CIVIC CENTER

THE PRESIDIO

GOLDEN GATE PARK

Golden Gate Park is often thought of as San Francisco’s Central Park. Approximately three miles long and a half mile wide (1,017 acres), it is covered with variety of environmental landscapes and is home to several museums.

One of the largest man-made parks in the world, Golden Gate Park was developed on a site consisting mostly of sand dunes. In 1870, when the site was selected, San Francisco was only a fraction of its present size, and the park lay far beyond the city's developed limits.

The Park’s lush landscaping bears little resemblance to the former sand dunes. An entirely new ecological system had to be developed and sustained within the dunes; a monumental task thought by many to be impossible.

William Hammond Hall, a civil engineer, prepared the initial design for the Park. In 1871 he became its first superintendent and remained in that position for five years. Innovative sand reclamation techniques were applied to the dunes and gradually they were brought under control. By 1876, Golden Gate Park had already become very popular and its developed areas were heavily used. Unfortunately, the Park stalled for the next ten years: there was no clear direction, funding was tight, and, as a result the Park suffered from neglect. Finally Hall was requested by the Parks Commission to make an evaluation of the condition of the park and appoint a new superintendent. He selected John McLaren.

Scottish-born McLaren came to California in 1872. He apprenticed as a landscape gardener and had managed a number of major estates in the Bay Area when he was selected to supervise Golden Gate Park in 1887. It was under his fifty-year tenure that the Park came to maturity. It remains as a monument to his skill in landscape design and his love of nature. One of McLaren’s major problems was irrigation. Prior to 1902 Golden Gate Park was dependent upon water purchased from Spring Valley Water Company, San Francisco’s private water company. Spring Valley charged exorbitant rates for this water and until McLaren could obtain a dedicated and inexpensive water supply, there was to be no lush landscaping. Finally, in 1902 the Board Park Commissioners decided to tap the large underground reservoirs under the western edge of the park. In 1902 and again in 1905 they commissioned two large windmills to pump the water for irrigation use.

In 1894, the Midwinter International Exposition was held in Golden Gate Park. The exposition covered 200 acres, included over 100 temporary buildings and a midway. When the fair closed after six months, the only remnants of that enormous event were the M.H.de Young Memorial Museum, the Japanese Tea Garden and the Music Concourse esplanade.

Golden Gate Park served as a refuge for almost 200,000 San Franciscans left homeless by the 1906 earthquake and fire. Many lived in tents in designated areas of the Park. McLaren, saw this as an opportunity to share his deep love of nature with the community, so he assigned garden plots to the children who were attending school in the park while reconstruction of the City continued.

Today, as many as 75,000 people now visit the park on an average weekend. In addition to the M. H. de Young Museum, one can find the Spreckels Temple of Music, California Academy of Sciences, Conservatory of Flowers (1879), Strybring Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, and lawn bowling among other activities.

From the San Francisco Department of Parks and Recreation