Thornhill Park

You can spot part of Temescal Creek flowing through this region right along Thornhill Drive. The area that was once Thornhill Park is now part of Forest Park and Montclair Highlands. First advertised for sale in 1917, Realty Syndicate Company billed Thornhill Park as a place where some Oakland residents could buy parcels of land to raise chickens and plant garden beds. The advertisement announcing the land for sale included a line that read: "No African or Asiatic people will be allowed." The inclusion of this racist proclamation is a reminder that access to undeveloped nature and parks is part of intended structural restrictions built into a systemically racist society. Apparently, the land was difficult to sell because by 1922, a liquidation sale offered parcels for .60 on the $1. Phil Hearty, a local developer, had an office in that area, and he ended up purchasing the rest of the unsold land.