Oishi Nursery, 242 South 47th Street, Richmond, Contra Costa County, CA

Significance: The Oishi Nursery began around 1909 when the Seizo Oishi family purchased land on the east side of South 47th Street, near its intersection with Florida Avenue, and began growing cut flowers in greenhouses. The Oishi Nursery grew a variety of cut flowers but specialized in carnations. The nursery continued to be family-owned and family-operated until its closure and the sale of the property in 2006 to the Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency.
The Oishi Nursery was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the California State Historic Preservation Officer in 2007 under Criterion A at a local level of significance for its significant associations with Japanese American history in Richmond and with the history of the San Francisco Bay Area cut flower nursery business. Additionally, Greenhouses No. 17 and 18 which date from ca. 1926 are significant under Criterion C as likely being the oldest surviving examples of even-span, wood-frame greenhouses in the East Bay and because they were built by a contractor, Hikojiro Mabuchi, who was part of the local Japanese American community. When it closed in 2006, the Oishi Nursery was one of the last two remaining examples of the community of Japanese American flower growers which developed in Richmond during the first decade of the twentieth century. The other remaining example was the Sakai Nursery (HALS CA-6) located on an adjacent property on the west side of South 47th Street.
Survey number: HALS CA-5
Building/structure dates: after. 1909- before. 1930 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1937 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1940 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1941-1945 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: after. 1960- before. 1969 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1939 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1968 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1970 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1975- 1981 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1953- 1959 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1966 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1965 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1963 Subsequent Work