This week I’m taking a break from the Golden Parks to take a look at another series that Huell produced: California Communities. In this episode he visits Ford Point in Richmond, and the former Ford factory in particular. This amazing and enormous building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988. Once abandoned and on the brink of destruction, it has now been redeveloped and become home to a number of different thriving companies — as well as the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, established in 2000.

The Bay Area city of Richmond was incorporated in 1905 and has seen many different types of industrial and transportation development over the decades. The first oil refinery arrived in 1901, and the city’s location along the San Pablo and San Francisco bays made it an ideal spot for a railroad and ferry hub. During the Second World War, Richmond’s Kaiser shipyards turned out hundreds of Victory and Liberty ships.

Huell’s tour of Richmond includes a look at the redevelopment of the old Ford assembly building.

(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)