 Japanese Tea Garden The California Midwinter International Exposition held in Golden Gate Park in 1894 offered an opportunity to set up cultural displays from other countries. A Japanese Village placed west of the Horticulture building took form with pavilions, gardens, and a traditional teahouse. Makoto Hagiwara, a wealthy local Japanese landscape designer and member of Japan's aristocracy, funded, built, and managed the project, depleting the family fortune for his labor of love. Maintaining a closed society, Japan remained a great unknown to most Americans at this time. The few who immigrated to San Francisco proved very different from the local Chinese population. The village of..... |
• Sigmund Stern Grove: The Jewel of the Sunset  Sigmund Stern Grove: The Jewel of the SunsetWithout the foresight of civic leader Rosalie Stern, Stern Grove might have been filled in and developed with houses, much like the rest of the Sunset. In 1866, the “Outside Lands,” the areas west of Twin Peaks that now include the Richmond, Golden Gate Park, and the Sunset, became part of the City and County of San Francisco. Although a few pieces of land were set aside as city parks, what we now call Stern Grove, running from 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard west to the end of Pine Lake, was privately owned and had no such designation. The Greene Family In 1847, Alfred Greene came to San Francisco and settled on the land at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard. The family began farming a..... |
 Land’s End in San FranciscoThe search in the History Room’s clipping disclosed numerous fascinating tidbits about the Cliff House. and the neighboring Seal Rocks, located 400 feet offshore. Over the years it has featured diverse entertainment – including tightrope walkers in the 1860s and a Sky Tram a hundred years later. As early as 1849 San Franciscans were making Sunday excursions to watch the seals cavorting on the Seal Rocks. When the opening of the Point Lobos Toll Road in 1863 made Land’s End easily accessible by carriage, the newly built Cliff House became a popular Sunday rendezvous spot. After the first tightrope walks over Niagara Falls created a national sensation, the fad soon came to San Francisco. On..... |
 Fleishhacker PoolThe name Fleishhacker invoked visions of fun at the beach—Fleishhacker Playground for amateur baseball, Fleishhacker Zoological Gardens, and Fleishhacker Pool. “When I was a kid, we would dive off the top platform. It must’ve been thirty feet up.”--Robert W. Smith, father of the author. Fleishhacker Pool was an attraction that was unique to San Francisco. It rightfully claimed its status as the world’s largest heated salt-water pool. The pool measured 1000 feet in length by 160 feet across at the middle section and 100 feet across at each end. The depth graduated from 3 feet at the west end to 15 feet under the diving platform. It held 6,500,000 gallons of filtered seawater pumped in f..... |
• The Big Dipper at Playland at the Beach  The Big Dipper at Playland at the BeachIn 1913, Arthur Looff and John Freidle formed a partnership to create an amusement park, located at Ocean Beach on the Great Highway, called Concessions at the Beach. Looff owned the Hippodrome, housing the first of San Francisco’s three famous carousels, and Freidle owned a shooting gallery and a baseball knockdown game called Babyland. picture1right300 That meager start grew to ten major attractions and countless arcades by 1921, including the Shoot-the-Chutes water ride. By then the park had taken on the name of its top attraction, billed as Chutes at the Beach. The remaining nine attractions were the Bob Sled Dipper roller coaster (Bobs), the Aeroplane Swing, the Whip, Dodg `Em, th..... |
• Diana Statue in Sutro Heights Park  Diana Statue in Sutro Heights ParkDiana the Huntress…Artemis. If you have been on our Lands End: Sutro Highs and Lows tour, you have seen this statue at Sutro Heights, the park located in the northwest corner of San Francisco near Ocean Beach. It was once the home of Adolph Sutro, Comstock Silver Baron, San Francisco mayor, land developer, and builder of Sutro Baths and the second, most grandiose Cliff House. Sutro loved statues, and at one time had 200 surrounding the grounds and niches on the cliffs above Ocean Beach. Only two original statues remain--the Stag and Diana the Huntress. In addition, gracing the entrance gates are copies of the original Lions that were replaced after they deteriorated. Sutro collected thes..... |
• Golden Gate Park’s Speed Road  Golden Gate Park’s Speed Roadpicture1left400 Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park is the former location of Speed Road, a track built in 1888 for recreational horse racing. The Speed Road began where the eastern edge of the meadow is now at Lloyd Lake, continuing southwest to what is now the southern seating area of the Polo Field, making a northward curve at the Bercut Equitation Field, and ending where John F. Kennedy Drive is now at the 42nd Avenue grid line. picture2right400 In the 1870s and 1880s, a number of commercial horse tracks existed in the western part of the city. During this period, a group of wealthy men were pushing to build a track in Golden Gate Park for recreational use. The intent was to bu..... |
• Missing Features in Golden Gate Park: Why is this Mound Here?  Missing Features in Golden Gate Park: Why is this Mound Here?
In its 140-year history, Golden Gate Park has contained many features that have moved, been reconstructed, or disappeared. picture1right300 For the 25 years he has walked in the park near his home, Eric Bennion had always wondered why there was a man-made earthen mound around the tennis courts. It is filled in with trees and shrubs with a path on top. There does not seem to be a particular architectural reason to enclose tennis courts with this landscape feature. picture2right300 I joined Eric in exploring this mystery, and we discovered that the tennis courts site was once the location for the park’s second bandstand, the New Music Stand, located where the clubhouse is now. Th..... |
• San Francisco Ocean Beach Sand Art  San Francisco Ocean Beach Sand ArtIf you’ve been to the Cliff House area at the north end of Ocean Beach in the last 5 years or so you might’ve seen a large design carved into the sand just beneath the Cliff House. I found the art when I started leading the Land’s End: Sutro Heights tour in 2006. picture1left300 Andres Amador, a San Francisco-based artist, is the mind behind the designs. He does most of his designs at this specific site so that people can see the whole design from Sutro Heights above and he can take pictures of his works of art there. There are a few others like Andres that are pioneering a new art genre – crop circles in sand. The designs are made using just a few tools. After crafting designs from..... |
 Miniature San FranciscoIf you missed the model train exhibit, Golden Gate Express Garden Railway, at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park last year, you have another chance. A model train and a cable car go through a miniature landscape of San Francisco with some of the City’s most recognizable landmarks made from recycled material. Small cars drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, and the exhibit is landscaped with real miniature plants. Coit Tower is made from white venetian blinds and measuring tape. The Ghirardelli Building is made from dark brown light switch plates. The Chinatown Gate is made from mah jong tiles; its roof is constructed of circuitry boards, imitating a green tile roof. Prominent..... |
 Bison in Golden Gate Park Although often referred to as buffalo, it is American bison that live in Golden Gate Park. The name buffalo is thought to be derived from what the French fur hunters called these animals in the 1600s, but they are related to bison and not buffalo. Bison were brought to the park in 1890 as a living memorial to the old Wild West days when thousands roamed the western plains of North America. But by 1890, the only existing wild bison herd was at Yellowstone Park - population of 400. A few years later, Congress passed a bill to ban bison hunting in Yellowstone. The first two of the San Francisco herd were named Sarah Bernhardt - after the famous stage actress who had appeared in San Francisc..... |
 Tending Our gardensSometimes, you just have to get your hands dirty. For me, that mostly means finding strata of food under my nails after a sweaty day in the kitchen. But on a chilly morning in December, my hands got dirty with real, actual, honest-to-god dirt. As in, from the earth. Me and dirt are like oil and water. Gardening is not something I have an innate passion for, but there is one garden I have a soft spot for. Tucked between modern apartment buildings on a dead-end street on the slopes of Eureka Valley, the Corwin Street Community Garden is more than a patch of pretty flowers. As a tour guide in the neighborhood, I often drag my more ambitious groups up the steep incline to the garden ..... |
• Leonard Borchardt's “Oofty Goofty”  Leonard Borchardt's “Oofty Goofty”Leonard Borchardt's first glimpse of America was brief. The fourteen year old stowaway from Berlin was discovered en route to the new world by the Captain of the SS Fresia. He was forced to stay on the ship, join the crew to earn his passage, return to Germany and back again to the United States, before being allowed to disembark in New York. From there Borchardt drifted from state to state before signing up for the U.S. Cavalry in Detroit. After learning he would be fighting Native American Indians who might scalp him - Borchardt deserted, sold his horse and gun to a farmer, and headed for San Francisco. He arrived in 1884 at the age of 22. Borchardt would try any crazy scheme for..... |
 San Francisco Presidio WalkThis view is at Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio. The bridge crosses a ravine where Dragonfly Creek is located—a stream supporting a variety of native plants. It had become overrun by eucalyptus trees and other non-native plants. However, restoration through the Doyle Drive and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy projects is now cleaning it up. The creek drains into Crissy Marsh and then into the San Francisco Bay. Dragonfly Creek is located on a hill below tennis courts and above the Presidio Native Plant Nursery. These tennis courts are now part of the Presidio YMCA, and have been at Fort Winfield Scott since the early 1900s when the game began becoming popular. Th..... |
 Music at Sutro’s ShowplaceA Love Affair Can you be in love with something that doesn’t exist? This is not as easily answered, but for me the answer is “yes.” The object of affection is San Francisco’s iconic Cliff House in the French Chateau style, completed in 1896. It caught fire in 1907, and burned to its foundation. My love affair with the Cliff House began in August 1958 when I had lunch there with a friend. In 1960, I bought my first music box for what would later dev..... |
 Tea Garden TreasureThe guides who lead the walking tours through the Japanese Tea Garden are the fortunate beneficiaries of the fabulous work done by its gardeners. When I ask my visitors, as we walk around the Garden, to guess how many people keep this place so lovely, I hear bids of fifteen, even twenty. My answer, "three professional gardeners," always brings gasps of amazement and incredulity. One of the three gardeners - in reality, only 2 ½ since one employee also works in other parts of the Park - is Steven Pitsenbarger. His path to employment at the Japanese Tea Garden was anything but random. Steven is a San Francisco native, born and raised in Visitacion Valley. As a child he spent lots of time in o..... |
San Francisco Ocean Beach Sand Art
by Emmet McDonagh
If you’ve been to the Cliff House area at the north end of Ocean Beach in the last 5 years or so you might’ve seen a large design carved into the sand just beneath the Cliff House. I found the art when I started leading the Land’s End: Sutro Heights tour in 2006.
View from Sutro Park of Ocean Beach and Andres Amador’s designs.
There are a few others like Andres that are pioneering a new art genre – crop circles in sand. The designs are made using just a few tools. After crafting designs from hand-drawn originals in his sketch book, Andres mostly uses ropes, rakes,
and stakes to carve the designs into the sand. Although few tools are needed, it’s a race against time before the high tide comes in and washes away the design. Andres decides what parts of the design should be shaded, and uses rakes to accomplish the shading by exposing the wetter, darker sand below. After about 2 hours the design is usually complete and Andres will often hang around to see how people react to his art.
When I led a private group tour in late May, we saw some of Andres’ work, but this time the beach art was on the other side, between the ruins of Sutro Baths and the Cliff House – what a treat!
• Photo courtesy of Emmet McDonagh.
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