At its meeting tonight, the Richmond Historic Preservation Commission will consider plans to rehabilitate several historic homes and structures tied to the city’s once-thriving Japanese American nursery community.
City staff are seeking a Certificate of Appropriateness to move forward with work on historic Miraflores buildings in the area of S 47th Street and Florida Avenue. Structures include the Oishi residence, the Sakai residence, and the site’s pump house and water tank. All four are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The Oishi home is slated for rehabilitation. The Sakai house, however, was recently damaged in two fires. City architects will now determine whether it can be repaired or if it must be reconstructed using documentation and photos.
The properties are located at the Miraflores Subdivision, a 14-acre site once home to the Sakai, Oishi and Endo family nurseries. Beginning around 1905, these families were part of a Japanese American grower community that grew to about 20 nurseries before WWII.
After the war, the nurseries declined. The City of Richmond purchased the Miraflores site in 2006 with plans for a mix of affordable senior housing, condominiums, and a greenbelt park. The 80-unit senior housing development was completed in 2018, but the for-sale housing project stalled when the prior developer went bankrupt. Ownership has since transferred to Acrire Holdings LLC, which is working to revive the project.
As the housing portion remains on hold, the city is proposing to relocate the historic homes and structures into the park and install interpretive signage to tell the story of the Japanese American families who built Richmond’s nursery industry.
Officials say the effort would strengthen ties to the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park by highlighting how wartime policies uprooted Japanese American residents.
The Historic Preservation Commission meeting will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p m. tonight at 450 Civic Center Plaza.