In August, we utilized one of our local Bay Area parks to check off #5 for the year. The Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond honors the work of the women who worked in the Kaiser Shipyards during WWII.
This was actually my second visit to the site, both times tacking the visit onto a trip to the Mountain Hardware Employee Store after scoring an entry pass to stock up on some good activewear. The Rosie the Riveter Visitor’s Center is located at the site of a 1930 Ford Assembly Plant, a great old building that now houses businesses such as Mountain Hardware and a restaurant.
In the Visitor’s Center, there are great interpretive exhibits about the shipyards, the role of women in the workforce, and the town of Richmond. It was interesting to learn about how the town of Richmond expanded almost overnight and became a booming, diverse community, although not without its issues of discrimination. In addition to the main Visitor Center, there are a few other historical sites scattered throughout Richmond, including an original ship, that are a part of the Park.
The Richmond shipyards, owned by Henry Kaiser whose previous projects included the Hoover Dam, produced more than 700 ships during WWII. For those of us who have had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente, an interesting fact is that it started as the employee health plan for those who worked in the Kaiser shipyards. In the Visitor Center, you can try out a (bolted down) rivet gun, although it was broken this past visit.
I also enjoyed looking at all of the copies of wartime propaganda, including an example by Walt Disney and another that will make you think twice about not carpooling!
Unfortunately, both times I have been to the Rosie the Riveter site, I have had to leave before the talk given by Ranger Betty Soskin, the oldest NPS park ranger who shares her experience in the local community during WWII. I have heard it is a great talk from an amazing woman and hope to make it one day! We also just missed this year’s Rosie Rally, a community gathering of >2000 individuals in their best Rosie gear in a friendly competition with a town in MI to secure the Guinness World Record. Too bad because I’m not opposed to dressing my baby in a Rosie outfit for the cause!
