Editing Richmond, California (section)

==History==
[[File:Don_Víctor_Castro.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Richmond was originally part of [[Rancho San Pablo]], a Mexican-era [[ranchos of California|rancho]] granted to [[Francisco María Castro]] in 1823 and reconfirmed to his son Don [[Víctor Castro (landowner)|Víctor Castro]], a noted [[Californio]] ranchero and politician (pictured), in 1834.]]

The [[Ohlone]] were the first inhabitants of the Richmond area, settling an estimated 5,000 years ago.<ref name="History of Richmond">{{cite web |title=History of Richmond |publisher=City of Richmond |url=https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/112/History-of-Richmond |access-date=June 25, 2007}}</ref> They spoke the [[Chochenyo language]],<ref name="UCB Linguistics">{{Cite web|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/chochenyo.php|title=Chochenyo – Survey of California and Other Indian Language|publisher=University of California, Berkeley|date=2016|access-date=August 28, 2017}}</ref> and subsisted as [[hunter-gatherer]]s and [[harvest]]ers.<ref>Controlled burning as harvesting, Brown 1973:3,4,25; Levy 1978:491; Stanger, 1969:94; Bean and Lawton, 1973:11,30,39 (Lewis). Quotation, "A rough husbandry of the land", Brown 1973:4. Seafood, nuts and seeds, Levy 1978:491–492. Trapped small animals, Milliken, 1995:18. Food maintenance and natural resource management, Teixeira, 1997:2.</ref>

===Origins===
The site that would eventually become the city of Richmond was part of the [[Rancho San Pablo]] land granted to Don [[Francisco María Castro]], from which the nearby town of San Pablo inherited its name; the [[Point Richmond]] area was known originally as The Potrero and then renamed as Point Stevens in early charts of [[San Francisco Bay]].<ref name=PtRichHist/> Point Richmond was an island, but industrial development and deliberate fill connected it to the mainland by the early 1900s.<ref name=PtRichHist/>

On July 4, 1900, the [[Santa Fe Railroad]]'s western terminus was established at Point Richmond with ferry connections from Ferry Point in the Brickyard Cove area to San Francisco.<ref name=PtRichHist/> The Santa Fe railroad also built a major rail yard next to Point Richmond. It constructed a tunnel through the Potrero San Pablo ridge to run track from the yard to a ferry landing from which freight cars could be transshipped to San Francisco. Where this track crosses the main street in Point Richmond, there remain two of the last operational [[Wigwag (railroad)|wigwag]] grade crossing signals in the United States, and the only surviving examples of the "upside-down" type. The wigwag is a type of railroad crossing signal that was phased out in the 1970s and '80s across the country. There was controversy in 2005 when the State Transportation Authority ordered the BNSF railroad company to upgrade the railroad crossing signals. A compromise was achieved that included installing new modern crossing gates, red lights and bells while not removing, but simply shutting off, the historic ones and preserving their functionality for special events.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2002/06_July/going_wiggy_over_wig-wags.htm |title=Going Wiggy over Wig-Wags – Pt. Richmond's Wig-Wag Controversy |first=Jim |last=Mallory |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608180018/http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2002/06_July/going_wiggy_over_wig-wags.htm |archive-date=June 8, 2007 |website=BayCrossings.com |date=July 6, 2002 |access-date=May 18, 2007}}</ref>

[[File:Standard Oil Refinery Richmond CA 1913.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The Standard Oil refinery pictured in 1913.]]

[[Standard Oil]] set up operations on land sold by Emily Tewksbury in 1901, including what is now the [[Chevron Richmond Refinery]] and [[Oil depot|tank farm]], which [[Chevron Corporation|Chevron]] still operates. There is a pier into San Francisco Bay south of [[Point Molate Beach Park|Point Molate]] for oil tankers.
===Early days===
The city of Richmond was incorporated in 1905.<ref name=PtRichHist>{{cite web |url=https://www.pointrichmondhistory.org/PDF_Other/history.html |title=A Brief History of Point Richmond |author=Roselius, Donna |publisher=The Point Richmond History Association |access-date=March 9, 2023}}</ref> Until the enactment of prohibition in 1919, the city had the largest [[winery]] in the world;<ref name="SFC20080629"/> the small abandoned village of [[Winehaven, California|Winehaven]] remains fenced off along Western Drive in the Point Molate Area. Richmond was a small town at that time, with some industrial development centered on the waterfront based around the railroad and oil refineries.

The [[Pullman Company]] also established a major facility in Richmond in the early 20th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pullmanshops.com |title=Pullman Shop |access-date=February 19, 2013}}</ref> The facility connected with both the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific and serviced their passenger coach equipment. The Pullman Company was a large employer of African American men, who worked mainly as [[porter (railroad)|porters]] on the Pullman cars.<ref>{{cite web |first=Lyn |last=Hughes |url=http://www.aphiliprandolphmuseum.com |title=A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum |access-date=February 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116030009/http://aphiliprandolphmuseum.com/ |archive-date=January 16, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pullman-museum.org/laborAndRace/raceRelations.html |publisher=The Pullman State Historic Site |title=Pullman & the African-American Experience |access-date=May 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130907014525/http://www.pullman-museum.org/laborAndRace/raceRelations.html |archive-date=September 7, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Many of them settled in the East Bay, from Richmond to Oakland, before World War II.

[[File:Stegeaerial1930.jpg|thumb|left|Southern Richmond in 1930, then known as the town of [[Stege, California]]]]
From 1917 and throughout the 1920s, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] was active in the city.<ref name="Moore2001">{{cite book|author=Shirley Ann Wilson Moore|title=To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910-1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZaYwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159|date=April 13, 2001|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22920-4|page=25}}</ref>

In 1930 the [[Ford Motor Company]] opened the [[Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant|Richmond Assembly Plant]], which later moved to [[Milpitas, California|Milpitas]] in 1956. The old Ford plant in Richmond has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988.<ref>{{NRISref |version=2013a |refnum=88000919 |name=Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant}}</ref> In 2004 it was purchased by developer Eddie Orton,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Ford-Point-bringing-new-life-to-Richmond-3166378.php |title=Ford Point bringing new life to Richmond |first=Carolyn |last=Said |date=November 14, 2010 |access-date=May 28, 2013}}</ref> who converted it into an events center named Ford Point Building–The Craneway.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.richmondca4business.com/news/documents/ScenicEastBayEventVenue-FordPointCranewayNov07.pdf |title=Richmond's Historic Ford Point Building Craneway, ''Bay Crossings'', November 2007 |access-date=February 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314104451/http://www.richmondca4business.com/news/documents/ScenicEastBayEventVenue-FordPointCranewayNov07.pdf |archive-date=March 14, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Wartime boomtown and shifting demographics===
At the onset of [[World War II]], the four [[Richmond Shipyards]] were built along Richmond's waterfront, employing thousands of workers, many migrating to Richmond from other parts of the country after being recruited. These new workers generally lived in housing constructed specifically for the wartime boom, scattered throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Richmond, Berkeley and Albany. Many of these new migrants were [[Great Migration (African American)|Black Americans from the South and to a lesser extent the Midwest]] who took jobs in heavy industry and transport as those industries expanded to meet the needs of the war economy, while increased numbers of women also joined the industrial workforce for the first time as large numbers of working-age men were drafted for the war effort. During the war, Richmond's population increased dramatically, rising from 23,000 in 1940 to 114,899 in 1942 and peaking at around 120,000 by 1945.<ref name=Graves>{{cite report |url=http://www.tombutt.com/pdf/mapping%20richmond%20final.pdf |title=Mapping Richmond's World War II Home Front |author=Graves, Donna |date=July 2004 |publisher=National Park Service, Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park |access-date=March 8, 2023}}</ref>{{rp|3}}

A specially built rail line, the [[Shipyard Railway]], transported workers to the shipyards. Kaiser's Richmond shipyards built 747 [[Victory ship|Victory]] and [[Liberty ship]]s for the war effort, more than any other site in the U.S.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rosie the Riveter – World War II Home Front National Historical Park: World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area |publisher =National Park Service |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/ros.htm |access-date=June 26, 2007}}</ref> The shipyards broke many records, including the completion of a Liberty ship in just five days. On average the yards built a new ship in 30 days.

The medical system established for the shipyard workers at the [[Richmond Field Hospital]] eventually became today's [[Kaiser Permanente]] [[HMO]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hendricks |first=Rickey |title=A Model for National Health Care: The History of Kaiser Permanente |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |publisher=Rutgers University Press |date=1993 |pages=40–47, 63}}</ref> The hospital remained in operation until 1993, when it was replaced by the [[Richmond Medical Center]] hospital, which has since expanded to a multi-building campus.

Point Richmond was Richmond's original commercial hub, but a new downtown arose in the center of the city along Macdonald Avenue during the war. It was populated by department stores such as [[S. H. Kress & Co.|Kress]], [[J.C. Penney]], [[Sears, Roebuck and Company|Sears]], [[Macy's]], and [[F.W. Woolworth Company|Woolworth's]].
<gallery mode=packed heights=150px widths=200px>
File:Richmondunderpass.jpg|An [[East Shore and Suburban Railway|E&SR]] streetcar in the Macdonald Avenue subway in downtown Richmond, 1906
File:"4,000 Unit Housing Project Progress Photographs March 6,1943 to August 11, 1943, Looking down a street towards the... - NARA - 296755.tif|A 4,000-unit housing project was completed in Richmond during 1943.
File:USNS General A.W. Greely (T-AP-141) at Thule, Greenland, on 19 July 1951 (NH 97108).jpg|{{USS|General A. W. Greely|AP-141|6}}, built in Richmond
File:12-3-1 Permanente-Nos1-4-25.jpg|Aerial photo of Richmond Shipyards, 1944, view directed north: #3 (west, foreground); #2 (rectangular basin, east foreground); #4 (end of the channel, south bank); #1 (north of the channel bend).
File:Wendy Welder Richmond Shipyards.jpg|A "Wendy the Welder" at the Kaiser [[Richmond Shipyards]], contributing to the [[United States home front during World War II|war effort]]
File:Welders Alivia Scott, Hattie Carpenter, and Flossie Burtos await an opportunity to weld their first piece of steel - NARA - 535800.jpg|Richmond Shipyards welders prepare for a performance demonstration test
</gallery>

===Post-war decline and rebound===
When the war ended the shipyard workers were no longer needed, and a decades-long population decline ensued. The census listed 99,545 residents in 1950. By 1960 much of the temporary housing built for the shipyard workers was torn down, and the population dropped to about 71,800.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/cities/Richmond50.htm |title=City of Richmond, Contra Costa County |website=Bay Area Census |access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref>

Just before his April 1968 [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|assassination]], [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] had been working on plans for the [[Poor People's Campaign]], including a multi-city tour of the U.S. with a stop in Richmond.<ref name=KingIII>{{cite news |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2007/05/01/son-of-king-shining-light-on-poor/ |title=Son of King shining light on poor |first=John |last=Geluardi |newspaper=[[East Bay Times]] |date=May 1, 2007 |access-date=May 25, 2007}}</ref> His son, [[Martin Luther King III]], completed the Poverty in America Tour in 2007, stopping in Richmond.<ref name=KingIII/> Unrest in late June 1968, sparked by the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy, damaged businesses in downtown along Macdonald Avenue.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19680627.1.1 |title=Richmond Has Second Night Of Disturbances |agency=AP |date=June 27, 1968 |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://richmondconfidential.org/2014/12/21/long-neglected-richmonds-downtown-is-being-slowly-reborn/ |title=Long neglected, Richmond's downtown is being slowly reborn |author=Schmidt-Hopper, Elly |date=December 21, 2014 |work=Richmond Confidential |access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref> Most notably, the Travalini Furniture Store was destroyed by fire, which was assumed to be the result of the violent protests, but according to Fraser Felter, who was a reporter for the ''Richmond Independent'', police sources told him the fire was set to avoid a debt instead by destroying store records.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://richmondmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Winter10Final.pdf |title=The Travalini Furniture Store Fire: The Rest of the Story |author=Bastin, Donalsd |date=Winter 2010 |work=The Mirror |volume=58 |number=3 |publisher=The Richmond Museum Association |access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Hilltop Mall entrance IMG 4272 (32288340296).jpg|thumb|right|Entrance to [[Hilltop Horizon|Hilltop Mall]]]]
In the 1970s, the Hilltop area was developed in Richmond's northern suburbs, further depressing the downtown area as it drew retail clients and tenants away to the large indoor Hilltop Mall, which opened in 1976. The shopping mall, last named [[Hilltop Horizon]], was opened under [[Taubman Centers]], and has been sold since then to GM Pension Trust (1998), [[Simon Property Group]] (2007), [[JLL (company)|Jones Lang LaSalle]] (2012),<ref>{{cite news |url=https://richmondconfidential.org/2014/10/21/once-full-of-shoppers-and-hopes-hilltop-mall-faces-foreclosure-and-an-uncertain-future/|title=Once full of shoppers, and hopes, Hilltop Mall faces an uncertain future |author=Fei, Fan |date=October 21, 2014 |work=Richmond Confidential |access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref> LBG Real Estate (2017), and [[Prologis]] (2021), who announced plans to close and demolish the building, reusing the land for a mixed-use development including residential, retail, and logistics facilities.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/2021-04-Richmond-mall-closed-Prologis-development-16124623.php |title=Hilltop Mall is dead: What's up next for the East Bay property? |author=Graff, Amy |date=April 23, 2021 |work=SFGate |access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref>

In the late 1990s the [[Richmond Parkway (California)|Richmond Parkway]] was built along Richmond's western industrial and northwestern parkland, connecting Interstates 80 and 580. Construction of the Parkway, which follows the alignment of [[California State Route 93|SR&nbsp;93]] as proposed in 1958, started in 1990 and completed in 1996 at a cost of $193&nbsp;million. However, [[California Department of Transportation|Caltrans]] issued a letter in 1998 saying it would not take over responsibility for the road unless it was brought up to expressway standards; as it was cost-prohibitive to convert it, the road remains the responsibility of the city and county.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

In 2006, the city celebrated its centennial. This coincided with the repaving and streetscaping project of [[Macdonald Avenue]]. The city's old rundown commercial district along Macdonald has been designated the city's "Main Street District" by the state of California. This has led to funding of improvements in the form of state grants.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/premium/0199/0199-853061.html |title=TTCA Welcomes the City of Richmond Into the California Main Street Program. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121045342/http://goliath.ecnext.com/premium/0199/0199-853061.html |archive-date=November 21, 2007 |publisher=Business Wire |date=December 13, 2007 |access-date=May 24, 2007}}</ref>