San Francisco in the 1930s

Golden Gate Park

“I'd go out into the country and walk along a stream until I came to a bonnie brook. Then I'd come back to the park and I'd reproduce what Nature had done.”

—JOHN MCLAREN

FEW demonstrations of man's mastery over nature have been more convincing than the creation of Golden Gate Park: that long Stretch of evergreen outdoors—nine city blocks wide and four and a half miles long—cutting a swath from the heart of the city to the ocean's shore. Its grassy meadows and limpid lakes, its forested hills that alternate in the apparent confusion of a natural wilderness, interlaced with winding roadways, bridle paths, and foot trails—all are man's handiwork. When the city set out to create a park here in 1870, these 1,017 acres were a windswept desert. “Of all the elephants the city of San Francisco ever owned,” said the Santa Rosa Democrat in 1873, “they now have the largest and heaviest in the shape of ‘Golden Gate Park,’ a dreary waste of shifting sand hills where a blade of grass cannot be raised without four posts to support it and keep it from blowing away.” A scant 70 years later that “dreary waste” is a sylvan retreat in the midst of the city, where herds of sheep graze placidly along rolling pastures, darting squirrels, scurrying rabbits, and chattering blackbirds fill the air with forest sounds, and haughty peacocks flaunt their plumage across velvet lawns. Thousands eat Sunday and holiday lunches on the shady slopes soft with leaf mold and sprawl in the sun on the wide lawns. The oldsters, conservatively dressed, listen to the afternoon band concerts, visit the museums, or gather around the checker boards at the eastern end of the park. The youngsters, clad in bright-colored sports clothes, play tennis, ride bicycles, crowd the children's playground, or tumble after footballs.

Today as one walks among the innumerable flower beds and gardens, past lakes, brooks, and waterfalls, over rolling hills and pastoral meadows, he can hardly believe this magnificent evergreen playground entirely artificial. Buffalo, deer, and elk roam in paddocks landscaped to give an impression of fencelessness. So numerous are foxes and other small predatory animals that a hunter is required the year round to prevent destruction of other animal life. The dozen lakes of the park afford feeding and resting places for thousands of waterfowl.

Within the park's confines grow more than 5,000 kinds of plants. One may wander through groves of eucalyptus and conifers, through wild, brush-filled canyons or shaded glens luxuriant with ferns and blackberries, across hillsides riotous under a blanket of yellow Chrysanthemums, violet wild radishes, brilliant orange poppies, snapdragons, and purple cestrum. One may find yellow daisies from South Africa or silverleafed ones from Teneriffe, fuchsias from Mexico and Peru, abelias from Mexico and the Himalayas, brooms from the Canaries and South Africa, cypress from Kashmir. Here grow the exotic crimson Waratah from New South Wales, blooming in the United States for the first time, and centuryplants, staggered in development so that at least one plant blooms every three years. The 109 varieties of eucalypti include the rare alpina from Australia, which rarely attains more than 12 feet in height. The acacias, as varied as the eucalypti, include a rare pink variety. More than 100 species of conifers are represented, including the Monterey pine and Monterey cypress, the Torrey pine, and the New Zealand kauri-pine. The native live oak is also prominent, as is the Quercus ilex from Italy. The principal shrubs are of the genus Veronica from New Zealand and the genus Escalonia from Chile. Of rhododendrons, which grow in unnumbered thousands throughout Golden Gate Park, there are more than 300 varieties—some from Thibet, India, Japan, Java, Portugal, Siberia, and Yunnan—and from 300 to 400 hybrids, many of which have been developed locally; the display is unrivaled except in Kew Gardens, which boasts more varieties but fewer specimens.

When public demand for a large recreation ground in San Francisco began to arise in the early 1860’s, claimants to the area of the present park were asked to give up some of their land in exchange for an absolute title to the land which they retained. During the ensuing long battle over land titles in the courts and the legislature, Mayor Frank McCoppin, twice led delegations to the State Capitol to demand that the area be saved for a park. Finally, in 1868, $801,593 were paid for the desired 1,017 acres. In 1870 Governor Henry H. Haight appointed the first San Francisco Park Commission. The following year, when he had completed a preliminary survey of the proposed Golden Gate Park, William Hammond Hall was appointed Park Superintendent and authorized to proceed with the development.

To most people, the project of growing trees and grass on shifting sand was a foolish dream—and for years it appeared they were not mistaken. When in 1887 a new Superintendent was appointed—a sandy-haired young Scottish landscape gardener, John McLaren—cultivation had been confined largely to the eastern end of the park. The Park Commission told McLaren: “We want you to make Golden Gate Park one of the beauty spots of the world. Can you do it?” He answered: “With your aid, gentlemen, and God be willing, that I shall do.” And he kept his word.

With the treescape of the eastern part well established, the great task of improving the park proper remained. The two chief problems were to discover an economical and consistent source of fresh water and to fix in position the constantly moving sand dunes. The first was solved when subterranean streams were tapped south of Strawberry Hill. The second demanded infinite patience in experiment.

When native lupine and barley were found to be unable to hold the sand, McLaren resorted to the Ammophila arenaria, “sand-loving sand grass,” a beach grass common to the coast of Northern Europe. Sending out a mass of roots well below the surface, this grass continues to grow as fast as the wind Covers it over, refusing to be buried, until the dune has reached such a height that the wind velocity will no longer carry sand to the top. Second plant to be utilized in fixing the contours of the sand was the Australian tea-tree, a soil-holding shrub closely related to eucalyptus; third was the Australian acacia, a leguminous shrub, a soil-builder as well as holder. The few blue gums planted by settlers in the early 1850’s and a few native live oaks were augmented by systematic planting of additional blue gums (eucalypti), manzanita, madrone, and laurel. Principal grasses to follow were Kentucky bluegrass, Australian ryegrass, fescue, and Poa annua.

The first years were hard for “Uncle John” McLaren. Time after time he awakened to find thousands of young trees covered with sand. Patiently he dug them out and nursed them back to life. Needing fertilizer, he asked for, and was given, the sweepings from the city streets. (When the automobile drove the horses from the streets, “Uncle John” was annoyed.) Allowed by tacit agreement with city officials to do his own hiring and firing, McLaren refused consistently to employ relatives or friends of the men in power. Neither would he tolerate interference in his plans. When he discovered the three young oaks planted in the parking area before the Park Police Station being dragged away with a steam roller, he replaced the trees. Later that day, when he found the oaks gone again and workmen paving the parking space, “Uncle John” had his own men shovel out the cement as fast as it was poured in. The Board of Public Works gave up its attempt to pave the area, and today three sturdy oaks hide the police station as McLaren had intended they should.

An attempt to retire McLaren when he reached 60 occasioned a minor uprising by the people of San Francisco; “Uncle John” stayed on. When he was 70 the people again came to his defense. In 1922 the Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution that not only exempted him from enforced retirement but raised his wages. On December 20, 1939 he celebrated his 93rd birthday—still Superintendent of the park and still active in its development.

Despite its semi-miraculous development, Golden Gate Park was not easily to supplant Woodward's Gardens in the affection of the public. Woodward's in early years had been the established mecca for lovers of outdoor amusement. However, an elaborate children's playground (1886) and free municipal Sunday concerts in the “shell” built in the huge open-air tree-flanked Music Concourse added to the park's popularity. With the celebration of San Francisco's Midwinter Fair within its borders in 1894, Golden Gate Park came permanently into its own. Some of the special features of the Chicago World's Fair, including John Philip Sousa's band and Fritz Scheel's Vienna Orchestra, gave repeat Performances at the Midwinter Fair. Thousands visited the conservatory to see the world's largest flower, a pond lily that came to be known as the Victoria regina. The famous Japanese Tea Garden, built for the fair, was so popular that it never was torn down.

Throughout the resplendent “gay nineties,” the park became the rendezvous for the “horse-and-buggy” social set. Each Sunday they came dressed in the latest fashion. Some rode dog carts, some bicycles—built for one, two, three, or four—but most drove carriages. Trumpeting importantly for right of way, the tally-ho, with its complement of gaily caparisoned riders, cut across bicycles and dog-carts alike. Carriage occupants bowed politely to acquaintances, the men lifting their shining silk toppers. Less dignified were the bicyclists, one of whom inspired a columnist's rude comment, “ocean breezes reveal that—she pads.” Tandem bicycles were eclipsed by four-passenger “bikes,” seating two pairs of young men and women astride. A female “scorcher” arrested for speeding at the reckless rate of “ten miles an hour,” also had committed the heinous crime of wearing the “new-fangled Bloomers.” When the noisy horseless carriage first appeared, those seeking to heighten their social prestige by appearing in the park in these gasoline or electric “buggies” were chagrined when Golden Gate Park remained proscribed territory for vehicles mechanically self-propelled (the rule was enforced for several years).

Still observed is McLaren's early refusal to allow “Keep Off the Grass” signs. As in the days after the earthquake and fire of 1906, when the park provided haven for countless refugees, whole families still seek relief on its green swards whenever the city is engulfed by one of its rare heat waves. Indicative of the importance of the park in the life of San Franciscans today are such signs in local streetcars as: “The Rhododendrons are blooming in Golden Gate Park”—signs heeded by thousands.

And meanwhile, as the never-ending stream of visitors continues, the park grows in beauty. What today is a dry canyon tomorrow may be a sparkling brook. For the past few years the WPA, under the guidance of “Uncle John,” has been helping him shape the park as he wants it. Today he is most proud of his redwood forest, which he started growing from seeds when he was 80. People laughed. But today the trees are 30 feet high. In his half Century as the park's creator, “Uncle John” has planted a million trees. Now he is planting his second million and watching them grow.

PARK INFORMATION

Information Service: Information and maps at Park Lodge, near Stanyan and Fell Sts.

Streetcars and Buses: Municipal Ry. cars B, C, K, L, and N connect with Municipal bus Route #1 which crosses park; fare 5¢. Market Street Ry. cars 4, 5, 7, 17, 20, and 21 pass northern, southern, and eastern entrances; fare 7¢.

Traffic Regulations: Seventeen miles of auto roads. No trucks, drays, and delivery vehicles except on transverse drives, Ninth Ave. and Twenty-Fourth Ave. Speed limit 15 m.p.h. Parking allowed anywhere, except where for-bidden by signs, provided general traffic is not disturbed (special parking area, South Drive near Kezar Stadium). No double parking.

Accommodations: Drinking fountains and comfort stations throughout park. Meals and beverages at Beach Chalet; lunch, tea, and tray service for picnickers at Children's Quarters; tea and rice cakes at Japanese Tea Garden. Picnicking allowed on all lawns; barbecue pits near Horseshoe Courts; tables near Children's Playground, Pioneer Log Cabin, and in George Washington Bicentennial Grove. Emergency Hospital (always open) near Stanyan and Frederick Sts.

Art Collections and Museums: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum; lectures on permanent collection Sun. 2-4; puppet plays for children alternate Sat. 10-12; children's puppet classes, Sat. 10-12, 1-3. North American Hall. Simson African Hall. Steinhart Aquarium.

Band Concerts: Music Concourse, Sun. and holidays 2-4:30.

Archery: Local, regional, and National tournaments in Golden Gate Park Stadium; participants provide own equipment (storage facilities for targets).

Baseball: 9 diamonds between 5th and 7th Aves., near Lincoln Way; additional grounds in Recreation Field and near Golden Gate Park Stadium.

Basketball: Pavilion in front of Kezar Stadium.

Bowling: 3 greens for men and women accommodating 64 players each (open only to members of San Francisco Men's Bowling Club or Women's Golden Gate Bowling Club).

Card Games, Chess, Checkers: Ghirardelli Pavilion near Haight and Stanyan Sts.; tables accommodate 200 players.

Cycling: Bicycles rented outside park on Stanyan St., at south end of Ocean Beach amusement area, and on Balboa St. near 4th and 5th Aves.

Fly Casting: Pools south of Main Drive between Golden Gate Park Stadium and Middle Lake. Tournaments October-June.

Football: Recreation Field. Golden Gate Park Stadium. Intercollegiate and high school games, Kezar Stadium.

Handball: 4 courts adjoining baseball fields near 7th Ave.; spectators’ gallery.

Horseshoe Pitching: 16 courts (barbecue pits, tables and chairs, and small clubhouse) on North Ridge Dr.

Miniature Yachting: Spreckels Lake (clubhouse maintained by San Francisco Model Yacht Club, with work benches where members may build boats). Regattas Sun. and holiday afternoons.

Polo: Golden Gate Park Stadium; see newspapers for dates.

Riding: 25 miles of bridle paths. Hurdles for leaping in Equitation Field near 41st Ave. and Lincoln Way. Mounts not available in park.

Tennis: 21 courts near Children's Playground, fee 25¢ per hour per court Sat., Sun., holidays; free other days; 8 courts in Recreation Field (players provide own nets).

Volley Ball: Court near Children's Playground.

CALENDAR OF PARK EVENTS

(Note: “nfd” means no fixed date)

Jan. I	Kezar Stadium	East-West Football Game
Mar. nfd or Apr. nfd	Spreckels Lake Children's Playground	Miniature Yacht Regatta Easter Egg Hunt
Mar.-May	Golden Gate Park Stadium	Track meets and tournaments
Apr. Sun nearest 8	Japanese Tea Garden	Festival of birthday of Buddha
May I	Children's Playground	May Day celebration
Sept. nfd	Kezar Stadium	University of San Francisco St. Mary's Football Game
Oct. nfd	Kezar Stadium	St. Mary's-Santa Clara Football Game
Nov. Thanksgiving Day	Kezar Stadium	Polytechnic and Lowell High Schools Football Game
Dee. nfd	Lindley Meadow	During holiday season the Three Wise Men are enacted by attendants who tend their flocks dressed as ancient shepherds
20		John McLaren's children's Christmas party and Christmas tree lighting

POINTS OF INTEREST

242. At the entrance to the block-wide Panhandle, the cypress- and eucalyptus-shaded strip extending eight blocks eastward from the main area of the park, Stands the McKINLEY MONUMENT (Robert Ingersoll Aitken, sculptor), Baker St. between Fell and Oak Sts., a bronze heroic female figure, emblematic of the Republic, towering 35 feet above a granite base. President Theodore Roosevelt broke ground for the memorial May 13, 1903.

W. from Panhandle park entrance on Main Dr.

243. The sandstone, tile-roofed PARK LODGE, N. of Main Dr. near Panhandle park entrance, Stands on a slight elevation surrounded by wide lawns. Although only a few steps from hurrying city traffic, the lodge has the quiet appearance of a country estate. Built in 1896 at a cost of $25,000, it is occupied jointly by Park Administration offices and the household of Park Superintendent “Uncle” John McLaren. A huge Monterey cypress in front of the lodge is known as “Uncle John's Christmas Tree.”

244. The FUCHSIA GARDEN extends S. of Main Dr. near the Panhandle entrance, between a double row of tall cypresses. The collection includes fuchsias of a great variety of sizes and colors.

N. from Main Dr. on North Ridge Dr.

245. Steps made of old basalt paving blocks lead from North Ridge Dr. to the HORSESHOE COURTS, surrounded by trees and a stone retaining wall. The sixteen playing courts and the grounds were reconstructed in 1934 by the State Relief Administration. On the cliffs to east and south are giant bas-reliefs of a running horse and a man tossing a horseshoe, carved by “Vet” Anderson of the Horseshoe Club.

Retrace on North Ridge Dr.; W. from North Ridge Dr. on Main Dr.

246. On a wide green against a background of oak and acacia stands the HALLECK MONUMENT, S. of Main Dr., a tribute to the memory of Major-General Henry W. Halleck, General-in-chief of the Union Armies in 1862-64, “from his ‘best friend’.” It was erected in 1886 by Major-General George W. Cullum. The granite pedestal supports a heroic-size granite figure of Halleck in full uniform, wrapped in his military cape (C. Conrads, sculptor).

247. THE BASEBALL PLAYER, S. of Main Dr., an early bronze by Douglas Tilden depicting a mustachioed player of the eighties throwing a ball, cast in Paris in 1889, was erected in 1892 by W. E. Brown as tribute to Tilden's “energy, industry and ability.”

248. In the shade of Monterey pines and cypresses the BOWLES RHODODENDRONS, N. of Main Dr., border the approach to Conservatory Valley on the east. They were given by Mrs. Philip E. Bowles, as a memorial to her husband. Of the park's thousands of rhododendrons, some are always in bloom from February through June, although the largest number appear in full bloom in April.

249. The JAMES A. GARFIELD MONUMENT Stands on a knoll N. of Main Dr. On the steps of a granite base sits a mourning female figure holding a broken sword and a wreath. Above Stands a heroic-size bronze statue of the martyred president. Modeled by Frank Happersberger and cast in Munich, the work was unveiled July 4, 1885.

250. N. of Main Dr. from the broad lawns of shallow Conservatory Valley—where formal flower beds are gay with bloom the year round—a broad flight of steps leads to a marble fountain and the CONSERVATORY (open 8-5 daily). This glass structure whose two wings flank a central octagonal rotunda and dome, modeled after the Royal Conservatories at Kew Gardens, is the successor to one constructed in 1878 of materials purchased in England by James Lick. Destroyed by fire in 1822, it was replaced with funds donated by Charles Crocker. A glassed-in vestibule leads into the rotunda, where rare palms from the Norfolk Islands, Central and South America, Sumatra and Java, China and Japan lift their green fronds above semitropical plants from Australia, New South Wales, and Lord Howe's Island. The center room of the east wing harbors a jungle-like growth of palms, vines, and ferns from Malacca, India, South Africa, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico. In the end room is a rockery green with ferns and other plants and a small pool stocked with gold fish. Plants from Peru, China, and South Africa grow in a hot and humid atmosphere. Floating on the waters of the pool here from July to January are the giant pads of the Victoria regia, a water lily native to the waters of the Amazon River, whose petals open in mid-afternoon and close in mid-morning when it blooms in September. In the center room of the west wing grow semitropical plants from Africa, China, India, Central and South America, and a small collection of orchids. The end room offers rotating seasonal exhibits of potted flowering plants. In the hothouse nurseries behind the Conservatory gardeners have developed a collection of about 7,000 orchids.

251. The LIBERTY TREE, a redwood planted by the Daughters of the American Revolution April 19, 1894, on the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Stands in this area.

252. The McKINNON MONUMENT, S. side of Main Dr. (J. McQuarrie, sculptor), depicting the uniformed figure of Father William D. McKinnon, chaplain of the First California Volunteers of the Spanish-American War, is set against a background of evergreen shrubs and cypresses.

253. The ROBERT BURNS MONUMENT (M. Earl Cummings, sculptor), S. of Main Dr. near McKinnon Monument, a heroic bronze of the Scotch poet, Stands on a sloping lawn against a background of cypresses and tall pittosporum. Here the birthday of “Bobby” Burns, January 25, is observed annually by enthusiastic Scots.

SE. from Main Dr. on drive encircling Music Concourse

254. The MUSIC CONCOURSE (band concerts Sun. and holidays 2-4:30), S. of Main Dr. near Eighth Ave. park entrance, a sunken, outdoor auditorium seating 20,000, is 12 feet below the surface of the surrounding roadway. It is bordered by clipped hedges and terraced lawns and roofed by formal rows of trees. In line with the central aisle are three circular fountains. Around the concourse were grouped the buildings of the California Mid-Winter International Exposition of 1894.

255. A memorial to the Unitarian minister who fought to keep California in the Union during the Civil War is the THOMAS STARR KING MONUMENT, Main Dr. and Music Concourse Dr. (Daniel Chester French, sculptor). On the granite base bearing the bronze figure is inscribed: “In Him Eloquence Strength and Virtue were Devoted with Fearless Courage to Truth Country and His Fellow-Men. 1824-64.”

256. The CERVANTES MONUMENT, NE. corner Music Concourse, a bronze head of Miguel de Cervantes (Jo Mora, sculptor), looks down gravely from a rugged pile of native rock upon the kneeling figures of Cervantes’ fictional creations, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

257. Portrayed advancing with a tall cross, the padre-presidente of the California missions is memorialized by the JUNIPERO SERRA MONUMENT, opposite the Cervantes Monument. Dedicated November 17, 1907 by the Native Sons of the Golden West, the bronze is the work of Douglas Tilden.

258. The ULYSSES S. GRANT MEMORIAL, NE. corner Music Concourse, is a bronze bust of Grant (R. Schmid, sculptor). On the base are listed his principal battles.

259. On the NW. side of the Music Concourse, flanked by trim lawns and stately Irish yews, is the M. H. DE YOUNG MEMORIAL MUSEUM (open daily 10-5). Of sixteenth-century Spanish Renaissance design, the building's pale salmon-colored facades are burdened with rococo ornamentation. Its two wings extend from either side of a 134-foot tower, facing a landscaped court. In the court, before the main entrance, lies the POOL OF ENCHANTMENT (M. Earl Cummings, sculptor), in which a sculptured Indian boy pipes to two listening mountain lions on a rocky island. At the building's southeast corner, a bronze SUN DIAL (M. Earl Cummings, sculptor) commemorates “the first Three Navigators to the California Coast: Fortuno Ximenes, 1534—Juan de Cabrillo, 1542—Sir Francis Drake, 1579.” In front of the west wing Stands the VINTAGE, designed by Paul Gustave Doré, a massive three-ton bronze vase depicting in bas-relief the story of the grape. The symbolic sculptures above the main entrance to the museum are by Haig Patigian; other exterior sculptures, by Leo Lentelli.

The museum is a heritage of the California Mid-Winter International Exposition, whose guiding spirit, Michael de Young, publisher of the Chronicle proposed that the $75,000 profits of the fair be used to house a permanent collection of art. In the fair's Egyptian-style Fine Arts Building the museum was opened March 25, 1895. A collection of 6,000 objects bought from the fair was the nucleus of the present collection of more than 1,000,000 items. Throughout Europe De Young searched for treasures, while pioneer-minded Citizens sent grandfather's boots and grandmother's sunbonnets, until the museum was congested with “historical curiosities”—so great in number that many have not yet been cataloged. The small, dark rooms were heaped to the rafters with Italian marbles, bric-a-brac, and objets d'art of the bonanza period. When the original Fine Arts Building became too crowded to hold anything else, construction was begun in 1917 on the first unit of the present building (Louis Mullgardt, architect)—erected with funds donated by M. H. de Young—to which a second wing was added in 1925, and a third (Frederick H. Meyer, architect) in 1931. Condemned as unsafe in 1926, the old building was torn down. All that remains as a reminder of the old structure are the two sphinxes and bronze lion to the east of the museum.

The museum's galleries enclose the sunken Great Court beyond the main entrance and extend through the wings on either side. Around the Great Court are galleries 1-21. A transverse corridor leads right to galleries 22-49 and left to galleries 50-60. (A floor plan near the main entrance aids visitors.) Exhibits in galleries 1-21 are arranged in chronological sequence:

1. Egyptian: mummies, carved figures in stone, statuettes, vases

2. Greek: red-figured amphorae, vases

3. Roman: pottery, jewelry, a marble sarcophagus

4. Northern Europe, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: a large Flemish tapestry, wood carvings

5. Northern Europe, fourteenth to sixteenth centuries: German and Flemish primitives, including Isenbrant's Madonna and Child, Van Cleve's Lucretia, French limestone statue, Virgin and Child (c. 1340)

6. Southern Europe, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Italian primitives, including Vivarini's Madonna and Child and a small Veronese ecclesiastical chair of wrought iron and brass covered with Genoese velvet

7. Southern Europe, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: furniture, Veronese's Virgin and Angel of the Annunciation

8. Italian, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: furniture and paintings

9. A wood-panelled room (north Italian of the late seventeenth Century), polychrome decorations

10. English and Dutch, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: furniture and paintings

11. European decorative arts, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: Delft ware, German armor, Conca's Adoration of the Lamb

12. French, eighteenth Century: furniture, harpischord, Beauvais tapestry, Sèvres porcelains

13. European decorative arts, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: glass, china, furniture

14. English and American, eighteenth Century: portraits by Kneller, Reynolds, Romney, Gainsborough, Copley, and Raeburn's Portrait of Sir William Napier; furniture

15. Northern European, eighteenth Century: an Aubusson tapestry, furniture, Vernet's Seaport at Dawn, miniatures

16. French, early nineteenth Century: Napoleonic furniture, including a throne chair of Napoleon I

17. American, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: portraits, one by Benjamin West; mahogany furniture

18. American, mid-nineteenth Century: portraits of California pioneers by Nahl, Martinelli, and unknown artists

19. 20, 21. American decorative arts, eighteenth Century: silver, pewter, luster ware, glass, early American portraits

22-29. Loan exhibits

30. Print room

31. Textile study room

32. Musical instruments

33. Eastern art

35. Chinese art: sculpture, porcelains

36 and 41. Japanese art: porcelains, priests’ robes

42. Indo-China, Java, Bali

43. South Sea Islands

44. Peru and Mexico: Mayan food and ceremonial vessels, Aztec oil and pulque jars, water and drinking vessels, vases, incense burners; Peruvian jugs, bowls, and effigy vessels

45-46. North American Indians: jars of Ácoma Indians of New Mexico, of California Pomos; weapons, Utensils and Ornaments of other California aborigines; bead work

47-48. Textiles

49. Reproductions of classical sculpture

50. Paintings and prints of early California

51. California interior (c. 1850), bed-sitting-room

52. California interior (c. 1865), drawing room

53. Changing exhibits of Californiana

54. Study room for history of California

55. Nineteenth-century paintings

56. California interior, 1870, parlor

57. California interior, 1885, lady's boudoir

58. Costumes; portraits of California pioneers

59. Ship models; eight-foot timber from Natalie (which took Napoleon from Elba to France), beached near Monterey, 1843; Fire Engine No. 1, 1850

60. Arms, military equipment: cannon used in Thirty Years’ War; bronze mortar, Peru, 1780; relics of U. S. S. Maine; Civil and World War items

260. The CIDER PRESS MONUMENT, NW. side Music Concourse, represents a nude male in heroic size operating a cider press; a child kneels at his feet holding an apple. Purchased from the French Commission, the statue (Thomas S. Clarke, sculptor) was presented to the park by the Executive Committee of the California Mid-Winter International Exposition in 1894.

261. In the $75,000 Italian Renaissance MUSIC PAVILION, SW. end Music Concourse, gift of sugar magnate Claus Spreckels in 1900, Sunday afternoon band concerts are presented. Built of gray Colusa sandstone, it has a high proscenium arch over the music platform flanked by balustraded colonnades.

262. Arching over the eastern entrance to the JAPANESE TEA GARDEN (open daily 10-5), W. of Music Concourse, is a two-storied ro-mon (gate) carved of hinoki wood, used in Japan before temple entrances. Precipitous, bamboo-railed paths wander through the five-acre garden, over grassy slopes planted with camellias, magnolia trees, cryptomeria, and red-leafed Japanese maples. Between lichen-covered rocks, little streams crossed by small stone bridges descend to a chain of five small pools planted to water iris and stocked with goldfish. Over a still pool curves a “wishing bridge” whose reflection in the water completes a perfect circle. In spring, flowering quince, plum, and cherry trees burst into sprays of blossom. Here and there grow a hundred or more fantastically gnarled bonsai, misshapen conifers, some a Century old but none more than three feet in height (to stunt their growth roots and branches are constantly pruned, and only a minimum of water is allowed).

In the thatched tea house near the eastern gate girls in kimonos serve pale green tea and wafer-like cakes to guests sitting at tables made of tree trunks. Along one side of the pavilion, sunlight falls through a lattice arbor burdened with fragrant blossoms of white and lavender wistaria in season. Beyond the tea house is a two-story, four-room zashiki (house) with wooden walls, sliding panels, and window panes of rice paper. The interior is severely simple. The floors are covered with matting. There is a tokonomo (alcove) for the display of flower arrangements. A huge, red, black, and gold Buddha sits in serene contemplation at the foot of a slope on whose summit is a copper-roofed Shinto shrine. One of the chief attractions of the 1894 exposition (it was the Japanese Village), the garden is operated by descendants of its original proprietor.

263. The GIUSEPPE VERDI MONUMENT, SW. corner Music Concourse, was designed and executed in Milan (Orazio Grossoni, sculptor) and presented by the local Italian colony in 1914. On the granite base below the bronze bust of the composer a male figure holds an hour glass and a laurel wreath, and two children unfurl an Italian flag.

264. The BEETHOVEN MONUMENT, SE. side Music Concourse, a portrait bust in bronze, rests on a formal granite column at whose base Stands Music, a draped female figure holding a lyre. The gift of the Beethoven Männerchor of New York, it was dedicated August 6, 1915.

265. The ROBERT EMMET MONUMENT, SE. side Music Concourse, a life-size bronze of the Irish patriot, bears in gold letters simply his name, in conformance with his last wish before he was executed: “When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written.” The work of Jerome Connor, the statue was presented by Senator James D. Phelan in 1919. Here gather the United Irish Societies for yearly observances of Robert Emmet's birthday, which always includes a rendition of his “Speech Before the Dock.”

266. Erected in 1887 with a $60,000 bequest of philanthropist James Lick, the FRANCIS SCOTT KEY MONUMENT, SE. side Music Concourse, represents the author of “The Star Spangled Banner” sitting on a travertine pedestal inscribed with the words of his song under a canopy upheld by four Corinthian columns and crowned by bronze eagles, buffalo heads, and a heroic-sized bronze female figure of Liberty bearing a banner and a sword.

267. On the SE. side of Music Concourse are the three buildings of the CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, the oldest scientific institution in the West. Supported partly by endowments and bequests and partly by city funds, the institution maintains North American Hall, Steinhart Aquarium, and Simson African Hall, buildings in harmonizing architecture whose white concrete walls enclose three sides of a paved quadrangle. The Academy's exhibits of flora and fauna are only one of its many activities. Its scientific expeditions (on many Templeton Crocker's yacht Zaca has been employed) have gone to Alaska, Panama, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and many of the Pacific Islands. More than 3,000,000 separate specimens have been collected. It has furnished materials and facilities for original research in the biological and physical sciences, maintaining research departments in the fields of botany, entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate zoology, ornithology and mammalogy, and paleontology. Its activities are primarily concerned with the natural history and geology of the lands bordering the Pacific Ocean and its islands.

On April 4, 1853, seven men interested in science met at Lewis W. Sloat's Montgomery Street office; on June 27, 1853, they incorporated as the California Academy of natural Sciences. For many years their meetings were held in the office of Colonel Thomas J. Nevins, one of the seven founders and San Francisco's first Superintendent of Schools. The “Proceedings,” first published in a newspaper, began to appear in illustrated volumes. The library and museum grew and moved in 1874 to larger quarters in a church. In 1891 the Academy established itself on property at Fourth and Market Streets deeded to it by James Lick. Under the terms of Lick's will it became one of two residuary legatees, receiving one-half of whatever remained after all other bequests had been paid. With the $20,000 given by Charles Crocker in 1881 and additional funds from Leland Stanford, it created a large natural history exhibit. Other benefactors included John W. Hendrie and William Alvord. When the Market Street home of the Academy was demolished by the earthquake and fire of 1906, San Francisco Citizens voted to reestablish it in Golden Gate Park.

NORTH AMERICAN HALL (open daily 10-5), popularly called the Museum of natural History, is approached by a wide entrance stairway before which are embedded four old millstones from early California flour mills. Opened in 1916, it was the first unit of the California Academy of Science group. In the vestibule are displays of freshly cut flowers and growing plants labeled with both their botanical and common names. The vestibule leads into Mammal Hall, which, illuminated by skylights, has 15 large and many small habitat groups, each glass-enclosed and backed by a painted cyclorama. Of the animals shown here, collected especially because of the threat of their extinction, all but the grizzly bear and the fur-bearing seal are still to be seen in California. Beginning at the right of the entrance hall, the large habitat groups are: Roosevelt elk, near a forest stream of the Olympic Mountains west of Puget Sound; San Joaquin Valley elk, dwarf elk, tule elk, and wapiti, found in Kern County, in the long tule grass bordering a river; Northern and Columbian black-tailed deer, in a shaded dell of Mendocino County; Imperial grizzly bear, in a lakeside Valley of Yellowstone Park below towering Wyoming mountains; Rocky Mountain mule deer, in a snow-covered bit of Sierra Nevada forest; prong-horn antelope, in a barren mountain landscape of Modoc County; desert mountain or bighorn sheep, in the San Jacinto Mountains of Riverside County; mountain lions, found in Humboldt County; northwestern black, brown, and cinnamon bears, found in Humboldt County; Alaska fur seal, on a rocky coast of St. George Island in the Bering Sea; leopard and California harbor seals, in a rookery at Cypress Point near Monterey Bay; California sea lions, in a rookery on Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara County; Steller sea lions, in a rookery on Ano Nuevo Island, San Mateo County; California raccoon and California skunk; California Valley coyote and prairie wolf, found in Moraga Valley, Alameda County.

Mammal Hall opens into Bird Hall. The larger habitat groups are, beginning left of the entrance, in order: Western meadow lark, San Joaquin waterfowl, Nuttall sparrow, sharp-shinned hawk, California condor, California vulture and desert birds. In the condor group, a nest high on a cliff near the headwaters of the San Antonio River in Monterey County is shown. Among the smaller groups are one showing 14 species resting on the rocky cliffs of a rookery on the Farallon Islands and one showing a flock of white pelicans in their breeding colony on Anaho Island in Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Other birds include the California linnet, quail, and clapper rail; coast bushtit; Lazuli bunting; Western robin; water ouzel; and many varieties of sea gulls and wild ducks.

Parallel to Mammal Hall is a corridor displaying a cross section of a California big tree (Sequoia gigantea), from Sequoia National Park. The tree is estimated to have been 1,710 years old when it fell in 1917. It was 330 feet high and 25 feet in diameter at the base. In this same corridor are collections of fluorescent minerals, semiprecious stones, butterflies and water colors of California wild flowers.

The other rooms of the building are occupied by the 65,000-volume library of the California Academy of Sciences and its research departments in botany, herpetology, mammalogy, ornithology, and paleontology. These departments house study collections including about 8,000 mammals, 57,000 birds, and 69,000 reptiles (among which is a notable collection of reptiles from the Galapagos Islands). The herbarium of 275,000 mounted plants has grown from 1,000 specimens saved from the earthquake and fire of 1906 by Alice Eastwood, curator of the botany department. The collection of the department of paleontology includes 1,600,000 specimens.

STEINHART AQUARIUM (open daily 10-5) houses its collection of fresh- and salt-water life behind a gray stucco facade ornamented with white classic pillars. Facing the entrance to the aquarium are three outdoor pools for sea lions, otter, and other aquatic mammals (feeding time 4 p.m.). In the high, pillared lobby is a sunken tank where turtles, water snakes, giant bullfrogs, and alligators move about in an imitation tropical swamp. Along the lobby walls glass cases contain hundreds of small tropical fish of brilliant hues, indigenous snakes, Gila monsters, colorful sea anemones, star fish, sea urchins and mollusks.

From the lobby extend corridors lined with glass tanks built into the walls. Specimens from American streams and Pacific waters include giant sea turtles, crested and speckled eels, fantastic sea horses, periscopic flounders, turkey fish, and electric and bat sting-rays. Among the most unusual are the climbing perch, an oriental fish which climbs the submerged roots of trees and is able to exist out of the water, and the two varieties of lung fish, Australian and African, which breathe through lungs and gills. Trout and other game fish are well represented.

Founded in 1923, the gift of Ignatz Steinhart, the aquarium contained 500 species and 12,000 individual fish in 1940. Its collection has been increased by a system of exchange with the Sydney, Australia, aquarium. In 1939 alone, the institution received 3,000 gifts; among its donors have been Templeton Crocker and Capt. G. Allan Hancock.

In the rear of Steinhart Aquarium a graveled walk leads to a shed sheltering the 75-foot skeleton of a SULPHUR BOTTOM WHALE, captured off the coast of Vancouver Island in 1908. Native to the California coast, the Sulphur Bottom is the largest and swiftest of whales. The skulls of a finback, a Baird's beaked, and humpbacked whale, all obtained on the California coast in 1925, are also on display.

SIMSON AFRICAN HALL (open Sun. and Wed. 1-5), newest of the Academy buildings and similar in design to North American Hall, was built by Leslie Simson, retired mining engineer and sportsman who collected specimens of African wild life from expeditions to Kenya. The habitat groups are shown with scrupulous accuracy of detail, against mural backgrounds representing African scenery in the localities where the specimens were collected. Simson as a boy learned to prepare bird and mammal skins from his father, who had received similar instructions from the son of John J. Audubon, the great artist-ornithologist.

The predominant habitat group represents an African water hole on the edge of the veldt with distant mountains under clear blue skies in the background. Around the oasis in naturalistic pose are gathered several specimens each of the impalla, the Masai giraffe, the zebra, the white-bearded gnu or wildebeest, the Grant's gazelle and the Coke's hartebeest. The trees, shrubs, rocks, and plants stand in sharp contrast to the grassy plains stretching away to the foothills. In twenty-three other groups—ten large, one intermediate, and twelve small in size—are grouped several specimens each of such exotic creatures as the Beisa oryx, black lechwe, bushback, bush duiker, cheetah, dik-dik, Dorcas gazelle, gerenuk, Hunter's hartebeest, klipspringer, mountain nyala, oribi, steinbok, and waterbuck, as well as specimens of the better-known African lion, baboon, gorilla, Grevy's zebra, African leopard, monkey, roan and sable antelope, and hunting dog.

On the second floor of African Hall is the Department of Entomology, containing more than a million mounted insects, largest research entomological west of the Smithsonian Institution. The Department of Ichthyology in the basement has a collection of about 200,000 specimens of fish, especially rich in South American fresh water fish.

268. In a bower of English laurel is the GOETHE-SCHILLER MONUMENT, E. of Simson Hall, a pedestal of red Missouri granite supporting bronze figures of the two German poets. A reproduction of a monument in Weimar, Germany (Ernst Rietschel, sculptor), it was presented by citizens of German descent in 1901.

269. Facing the Music Concourse against a background of tall pines is the GENERAL PERSHING MONUMENT, NW. side Music Concourse, a bronze statue of General John J. Pershing ( Haig Patigian, sculptor) in khaki field uniform with a crushed German helmet at his feet, presented by Dr. Morris Herzstein in 1922.

W. from drive encircling Music Concourse on Main Dr.

270. A shaded road winds through HEROES GROVE, N. of Main Dr., a 15-acre tract of redwoods dedicated to San Francisco soldiers killed in the World War. Their names are inscribed on a large obelisk-shaped boulder.

271. The REDWOOD MEMORIAL GROVE, N. of Main Dr., was dedicated by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and the Gold Star Mothers of America to the San Francisco men and women who lost their lives in the World War. In the Grove of Memory, a section of the main grove, a redwood for each of the dead towers high above the DOUGHBOY MONUMENT, a bronze figure of a young soldier who stands, hatless and bare-armed, on a 20-ton rock base. Once part of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, this statue (M. Earl Cummings, sculptor) was purchased by the 52 San Francisco parlors of the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West.

272. The PIONEER LOG CABIN, S. of Main Dr. on an unnamed drive W. of Redwood Memorial Grove, was built in 1911 of logs floated down from Mendocino County. The structure, set in a redwood grove (picnicking facilities), is the property of the Association of Pioneer Women of California, who convene there monthly around the huge brick fireplace.

273. Composed of one tree for each of the Thirteen Original Colonies, a group of HISTORIC TREES, planted along a path leading south from the intersection of Main Drive and the drive to the Pioneer Log Cabin, commemorates the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1785. Notable are a cedar from Valley Forge and a tree from Thomas Jefferson's grave. The trees were planted in 1896 by the Sequoia Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.

274. The sandstone PRAYER BOOK CROSS, N. of Main Dr., modeled after an ancient Celtic Cross on the Scottish island of Iona, towers 57 feet above the edge of a bluff. It was erected in 1894 by the Northern California Episcopal diocese in commenoration of the first use of the Book of Common Prayer on the Pacific Coast by Francis Fletcher, Chaplain to Francis Drake, who conducted a service on the shore of Drake's Bay June 24, 1579.

275. On Sundays and holidays, tiny RAINBOW FALLS, N. of Main Dr., rush over a cliff at the base of Prayer Book Cross into a fern-bordered pool. Artificially fed from a reservoir atop Strawberry Hill, they were named when colored electric lights were strung along the cliff to make rainbows appear in the spray.

276. LLOYD LAKE, N. of Main Dr., fed by a tiny stream that ripples over a rocky ledge, is encircled by a graveled path.

277. The PORTALS OF THE PAST, six white marble Ionic Pillars reflected in the tranquil surface of Lloyd Lake, are all that remain of A. N. Towne's Nob Hill residence burned in the 1906 fire.

278. Nine-acre MARX MEADOWS, NW. of Lloyd Lake, were named for Mrs. Johannah Augusta Marx, who bequeathed $5,000 for beautification of the park in 1922.

279. BROOM POINT, S. of Main Dr., since early days has been a landmark identified by the bright yellow blossoms of Scotch broom that grow there in profusion.

280. Within the confines of 25-acre LINDLEY MEADOW, S. of Main Dr., grazes a herd of sheep. Each December the meadow becomes a living Christmas card, with shepherds in biblical costume herding grazing sheep.

281. Homing ground for migratory game and domestic waterfowl, SPRECKELS LAKE, N. of Main Dr., supplies much of the water for the park irrigation system. Each Sunday from March to late September the miniature sail and speed boats of the San Francisco Model Yacht Club clip their trim way across its rippling waters, some attaining a speed of 40 miles an hour.

282. The MODEL YACHT CLUBHOUSE (members only), W. of Spreckels Lake, a one-story structure of concrete and glass brick, is headquarters for miniature yacht enthusiasts. The Model Yacht Club members, in its fully equipped workshop, build tiny boats which duplicate in every detail their full-sized models.

283. The fences of the BUFFALO ENCLOSURE, N. of Main Dr., are so cleverly concealed in the surrounding forest that the herd of about 15 buffalo seem to be roaming at large.

284. Within the buffalo enclosure are the DEER PADDOCKS, occupied by small herds of Belgian deer and California elk.

285. The CHAIN OF LAKES, N. and S. of Main Dr., is a series of artificial lakes bordered by wilder and more rugged vegetation than is found elsewhere in the park. North Lake, N. of Main Dr., largest of the three, is dotted with several islands planted with birches, rhododendrons, and other shrubs. Waterfowl preen their plumage on the surface of the water and feed among the wild grasses in the shallows. Middle Lake, S. of Main Dr., is framed by 800 camellia and Japanese cherry trees.

286. A 150-yard-long RECREATION FIELD, W. of Main Dr. facing the ocean, includes facilities for football, softball, soccer, and tennis players, and a dressing room with showers.

287. The white, cedar-shingled NORTH WINDMILL (not open to public), E. of Main Dr. near NW. corner of park, is an authentic copy of a Dutch windmill. Seen from the Pacific, the structure is in astonishing contrast to the greenery of Golden Gate Park and the skyline of the city beyond. Constructed in 1903 to pump water for the park's irrigation system, it since has been equipped with electric pumps; but sails are attached during the summer months.

288. Reminiscent of the Maine Coast is the UNITED STATES COAST GUARD STATION (open after 3 p.m.), NW. corner of park, occupying three white buildings enclosed by a picket fence. A force of 11 men are stationed here to aid distressed vessels. One of the three buildings was constructed in 1870 when the station was established.

S. from Main Dr. on Great Highway

289. The stumpy, schooner-rigged 47-ton sloop GJOA, E. of Great Highway near NW. corner of park, only ship to negotiate the icebound Northwest Passage, rests in its rocky dry dock behind an iron spiked fence overlooking the Pacific. The Gjoa was given to San Francisco in 1909 by her commander, Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen. The sloop was built at Hardanger Fjord, Norway, in 1872. After 29 years of active service as a herring boat and sealer, she was purchased by Amundsen. With her superstructure strengthened, her hull sheathed in hardwood, and iron strips bolted to her bow, she was equipped with a 13-horsepower motor. On June 16, 1903, the Gjoa set sail from Christiana (now Oslo), Norway, bound for the Arctic and that Northwest Passage, the existence of which for centuries had troubled the minds of the adventurous. Aboard were Amundsen, six companions, Eskimo dogs, scientific instruments, and enough stores for five years.

Disaster soon struck at the expedition. A fire broke out in the engine room. A mysterious malady killed many of the dogs. In the Northwest Passage the sloop was grounded on a reef and her false keel ripped off. Only after precious deck cargo had been tossed overboard was she refloated. At long last the Gjoa halted in King William Land, in a bay later named Gjoahaven.

For three years Amundsen remained in the Arctic, with the temperature often “60 degrees below.” Completely cut off from civilization, the expedition nevertheless went busily about its work of gathering scientific data. In addition to discovering the Passage, they succeeded in fixing the location of the magnetic pole. Finally the Gjoa set sail once more, passing through the Bering Sea and thence into the Pacific Ocean and down the Coast to San Francisco. She dropped anchor off Point Bonita one October day in 1906. In the celebration that followed, American warships dipped their flags to the men who had at last sailed the near-legendary Northwest Passage.

290. The two-story BEACH CHALET (open daily except Mon. 10-6), E. of Great Highway, has a large glassed-in dining room overlooking the ocean and the Great Highway. The foyer is ornamented with murals and mosaics by WPA artists.

E. from Great Highway on South Dr.

291. The MURPHY WINDMILL (not open to public), N. of South Dr. near SW. corner of park, the second of the park's two Dutch mills, is one of the largest sail-type structures in the world, having a wing spread of 114 feet. Erected in 1905 to supply water for irrigation, it was equipped with electric pumps in 1927. At the present time the sails are operated only as an “exhibit.”

292. In the EQUITATION FIELD, N. of South Dr., a fenced, sandy area 25 by 75 yards, skilled equestrians urge their horses over practice hurdles. The adjacent Beach Stables house the horses used in the park.

NE. from South Dr. on unnamed drive

293. Not since early in the century has the three-quarter-mile track of GOLDEN GATE PARK STADIUM, N. of South Dr., thundered to the hoofbeats of thoroughbreds. A bicycle track, a cinder path, a football field, and a polo field occupy the space within the hedge that borders the inner rim of the trotting track. At the end of the last century two driving clubs dominated equestrian activities in San Francisco: the Golden Gate Driving Club, composed of men of wealth, and the San Francisco Driving Club (the “Steam Beer Club”) of members in more moderate circumstances. The organizations built the track by private subscription according to the designs of Park Superintendent John McLaren and Park Commissioner A. B. Spreckels. Chief use of the trotting track at present is for training purposes. The stables were replaced in 1939 by the WPA-built Polo Sheds, a group of four gray concrete tile-roofed buildings. The sheds house not polo ponies, but race horses in training for track events throughout the country. In return for free quarters owners put their horses in for one trotting race each season, the proceeds of which go toward upkeep of track and grounds.

294. The angler finds an ideal practice pool in the cement-lined, WPA-built FLYCASTING POOL (free), W. end of Golden Gate Park Stadium, hidden in a woodland setting with eucalyptus and evergreen trees mirrored in its placid surface. With an overall length of 450 feet and a width of 185 feet, the pool is divided into three sections, one of which is used for distance casting, one for accuracy, and the third, provided with graduated steps rising above the surface, for improving skill in difficult overhead shots. Overlooking the pool is Anglers’ Lodge, a wooden building with hand-hewn window frames and wrought-iron fittings, headquarters of the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club, which, as the San Francisco Fly Casting Club, functioned as early as 1890. Of its open tournaments from October to June, largest is the Washington's Birthday Handicap.

E. from unnamed drive on Middle Dr.

295. METSON LAKE, S. of Middle Dr., part of the park irrigation system, with its grassy shores, large boulders, and background of conifers, has the appearance of a lake in a mountain meadow.

Retrace on Middle Dr. to unnamed drive; SE. from Middle Dr. on unnamed drive to South Dr.; E. from unnamed drive on South Dr.

296. Rock-rimmed MALLARD LAKE, S. of South Dr., with its wooded islet and tiny falls, is a favored stopover for September's south bound duck traffic. Here thousands of transient mallard and canvasback graciously fraternize with their stay-at-home cousins, the drab little mud-hens for whom the lakelet is “home.” For years this was known as Hobo Lake, because transient workers on the roadways during the 1894 Mid-Winter Fair rested here between labors on the patches of seagrass.

297. A head-high wire fence encloses ELK GLEN, N. of South Dr., a wooded dell where the hoofs of elk, Scotch sheep, East Indian deer, and buffalo have churned into dusty waves the brown earth around their miniature lake. The elk herd has grown from a pair of the animals given to the city by Alvinza Hayward in 1890. Although death-struggles between the bucks during mating time have occurred on the reservation, the animals are gentle enough to nibble leaves from the hands of visitors.

298. The redwoods of the GEORGE WASHINGTON BICENTENNIAL GROVE, S. of South Dr., were planted February 22, 1932, in honor of the bicentennial anniversary of Washington's birth.

299. The HERBERT HOOVER TREE, adjoining George Washington Grove, a redwood tree planted by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1935, commemorates the ex-president's work in conservation.

300. Encircling the base of steep, wooded Strawberry Hill is STOW LAKE, N. of South Dr., bordered by tree-lined walks and winding driveways. Central reservoir for the park's irrigation system, it is the largest of the park's artificial lakes. On the wooded islets that dot its surface nest waterfowl, both wild and domestic—brant, pelicans, black and white swans, and wild ducks, arriving in the autumn on their migration southward from as far north as the Arctic. Strawberry Hill, reached by two stone bridges across narrow parts of the lake, is the highest elevation in the park. The steep slopes are covered with cypress, eucalyptus, and long-leafed acacia. From the summit (428 alt.) are visible on clear days the Farallon Islands, gray dots on the horizon, 26 miles out in the Pacific.

301. HUNTINGTON FALLS leaps 75 feet from the summit of Strawberry Hill down a bed of glistening, fern-lined rocks. It was named for Collis P. Huntington, railroad magnate, who contributed $25,000 for the beautification of the bleak sand dunes of the city's new park. The water for the falls is pumped to the top of the hill at the rate of 1,600,000 gallons a day.

302. Plants rare and useful from far-away places grow in the ARBORETUM (open Mon.-Fri. 8-4), S. of South Dr., a 40-acre plot of which a fourth is under cultivation. A bequest by Mrs. Helen Strybing has made possible plans which will include several acres of native California plants and a building housing a laboratory, library, and botanical collections. The new outlay also provides for classrooms where gardeners will be trained for their work in the park.

Plants are arranged in geographical groupings. Near the entrance, off South Dr., grow shrubs and trees from South Africa, including the aloe, which often reaches a height of 60 feet. South of this group is the Australian and New Zealand section, where grows the kauri, a primitive pine nearly extinct. West of the Australian group is the Mexican area with its Mexican or Montezuma cypress which is said to reach an age of 3,000 years. In the Chinese, Japanese, and Himalayan area, south of the Mexican section, are rare varieties of rhododendrons, including some brought from remote parts of Western China, Thibet, and the Himalayas. There are numerous trees and plants from South Africa. One area is given over to medicinal plants, including one from China from which recently was developed ephedrine. More commonly known are digitalis, from which the drug of the same name is derived; the recinus, or castor oil plant; the Arabian kath, whose leaves are made into a narcotic; and the white Chinese poppy, from which opium is made.

303. South of the Arboretum on gently sloping ground is the ROSE GARDEN, a large collection of standard, hybrid perpetual, and tea roses. Climbing roses cover the fences enclosing the garden. South of the garden, close to a tall stuccoed brick chimney resembling a castle tower, is a fine collection of iris and Kurumi azaleas.

NE. from South Dr. on Middle Dr.

304. A low, clipped hedge of myrtle fronts the GARDEN OF SHAKESPEARE'S FLOWERS, N. of Middle Dr., wherein grow specimens of every flower, shrub, and tree mentioned in the writings of William Shakespeare. Flower beds bordering a lawn include pansies, marigolds, columbines, primroses, yellow crocuses and daffodils, and dainty bluebells. Trees shading the garden include the alder, apple, ash, cedar, chestnut, laurel, lemon, locust, orange, pine, pomegranate, walnut, and yew. There are beds of sweet briar, rue, and thyme. On either side of the plot facing the entrance, where an English holly stands, are marble benches backed by dense growths of box. In the ivy-covered brick wall along the east end of the garden is a glass-enclosed niche holding a bust of Shakespeare, a copy of the Gerard Jensen bust in the Stratford-upon-Avon church. The garden was established by the California Spring Blossom and Wildflower Association.

305. DE LAVEAGA DELL, S. of Middle Dr., is a secluded glen, whose jungle foliage and fern-choked stream are the haunt of squirrels and birds. Giant tree ferns, some 20 feet high, grow among moss-covered rocks, mottled with shadows. Along each side of the twisting stream run footpaths carpeted with leaves and flanked by shrub-filled artificial gullies. At the dell's eastern end is one of the park's largest collections of rhododendrons and azaleas.

306. The LILY POND, N. of Middle Dr., a long winding pool nestling at the foot of steep overhanging cliffs, was once a quarry. A walk bordered by huge rocks and tree ferns skirts the edge, and rushes and water grasses line the shores of the pond. Ducks paddle among the green pads of water lilies.

S. from Middle Drive on unnamed cross drive

307. From the 21 tree-protected, asphalt TENNIS COURTS, E. of cross drive, have been graduated such players as Maurice McLaughlin, Bill Johnston, the Griffin brothers, and Alice Marble. It was here on some of the world's first asphalt courts, that McLaughlin developed the well-known “American twist” serve. The asphalt courts called for a much faster pace than clay and grass courts. Such pioneers as McLaughlin, after developing their games here, swept all before them in the East and Great Britain.

308. On quiet afternoons the BOWLING GREENS (open 1-4), E. and W. of cross drive, first public bowling greens in the United States, present a picture of another era. White-clad men and women bowl on the well-kept turf, while spectators watch from benches on terraced slopes. A row of the rare Torrey pines protects the greens on the west.

E. from unnamed cross drive on South Dr.

309. The CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND, N. of South Dr., occupies a secluded valley sheltered by thickly planted trees and shrubbery. The first established in a public park in America, it was founded with $50,000 left by William Sharon in 1886. Its playground equipment, donkey course, and merry-go-round center about the Children's House, a two-story building of buff sandstone in Romanesque style.

310. When high, oval-shaped, municipal KEZAR STADIUM, S. of South Dr., was opened with a track meet May 2, 1925, Paavo Nurmi, Finnish marathon champion, was a feature attraction. At first seating 22,000, it was enlarged in 1928 to a capacity of 60,000. Mary Kezar, for whom the stadium was named, gave $100,000 of its total cost of $450,000. It is of articulated reinforced concrete, with a deck of wood, covered by asbestos felt coated with sanded asphaltum.

Kezar Stadium is used chiefly by football teams of San Francisco high schools and the Catholic universities, St. Mary's, Santa Clara, and San Francisco. Main events of the year are the annual clashes between Santa Clara and St. Mary's and the New Year's Day East-West game between picked stars from Eastern and Western university teams. Average annual attendance is more than 300,000.

311. The BASKETBALL PAVILION, E. of Kezar Stadium facing Stanyan St., is a long, low, buff-colored cement building roofed with red tile. Its interior, lighted by great skylights, seats 5,500. During the basketball season high school teams play four afternoons weekly and college teams at irregular intervals at night.

312. The GAMES ENCLOSURE AND GHIRARDELLI PAVILION, N. of South Dr. near Haight St. park entrance, a hedged retreat almost hidden by flowering shrubs, half of which is walled on three sides and roofed by glass, contains tables painted with chess and checkers markings and benches to accommodate about 200 players.

313. ALVORD LAKE, near Haight and Stanyan Sts. entrance, is a small lake sheltered from winds by tall cypresses and clumps of Coast live oak, the only tree native to the park area.