World War Two is the event which changed the World, the United States and California forever. Before the War, California was, and in many places still is, an agricultural powerhouse; but the War made the Golden State an industrial one as well. As recently as 2018, manufacturing accounted for 10.67% of the state’s economic output worth $316.76 billion dollars. As early as the 1850’s, there was manufacturing in California, but it was the need for war materiel that accounted for the rapid expansion of the industrial sector of the state’s economy. With this growth came the need for workers, and millions came to the shipyards, factories, and manufacturing plants located in California, leaving a legacy of demographic diversity which exists today.
The San Francisco Bay Area was transformed, seemingly overnight. Thousands of workers flooded the area filling jobs in the shipyards and factories which ran twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to meet the demands of the government for war materiel. One of the towns most heavily affected was Richmond. In 1930, Ford built a 500,000 square foot assembly plant in Richmond, which became the largest assembly plant built on the West Coast at that time. Production at the plant began in 1931 and Ford became the third largest employer in Richmond after Standard Oil and the Santa Fe Railroad. With the United States entry into World War Two, the Office of War Production issued an order that as of February 2, 1942 all production of civilian automobiles and light trucks would end for the duration of the war. In 1940, Henry J. Kaiser established the first of his four shipyards in Richmond which again provided employment for the citizens of Richmond and the surrounding area.
During the war, the Ford Assembly plant became the “Richmond Tank Depot”, one of only three in the country, and 49,359 jeeps and 90,000 other vehicles were assembled there. The Kaiser Richmond shipyards produced 747 Liberty ships. After the war, the shipyards were shut down, however, the changes made to Richmond were permanent. Kaiser and others needed workers for thir plants so they recruited African-Americans and women to work as many of their male and Caucasian workers went into military service. Housing was built for the influx of new workers and cities boomed. Kaiser set up a health care system for his workers that became Kaiser Permanente Health Care, one of the country’s largest HMOs.
The Ford Assembly Plant still stands and has been repurposed. In the oil building of the plant is the Rosie The Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park Visitor Center. In the Visitor Center is a small museum dedicated to the role of women in war production and how World War Two resulted in huge demographic shifts in the country and in the Bay Area. The park itself consists of twenty three sites, buildings and markers which tell the story and legacy of the war effort in the Bay Area and beyond. From the large scale employment of women and African-Americans, which led to the women’s rights and civil rights movements of the 1950’s to today to the sacrifices that the people at home made to support the war effort, to the institutions which were started during the war and continue today, the park does preserve and present the transformation of California and the country as a whole.
Highlights of the park include the Ford Assembly Plant, which today houses several businesses including Mountain Hardware, the Rosie The Riveter Memorial located in Marina Bay Park on land that was the former Richmond Shipyard #2, two former wartime housing developments, Atchison and Nystrom Villages, the Nystrom School, the SS Red Oak Victory, the Cafeteria, Rigger’s Loft and the General Warehouse.
GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street, take I-80 East toward Sacramento. From I-80 East, take exit 13B, on the right, for I-580 West toward Richmond/San Rafael. From I-580 West take exit 9B to Cutting Boulevard. Turn right on Cutting Boulevard. Take the first right onto Harbour Way South. Stay on Harbour Way South until you see the National Park sign. Turn into the parking area and go to the back of the Ford Plant. Turn right and follow the access road to the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is open from 10 am to 5 pm all year with the exception of New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: The Park’s website is https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm. The Park’s mailing address is 1414 Harbour Way South, Suite 3000, Richmond, CA 94804. The phone number is: 510-232-5050
