158.4 acres total - see original lot map
1903 - 71.76 acre donation
Frederick & Marianne Roeding
Lot numbers 32, 33, 57, 58, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69 & 70
1908 - 46.64 acre donation
Frederick & Marianne Roeding
Lot numbers 55 & 56
1924 - 40 acre sale (west of Delno Avenue - current zoo, playland/parking/Lake Washington & Fwy 99)
Elizabeth Thorne Roeding and Roeding Estate Company
Lot numbers 59, 60, 61, 62, 71, 72, 73 and 74
NOTE: The last 40 acres were sold to a willing City of Fresno at a higher-than-agriculture price because this land had become potential development property in the 21 years since the original Roeding donation. By this time, Fresno Traction Company streetcars went through Roeding Park and houses were being built all around the area. The City, at that time, wisely wanted to expand the highly successful Roeding Park and protect this land from all future development.
CONDITIONS PLACED
ON CITY'S USE OF GIFTED LAND IN ROEDING PARK GIFT DEEDS:
Should said City of Fresno ever sell or attempt to sell or dispose of the land hereby granted or any part or parcel thereof, or fail at any time to conduct and maintain the same and the whole thereof as a public park or boulevard for said City of Fresno, or fail to expend the said sum of $35,000 in the manner and at the times hereinbefore provided, then and in that event, said land and all thereof, and all the improvements thereon, shall immediately revert to and become the absolute property of the grantors herein, their heirs, executors, administrators or assigns.
ROEDING FAMILY HISTORY
AS TOLD BY BRUCE B. ROEDING:
As a young man our great grandfather, Frederick C Roeding, immigrated to California, via South America, from Hamburg, Germany in quest of gold in 1849. He eventually settled in Fresno, where he acquired land for orchards and vineyards. He later started Fancher Creek Nurseries on The Roeding Place. It was here he and his wife, Marianne, raised their five children.
At the urging of his son, George C. Roeding, (our grandfather), Frederick agreed to donate land to be used as a park by the people of Fresno as a thank you to his adopted country, state and city. The city at first refused his donation, but reconsidered a few years later, by which time the acreage was considerably reduced. Once accepted, however, his son, George, who had assumed ownership of Fancher Creek Nurseries, was entrusted with the creation of Roeding Park as an arboretum. He planted trees from all over the world, many of which were donated from his own nursery. These plantings were arranged according to a master plan he developed during his tenure as Fresno's City Park Commissioner, with Stockton landscape architect Johannes Reimers, for the enjoyment and recreational use of all the citizens of Fresno.
Other examples of our grandfather's influence still exist in Fresno such as the large palm trees now surrounding the Save Mart Center, transplanted from the site of our family's former nursery along Fancher Creek, as well as many other long-established plantings of palms, cork oaks and thousands of other trees that have become extremely valuable assets to the neighborhoods they adorn. He was also very instrumental in the development of the California fig industry, and in 1903 published a monograph The Smyrna Fig at Home and Abroad, detailing the introduction of the little fig wasp.
His civic mindedness did not stop with Fresno. During WWI he donated to the government peach and apricot pits which were converted to a form of charcoal, necessary for use in gas masks. He helped establish gardens in prisons such as San Quentin, believing that it would contribute to prisoner rehabilitation. Also, in 1911, he founded the trade organization known then as the California Assn. of Nurserymen (still functioning as the California Assn. of Nurseries and Garden Centers).
Families who donate property to a city for a specific purpose should have those wishes honored. In the family's original gift deeds to the City of Fresno, it was stipulated that the property known today as Roeding Park was to be used as a public park or boulevard and that the City of Fresno must maintain the same and the whole thereof as such, and that should the City of Fresno fail to do so, that the property would revert to and become the absolute property of the grantors herein, their heirs, executors. . .[etc.]. The intent of the donation was not only to give the people of Fresno a place to enjoy trees, but also to provide a park where picnics, family gatherings, concerts, and social events could be held for the general benefit of the entire community.
In April and again in May 2004, we wrote letters to the Fresno City Council, the mayor and the chairwoman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors requesting that they stop the plans to take away additional Roeding Park land and give it to an expanded zoo. We also respectfully insisted that the city relocate its unsightly maintenance yard from the middle of the park and once again open the band shell and surrounding park land for concerts, picnics and general public access as was intended.
We do not feel that Roeding Park is the proper location for a large, safari-style zoo. A number of mature trees our grandfather planted in the park have been encompassed within zoo exhibits in recent years and have already died or are being permanently damaged by disease and the natural behaviors of the animals. We do not want any more of the trees in the park to suffer the same fate.
In April of 2004, our family was honored by the Fresno Parks and Recreation department when we were invited to participate in the 101st anniversary of Roeding Park, named for our great-grandfather and grandmother, Frederick and Marianne Roeding, who donated their land to the City of Fresno beginning in 1903.
We were part of an Earth Day celebration during which we toured the park and planted a number of new trees just to the east of the current zoo boundary. We were delighted to observe a large, organized touch-football game, many children fishing in the ponds and were gratified to see the sheer numbers and diversity of the people enjoying the park on that day.
Our grandparents, George and Elizabeth Roeding, rest together in the northeast corner of Mountain View Cemetery at Belmont and Hwy 99 within sight of their beloved park. If we can speak for the dead, they surely would object to Chaffee Zoo's ultimate plan to swallow up more than half of Roeding Park, tossing their plainly-stated wishes aside.
Endorsed by Family Members:
Bruce B. Roeding
George C. Roeding, III and family
Diane Roeding McCutchan (deceased June 2007)
Peter Roeding Butler (deceased May 2007) and family
Jennifer Gardner and family
Joel Wirth and family
