History of Bogart Park
Once the Board purchased the land in the summer of 1931, plans were made to formally dedicate the new park. In the post-WWI era, many people formed peace societies and made efforts to educate others about different cultures in what became an international peace movement. Guy Bogart was a strong supporter of this attitude, and suggested that the new park be dedicated to international peace. The Beaumont Rotary Club enthusiastically embraced this ideal. Therefore, on October 18, 1931, the new park was dedicated as International Park. This ceremony was attended by Dr. Bogart, Frank Miller (who constructed the Mission Inn in Riverside and had just dedicated the new Rotunda Wing to international peace), U.S. Senator Samuel Shortridge, and delegations from Mexico and Japan.
At that time, the interior road was named Rotary Drive for the Rotary Club, and the hill around which the road leads (the long and large hill to the right of the visitor center after leaving the fee booth) was named the David Starr Jordan Peace Hill after the long-time peace activist and former president of Stanford University. In addition to the naming of various points, three cedar trees were planted atop the hill and named the World-Friendship Grove. One of the trees, taken from the Verdugo Hills north of Glendale, was dedicated to John Steven McGroarty, who wrote the Mission Play. After all had been said and done, the Riverside Enterprise remarked of the occasion: Mankind came a step closer to making international peace and brotherhood a reality on a rainy hilltop of International Park here today . . . The thunder was not that of war but of peace, thunder of the rain that falls so that man may harvest rather than destroy.
So how did International Park become Bogart Park? All things Japanese soon fell out of favor during the 1930s as Japan made continued incursions into China, culminating with World War II. After the war, the Cold War took over, and thoughts of international peace quickly declined. In 1957, the Board of Supervisors decided to rename the park to honor Dr. Guy Bogart who had done so much to make the park a reality. Few if any of the mementos of Bogart Park s beginnings survive today however, subsequent generations should be reminded of the civic pride that their predecessors once had.
by Steve Lech
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