The park preserves and interprets the legacy of the United States home front during World War II, including the Kaiser Richmond Shipyards, the Victory ship SS Red Oak Victory, a tank factory, housing developments and other facilities built to support America's entry into World War II.

The memorial was intended to honor the "Rosies", women who made up much of the workforce at the shipyards, and started in 1997, three years prior to the creation of the national park.

The memorial was designed by landscape architect Cheryl Barton and visual artist Susan Schwartzenberg[11] and dedicated on October 14, 2000, in a ceremony hosted by Donna Powers and attended by more than 100 "Rosies".

A simple metal pier serves as the stern at the south end, on the water's edge, proceeding north through a cylindrical framework as the smoke stack, and the bow as the main monument, made of prefabricated parts similar to those assembled by the shipyard workers.

A timeline of World War II is presented in 25 panels laid along the Keel Walk, a 441 ft (134 m) walkway running the length of the memorial.

Ford employed thousands of workers at the site during World War II, many of them women who were entering the work force for the first time.

In mobilizing the wartime production effort to its full potential, Federal military authorities and private industry began to work closely together on a scale never seen before in American history.

After World War II, Ford moved its Northern California factory to Milpitas, which was known as the San Jose Assembly Plant; the building and site are now the Great Mall of the Bay Area.

[16] In 1997, the Richmond City Council began the effort to build the Rosie Memorial and passed Resolution 203-97, authorizing the submittal of Shipyard No.

It was one of 414 Victories built during World War II (constructed at the Richmond Shipyards), but one of only a few of these ships to be transferred from the Merchant Marine to the U.S. Navy.

During a hazardous tour of duty in the Pacific, SS Red Oak Victory handled many tons of ammunition, supplying the fleet without a single casualty.

The modest, wood-frame buildings clearly reflect the constraints (time, money and materials) placed on publicly funded housing construction during the period.

Just prior to and during the war, the Lanham Act of 1940 provided $150 million to the Works Progress Administration, which built approximately 625,000 units of housing in conjunction with local authorities nationwide.

Prior to the invasion of Europe in June 1944, more Americans were dying in Home Front accidents than on World War II battlefields.

[7] Henry J. Kaiser, founder of the Richmond Shipyards, recognized that only a healthy work force could meet his deadlines and construction needs.

[19] In part due to wartime materials rationing, the Field Hospital is a single-story wood-frame structure designed in a simple modernist mode.

The Maritime Child Development Center, a wood frame, modernist style building operated by the Richmond School District, incorporated progressive educational programming, and was staffed with nutritionists, psychiatrists and certified teachers.

At its peak, with 24,500 women on the Kaiser payroll, Richmond's citywide child care program maintained a total daily attendance of 1,400 children.

Unlike the federally funded WPA day care facilities implemented during the New Deal, the World War II centers were not intended for use by the destitute, but for working mothers.