according to a history written by Victor Lindblad, the Scout Executive during the pool’s construction. The camp was completed in 1939, and the pool operated until the 1970s.

Today, the pool area faces a contentious debate. Jon Gillespie, the Camp Herms Property Committee Chair, is considering seeking a demolition permit from the city to fill in the historic pool and remove the stone walls, in order to preserve the safety of the scouts using the area, as well as other curious visitors. Due to the structure of the pool, filling it in would require tearing down the walls that surround it, which many at the Historical Society oppose, and some suggest repurposing the walls rather than removing them entirely. In exchange for permission to remove the walls, the Camp Herms Property Committee would mount a fundraising effort to pay for restoration of the poolside changing room, also built of stone as part of the original project. The restored building would then be used by the scouts for training, according to Gillespie. Stones from the walls, which were originally mined from the quarry, would be reused in future projects should demolition be approved. Currently, the stone wall is blocked off from the rest of the camp with a chain link fence, while awaiting next steps.

Wildcat Canyon National Guard Target Range

The twisted metal target stands at the bottom of this photo are remnants of the target range. This photo was taken facing west — note the row of homes at the top of the ridge. EC Historical Society photo

In 1938, the WPA and the Work Relief Programs employed 266 people in the building of a firearms target range in Wildcat Canyon, just east of El Cerrito and today a regional park. The range provided training for rifles and other small armed weapons. In an article published in the January 1939 issue of the California Guardsman about the project, Captain Samuel R. Dows said that “It is not an ideal place to build a range, but Col. Allen saw its potentialities. So construction started under a WPA project.” Dows also referred to the location of the target range, nestled in the hills of Wildcat Canyon as “pretty a bit of scenery as you ever saw.”

The target range had 90 targets, ranging from 200 to 1000 yards away, which is the length of 10 football fields. The range was used by the National Guard throughout the 1950s and  ’60s, but has since been abandoned. The only remains of the once-impressive target range is Rifle Range Road and trailhead in Wildcat Canyon. The area has returned to its natural state, and is still a popular hiking spot today.

Editor’s note: Abigail Yee is a senior at El Cerrito High School. After graduating in June 22025, she hopes to attend a California university, majoring in political science and minoring in communications. She plans to pursue a career in journalism.

This article was written as part of a pilot program to encourage El Cerrito High School students to research and write about historical topics of interest to them.