Jewel's Terrace Park is a hidden gem in the Albany park system; it'd be easy to understand if some people jumped to the conclusion that it got its name because it is such a gem. Rather, Terrace Park was renamed Jewel's Terrace Park in 2009 in honor of Jewel Okawachi. Jewel is a longtime Albany resident, past mayor, tireless community volunteer, dog lover and friend of Terrace Park. She was also a one-time resident of Gila River War Internment Camp in the Arizona desert, where she and her family were "evacuated" during WWII. Jewel returned to Albany by herself at age 16 by bus and told the intruders in her family's home to leave.
The park has two tennis courts, a large playing field and two sand-filled tot lots with swings, a slide, and play structures, picnic tables and a mosaic-covered structure that houses two restrooms. The park forms the center of a block surrounded by Peralta, Neilson, Terrace and Francis streets, and neighboring houses overlook it as though it were an old village green.