Sharp Park takes its name from George Sharp, a San Francisco lawyer whose widow Honora left the coastal land to the city in 1917 for use as a public park or playground. The Pacifica Historical Society says the area was formerly known as Salada Beach, and offers a self-guided history walk of it.
During World War II the Sharp Park Detention Station here processed Japanese Americans, Japanese nationals and others the government called foreign enemies; Stanford professor Yamato Ichihashi spent six weeks there. Sharp Park is also where the Sharp Park Golf Course and the Laguna Salada marsh lie.