A Bygone Era On Display — Our Once-flourishing Japanese-American Nurseries

You can still see their remains -- rusted and collapsing frames overgrown with weeds -- all that's left of the Japanese-American nurseries that once thrived in an expanse of land in the northwest corner of El Cerrito and part of Richmond.

The Japanese-American entrepreneurs and settlers who flocked there beginning at the dawn of the 20th century comprised the first community in the district associated with the name "Stege." El Cerrito wouldn't be born until 1917 when the city was incorporated.

The community thrived. By 1930, a Japanese school existed and would last a decade until 1940, just before the upheaval of World War II and the relocation of people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast to detention camps.

Unlike many of the Japanese-American enterprises that were ended forever by the war, the nursery community returned, rebuilt and endured several more decades before fading from existence. Today there's nothing left but ruins of the well-tended splendor that bloomed block upon block in that giant urban garden.

You can now glimpse that lost world in a special exhibition in the gallery space at El Cerrito City Hall until Oct. 7. The photos are from the El Cerrito Historical Society's collection, which also contributed to a similar exhibit at the city's senior center last fall.

The City Hall exhibit includes maps locating individual nurseries and copies of historical documents, such as the May 3, 1942 evacuation announcement to "persons of Japanese ancestry."

A companion exhibit, "Blossoms and Thorns: The Legacy of Richmond's Historic Japanese American Nurseries," will also include contemporary photos of the haunting remains of the nurseries. It will be at the Richmond Art Center, Sept. 14 - Nov. 13.