John Sanborn

Situated by East 17th Street and Fruitvale, horticulturist John Sanborn once owned an extensive garden filled with over 100 different plant species he cultivated himself. Sanborn purchased this land in the late 1870s and passed away in 1889; his wife, Elizabeth B. Sanborn, kept the land private until 1925. She sold the land to the City of Oakland and it became Elizabeth B. Sanborn Park. We now know the land as Josie de la Cruz Park. Interestingly, the park’s history goes back even further than 1925. Before Sanborn turned the land into gardens, the area was once a farm. Chinese laborers who worked on the building of the Temescal Reservoir and the Transcontinental Railroad managed the farm. Despite a lack of records on Chinese communities at the time, there are historical reports detailing the presence of a Chinese wash house in the area.