50th anniversary of the King Center

Once called East Park, the site was carved out from land the city purchased beginning in 1953. Throughout the 1960s, there was an effort to create a recreation center in the neighborhood, along with other key capital improvement projects likes the Senior Center in Central Park and the Community Center in Beresford Park.

While the area was becoming known as North Central San Mateo, the proposed new facility was referred to the East Park Recreation Center, since the area is sometimes known as the Eastern Addition, though no longer in the eastern part of the city since North Shoreview and Shoreview were developed.

After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, it was brought up that the new park and community center should be named after him. There was some concern, however, that the name might suggest that the center was only for minorities and that the name be, instead, Abraham Lincoln or Lincoln Park and Community Center.

However, the city decided it should be named in honor of Dr. King. The Rev. Rufus A. Cooper, of St. James AME Zion Church, perhaps said it best, “it was hoped that the recreation center would not be segregated in its staffing, program or constituency, since this would be alien to Dr. King’s teachings.”

The center was dedicated at 2 p.m. March 30, 1969 at 725 Monte Diablo Ave. It occupies essentially the same footprint aside from the senior center extension wing added in 1989, and has served the community well over the years.

There will be a celebration this weekend at the center that includes a walk through the past, present and future of the center. Officials are planning games and other activities along with a grand opening of the revamped teen center. It takes place 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and all are welcome.

Jen Wilson, the community services coordinator who runs the center, said it was first learned that the anniversary was coming when a proclamation about its 25th year was spotted on an interior wall a few years back. It was decided that there should be a commemoration for the 50th year and this weekend’s celebration was planned. As part of it, there will also be an unveiling of a newly renovated teen room, that will provide after-school programming for middle-school students then be open for teens at night. Next door, there is a homework room with computers if students need a quiet place to study, Wilson said.

Through its history, the King Center has been something for many. With services for youth and seniors and everyone in between, it has offered food service so seniors can get a hot meal to hosting the Second Harvest Food Bank’s brown bag service. It also offers community meeting space, recreation space and hosts health officials who provide immunizations.

“The King Center is a lot of things to a lot of people. That’s the beauty of it ... being a true community center,” Wilson said.

San Mateo Mayor Diane Papan, who will be at the ceremony Saturday, had a similar sentiment.

“If you looked up the words ‘community center’ in the dictionary you would surely find San Mateo’s King Center,” she said in an email. “For the past 50 years it has been a beacon for community gatherings and activities for the neighborhood and the city as whole. Today more than ever people are craving a sense of community and the King Center’s vitality plays an essential role to the spirit of community.”

I was heartened to learn the park will get some improvements along with new synthetic turf. I wonder if the pool might also get some new life as well after the City Council opted out of adding an aquatic center at the new Bay Meadows development. We’ll see.

For me, the King Center seems like it has always been there but sometimes it takes an anniversary to make you stop and recognize the past, take a pause in the present and look forward to the future. And if the King Center’s future is anything like its past, it is sure to have one filled with a strong sense of community that reflects the interesting and diverse people who both surround it and fill its space every day.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.