Golden Gate Park
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Golden Gate Park is an
urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
between the
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
and
Sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...
districts on the
West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham ...
of
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, California, United States. It is the largest urban park in the city, containing , and the third-most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 24 million visitors annually. The creation of a large park in San Francisco was first proposed in the 1860s. In 1865, landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
proposed a park designed with species native to San Francisco. The plan was rejected for a
Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
-style park designed by engineer
William Hammond Hall William Hammond Hall (1846–1934) was a civil engineer who was the first State Engineer of California, and designed Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Biography William Hammond Hall was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, on February 12, ...
. The park was built atop shore and
sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...
in an unincorporated area known as the
Outside Lands Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Richmond District and Sunset District on the West Side of San Francisco. With few roads and no public transportation, the area was covered by sand dunes and was conside ...
. Construction centered on planting trees and non-native grasses to stabilize the dunes that covered three-quarters of the park. The park opened in 1870. Main attractions include cultural institutions such as the
De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...
,
California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...
, and the Japanese Tea Garden; attractions such as the
Conservatory of Flowers The Conservatory of Flowers is a greenhouse and botanical garden that houses a collection of rare and exotic plants in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. With construction having been completed in 1879, it is the oldest building in the ...
, the
San Francisco Botanical Garden The San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum (formerly Strybing Arboretum) is located in San Francisco, California, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Its 55 acres (22.3 ha) represents nearly 9,000 different kinds of plants from around ...
, the
Beach Chalet The Beach Chalet is a historic two-story Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, located at the far western end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The building is owned by the San Francisco Recreation & ...
, the
Golden Gate Park windmills The Golden Gate Park windmills are two historic windmills located at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture ...
, and the
National AIDS Memorial Grove The National AIDS Memorial Grove, or "The Grove," is located at the de Laveaga Dell in eastern Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco, California.
. Recreational activities include bicycling, pedal boating, and concerts and events such as
Outside Lands Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Richmond District and Sunset District on the West Side of San Francisco. With few roads and no public transportation, the area was covered by sand dunes and was conside ...
music festival and
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB), originally Strictly Bluegrass, is an annual free and non-commercial music festival held the first weekend of October in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Conceived and subsidized by San Francisco ven ...
. Golden Gate Park is accessible by car and by public transportation. Golden Gate Park earned the designation of
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
and of California Historic Resource in 2004. The park is administered by the
San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, as well as Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, California, Pacifica a ...
, which began in 1871 to oversee the park's development. Golden Gate Park is over three miles () long east to west, and about half a mile () north to south.


History


Development

In the 1860s, San Franciscans felt the need for a spacious public park similar to
Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
, which was then taking shape in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Golden Gate Park was carved out of unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the
Outside Lands Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Richmond District and Sunset District on the West Side of San Francisco. With few roads and no public transportation, the area was covered by sand dunes and was conside ...
, in an unincorporated area west of San Francisco's then-current borders. In 1865,
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
proposed a plan for a park using native species suited for San Francisco's dry climate; however, the proposal was rejected in favor of a Central Park-style park needing extensive irrigation. Conceived ostensibly for recreation, the underlying purpose of the park was housing development and the westward expansion of the city. Field engineer
William Hammond Hall William Hammond Hall (1846–1934) was a civil engineer who was the first State Engineer of California, and designed Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Biography William Hammond Hall was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, on February 12, ...
prepared a survey and topographic map of the park site in 1870 and became its commissioner in 1871. He was later named California's first state engineer and developed an integrated
flood control Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...
system for the
Sacramento Valley The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California ...
. The park drew its name from the nearby
Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...
Strait. The plan and planting were developed by Hall and his assistant, John McLaren, who had apprenticed in Scotland, home of many of the 19th-century's best professional gardeners. John McLaren, when asked by the Park Commission if he could make Golden Gate Park "one of the beauty spots of the world," replied saying, "With your aid gentleman, and God be willing, that I shall do." He also promised that he'd "go out into the country and walk along a stream until he found a farm, and that he'd come back to the garden and recreate what nature had done." The initial plan called for grade separations of transverse roadways through the park, as
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
had provided for Central Park, but budget constraints and the positioning of the Arboretum and the Concourse ended the plan. In 1876, the plan was almost replaced by one for a racetrack, favored by " the Big Four" millionaires:
Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of Calif ...
, Mark Hopkins,
Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...
, and
Charles Crocker Charles Crocker (September 16, 1822 – August 14, 1888) was an American railroad executive who was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the westernmost portion of the first transcontinental railroad, and took ...
. Stanford, who was president of the
Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
, was also one of the owners of the Ocean Railroad Company, which ran from Haight Street across the park to its south border, then out to the beach and north to a point near Cliff House. It was Gus Mooney who claimed land adjacent to the park on Ocean Beach. Many of Mooney's friends also staked claims and built shanties on the beach to sell refreshments to the patrons of the park. Hall resigned, and the remaining park commissioners followed. In 1882 Governor George C. Perkins appointed
Frank M. Pixley ''For the writer see Frank S. Pixley'' Frank Morrison Pixley (January 31, 1825 – August 13, 1895) was an American journalist, attorney, and politician. Pixley was the 8th attorney general of California. Biography Pixley was born in Westmorela ...
, founder and editor of
The Argonaut ''The Argonaut'' was a newspaper based in San Francisco, California from 1878 to 1956. It was founded by Frank Somers, and soon taken over by Frank M. Pixley, who built it into a highly regarded publication. Under Pixley's stewardship it was ...
, to the board of commissioners of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Pixley was adamant that the Mooney's shanties be eliminated, and he found support with the San Francisco Police for park security. Pixley favored Stanford's company by granting a fifty-year lease on the route that closed the park on three sides to competition. The original plan, however, was back on track by 1886, when
streetcars A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
delivered over 47,000 people to Golden Gate Park on one weekend afternoon (out of a population of 250,000 in the city). The first stage of the park's development centered on planting trees in order to stabilize the dunes that covered three-quarters of the park's area. In order to transform the sand dunes into parkland, John McLaren grew bent grass seeds obtained from France for two years. Once the seeds were grown, he planted them over the sand to hold the ground together. After this success, McLaren introduced new species of plants to the land, and added over 700 new types of trees to California within the span of one year. By 1875, about 60,000 trees, mostly
Eucalyptus globulus ''Eucalyptus globulus'', commonly known as southern blue gum or blue gum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae. It is a tall, evergreen tree Endemism, endemic to southeastern Australia. This ''Eucalyptus'' species has most ...
,
Monterey pine ''Pinus radiata'' (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Pinus insignis''), the Monterey pine, insignis pine or radiata pine, is a species of pine native to the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California and Mexico (on Guadalupe Island and Ced ...
, and
Monterey cypress ''Hesperocyparis macrocarpa'' also known as ''Cupressus macrocarpa'', or the Monterey cypress is a coniferous tree, and is one of several species of cypress trees native to California. The Monterey cypress is found naturally only on the Centr ...
, had been planted. By 1879, that figure more than doubled to 155,000 trees over . Within his lifetime, McLaren is credited to have planted over two million trees within northern California as a whole. Another accomplishment of John McLaren is his creation of an open walking space along the Pacific shoreline on the western boundary of the park. Despite obstacles such as heavy tides and winds that carried sand inland towards the park, McLaren was able to build an
esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...
by stacking thousands of tree boughs over the course of 20 years. When he refused to retire at the customary age of 60 the San Francisco city government was bombarded with letters: when he reached 70, a charter amendment was passed to exempt him from forced retirement. On his 92nd birthday, two thousand San Franciscans attended a testimonial dinner that honored him as San Francisco's number one citizen. He lived in McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park until he died in 1943, aged 96. McLaren Avenue, in
Sea Cliff A cliffed coast, also called an abrasion coast, is a form of coast where the action of marine waves has formed steep cliffs that may or may not be precipitous. It contrasts with a flat or alluvial coast. Formation In coastal areas in whic ...
, near
Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...
is named after him. In 1903, a pair of Dutch-style
windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...
s were built at the extreme western end of the park. These pumped water throughout the park. The north windmill was restored to its original appearance in 1981 and is adjacent to Queen Wilhelmina tulip garden, a gift of
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in Dutch history, as ...
. These are planted with
tulip Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes in the ''Tulipa'' genus. Their flowers are usually large, showy, and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow, or white. They often have a different colour ...
bulb In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...
s for winter display and other flowers in appropriate seasons. The Murphy Windmill in the southwest corner of the park was restored in September 2011.


1906 earthquake relief

After the great earthquake of San Francisco in 1906, Golden Gate Park became a site of refuge for many who found themselves without shelter. The undeveloped Outside Lands became a prime location to house these masses of people, and "earthquake shacks" popped up all throughout the area. Of the 26 official homeless encampments in the Golden Gate Park region, 21 were under the control of the United States Army. The United States Army housed 20,000 people in military style encampments, and 16,000 of the 20,000 refugees were living at the
Presidio A presidio (''jail, fortification'') was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries in areas under their control or influence. The term is derived from the Latin word ''praesidium'' meaning ''pr ...
. Within the Presidio were four major encampments including a camp exclusively for Chinese immigrants. Despite being simple lodgings, the army organized 3,000 tents into a geometric grid complete with streets and addresses. "The Army constructed a virtual town with large residential barracks
ith temporary The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is im ...
tented housing, latrines and bathhouses, laundries, and other services." Not only was the standard of military organization high, but the social organization was also at an acceptable standard despite the aftermath of the earthquake and fires. Reports indicate that small communities formed within the tent neighborhoods. The children of the refugees established play areas, and the adults congregated in the mess halls to socialize. In June 1906, the Presidio tent camps were shut down. To replace these tents the city of San Francisco built more permanent living quarters. As mentioned earlier these earthquake shacks were built to house those still homeless after the earthquake and subsequent fires. Army Union carpenters built the shacks, and residents paid off the cost of construction at a rate of two dollars a month for twenty-five months.


Early 20th century

During the Great Depression, the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department ran out of public funds. Thus, the duties of the department were transferred to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a government program designed to provide employment and community improvements during the economic woes of the 1930s. Within the park, the WPA was responsible for the creation of several features such as the Arboretum, the archery field, and the model yacht club. In addition, the WPA reconstructed 13 miles of roads throughout the park and built the San Francisco Police Department's horse stables. Another WPA contribution, Anglers Lodge and the adjoining fly casting pools, is still in use today. It is home to the Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club (formerly known as the San Francisco Fly Casting Club). The horseshoe pits were also created by WPA employees. The pits also came with two sculptures, one of a gentleman tossing a horse shoe and one of a white horse (which has since crumbled), both created by artist Jesse S. "Vet" Anderson. Most of the water used for landscape watering and for various water features is now provided by groundwater from the city's Westside Basin Aquifer. In the 1950s, the use of this effluent during cold weather caused some consternation, with the introduction of artificial
detergent A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with Cleanliness, cleansing properties when in Concentration, dilute Solution (chemistry), solutions. There are a large variety of detergents. A common family is the alkylbenzene sulfonate ...
s but before the advent of modern biodegradable products. These "hard" detergents would cause long-lasting billowing piles of foam to form on the creeks connecting the artificial lakes and could even be blown onto the roads, forming a traffic hazard.


Summer of Love

Golden Gate Park is recognized as the birthplace of the
Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. As many as 100,000 people, mostly young people, hippies, beatniks, and 1960s counterculture figures, converged in San Francisco's Haig ...
. On January 14, 1967, the
Human Be-In The Human Be-In was an event held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Polo Fields on January 14, 1967. It was a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of American counterculture an ...
was held in the
Polo Fields The Polo Fields is a large multi-purpose stadium and sporting field located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco in Golden Gate Park. Despite its name, polo is rarely played on the Polo Fields. The facility has a multitud ...
. Organized by artist Michael Bowen, the event was attended by almost 30,000 people. Famous artists such as
Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...
and
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...
were in attendance, as calls for alternative lifestyles and expanded consciousness reflected the
countercultural A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
attitudes of the period. At the event, psychologist
Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". Accordin ...
coined the phrase "
Turn on, tune in, drop out "Turn on, tune in, drop out" is a counterculture-era phrase popularized by Timothy Leary in 1966. In 1967, Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and phrased the famous words, "Turn o ...
." Several months later,
Scott McKenzie Scott McKenzie (born Philip Wallach Blondheim III; January 10, 1939 – August 18, 2012) was an American singer and songwriter who recorded the 1967 hit single and generational anthem " San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)". Ea ...
's "
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" is an American pop song, written by John Phillips, and sung by Scott McKenzie. It was produced and released in May 1967 by Phillips and Lou Adler, who used it to promote their Monterey I ...
" became an anthem for the Summer of Love. The eastern end of the Park was the epicenter of the Summer of Love, with an estimated 100,000 youth visiting the
Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called the Haight and the Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the countercultu ...
district, where they embraced communal living and counter-establishment values. Hippie Hill was a central meeting place, and renowned artists like
Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful Rock music, rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her "electric" ...
, the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
,
Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...
, and
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
performed free concerts there during the Summer of Love.


Recent history

In 1983,
Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
visited Golden Gate Park during a tour of the West Coast. Her stop included a dinner at the
De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...
, attended by then-President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
,
Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (May 6, 1931 – June 18, 2024), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of ...
,
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...
,
Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (; born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, ; November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "the Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career ...
, and
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
. About three blocks away from the museum, 5,000 people protested the Queen's visit due to Britain's role in
The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...
in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. In 2023, the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
revealed an assassination plot against the Queen during her visit. Today, Golden Gate Park is one of San Francisco's core attractions, drawing more than 24 million visitors each year. It hosts several annual music and arts festivals, including
Outside Lands Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Richmond District and Sunset District on the West Side of San Francisco. With few roads and no public transportation, the area was covered by sand dunes and was conside ...
and
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB), originally Strictly Bluegrass, is an annual free and non-commercial music festival held the first weekend of October in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Conceived and subsidized by San Francisco ven ...
. Notable Outside Lands headliners have included
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...
,
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
,
Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...
,
Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...
,
The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...
,
Billie Eilish Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( ; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single "Ocean Eyes (song), Ocean Eyes", written and produced by her broth ...
,
Tyler, the Creator Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991), known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has been cited as an influential figure in alternative hip-hop during the 2010s. Tyler beca ...
, and
SZA Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA ( ), is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her diaristic lyrics and genre explorations, she has been credited as a prominent figure in influencing contemporary R& ...
. The ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' has credited the festival for "transforming Golden Gate Park into a world class music venue." Following the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the Park became an epicenter of debate on which public city spaces should be made permanent
car-free zones Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...
. In 2022, the Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 to keep the eastern section of John F. Kennedy Drive permanently car-free, a decision affirmed later that year by voters who defeated a ballot initiative which sought to revert the change. The section was subsequently renamed "JFK Promenade."


Music Concourse area

The
Music Concourse The Music Concourse is an open-air plaza within Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Flanking the oval-shaped concourse are the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum and the California Academy of Sciences. History Originally excavated for the California ...
is a sunken, oval-shaped open-air plaza originally excavated for the
California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 The California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, commonly referred to as the "Midwinter Exposition" or the "Midwinter Fair", was a World's Fair that officially operated from January 27 to July 5 in San Francisco, California, San Francis ...
. Its focal point is the
Spreckels Temple of Music Spreckels Temple of Music, also called the bandshell, constructed in 1900, is in the Music Concourse at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It was a gift to the city from sugar magnate Claus Spreckels and is one of the largest bandshells in North A ...
, also called the "Bandshell", where numerous music performances have been staged. During the fall, spring, and summer seasons, various food trucks are often parked behind the Bandshell, providing local food options to visitors of the Music Concourse. Parkwide bicycle and surrey rentals are also available behind the bandshell and at Haight and Stanyan on the east edge of Golden Gate Park. The area also includes a number of statues of various historic figures, four fountains, and a regular grid array of heavily
pollarded Pollarding is a pruning system involving the removal of the upper branches of a tree, which promotes the growth of a dense head of foliage and branches. In ancient Rome, Propertius mentioned pollarding during the 1st century BCE. The practice h ...
trees. Since 2003, the Music Concourse has undergone a series of improvements to include an underground 800-car parking garage and pedestrianization of the plaza itself. It is surrounded by various cultural attractions, including:


De Young Museum

Named after
M. H. de Young Michael Henry de Young (September 30, 1849 – February 15, 1925) was an American journalist and businessman. Early life De Young was born in St. Louis, Missouri. The family was Jewish. Michael in later years claimed that his father was a Balti ...
, the
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
newspaper magnate, the
De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...
is a fine arts museum that was opened in January 1921. Its original building, the Fine Arts Building, was part of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition, of which Mr. de Young was the director. The Fine Arts Building featured several artists, twenty-eight of whom were female. One of these revolutionaries was
Helen Hyde Helen Hyde (April 6, 1868 – May 13, 1919) was an American etcher and engraver. She is best known for her color etching process and woodblock prints reflecting Japanese women and children characterizations. Life Born in Lima, New York, Hyde sp ...
, who is featured in the De Young Museum today. Once the fair ended, the Egyptian-styled building remained open "brimful and running over with art." Most of these pieces were paintings and sculptures purchased by De Young himself, and others were donations of household antiques from the older community, which were "more sentimental than artistic." By 1916, the Fine Arts Building's collection had grown to 1,000,000 items, and a more suitable museum was necessary. Construction to build a new museum began in 1917. With funds donated by De Young, and Louis Mullgardt as head architect, the De Young Museum was completed in 1921 in a "sixteenth century
Spanish Renaissance The Spanish Renaissance was a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries. This new focus in art, literature, Quotation, quotes and scienc ...
design, with pale salmon colored façades that were burdened with rococo ornamentation." At its center was a 134-foot tower from which its wings extended. At the entrance was the Pool of Enchantment, which consisted of the sculptured Indian boys created by M. Earl Cummings. The museum contained four wings: the East Wing (featuring ever-changing paintings, sculptures and photography by artists such as
Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...
); the Central Wing (famous American and European work); the Northeast wing (Asian collections); and the West Wing (artistic history of San Francisco). The original De Young Memorial Museum stood for most of the twentieth century, until 2001 when it was completely rebuilt, reopening in 2005. The head-architects,
Jacques Herzog Jacques Herzog (born 19 April 1950) is a Swiss architect and a founding partner along with Pierre de Meuron of the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron. Some of the most well-known projects by Herzog & de Meuron include the conversion of the Ba ...
and
Pierre de Meuron Pierre de Meuron (born 8 May 1950) is a Swiss architect and co-founder, alongside Jacques Herzog, of the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron. Among the firm's most recognized projects are the transformation of the Bankside Power Station into ...
, when asked about their design, said they wanted to create a place "where the art would be less hierarchically presented – more like contemporary art than like bijoux." The building is mostly constructed of copper, and its unique design was created with the idea that the "building would be enhanced not only by sunlight but also by San Francisco's constant fog." Since the opening of the De Young in 1921, its galleries have mostly changed, but some of the art originally featured during the fair and in the early twentieth century still exists in the museum today. The galleries of
Asian art Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. East Asian art includes works from China, Japan, and Korea, while Southeast Asian art includes the arts of Brunei, Cambodia, E ...
have since been relocated, but the De Young still features American art, Modern art, African art, textiles and sculptures, and special alternating exhibitions.


Academy of Sciences

The California Academy of Sciences was founded in 1853, just three years after California was made a state, making it the oldest scientific institution in the western United States. Evolutionist
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
corresponded on the initial organization of the early institution. The original museum consisted of eleven buildings built between 1916 and 1976 located on the former site of the 1894 Midwinter Fair's Mechanical Arts Building in Golden Gate Park. The structure was largely destroyed in the 1989 earthquake and just three of the original buildings were conserved for the new construction: the African Hall, the North American Hall, and the Steinhart Aquarium. The new building opened in 2008 at the same location in the park. The present building encompasses 37,000 square meters and includes exhibits of natural history, aquatic life, astronomy, gems and minerals, and earthquakes. The academy also contains a 2.5-acre living roof with almost 1.7 million native California plants and domes that cover the planetarium and rainforest exhibitions. The soil of the roof is six inches deep, which reduces storm water runoff by more than 90% and naturally cools the interior of the museum, thereby reducing the need for air-conditioning. The glass panels of the living roof also contain cells that collect more than 5% of the electricity needed to power the museum. Due to its eco-friendly materials and natural sources of energy, the California Academy of Sciences has been named the country's only LEED-platinum certified museum, granted by the
U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), founded in 1993, is a private 501(c)(3), membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and operation. USGBC is best known for its development of t ...
.


Japanese Tea Garden

The Japanese Tea Garden is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States and occupies five of the 1,017 acres (412 ha) of the Golden Gate Park. It stands adjacent to the
de Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...
and is rumored to be the introduction site of the
fortune cookie A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie wafer made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", an aphorism, or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese language, Chines ...
to America. George Turner Marsh, an Australian immigrant, originally created the garden as a "Japanese Village" exhibit for the 1894 Midwinter Exposition.James R. Smith, "California Midwinter International Exposition-1894," from San Francisco's Lost Landmarks (Word Dancer Press, 2005): pp.111–126 Following the fair, a handshake agreement with John McLaren would allow Japanese horticulturalist Makoto Hagiwara to take over the garden. Hagiwara would oversee modifications in the garden's transition from a temporary exhibit to a permanent installment within the park. Hagiwara and his family would continue to occupy the garden, maintaining the landscape and design of the garden until 1942. Hagiwara himself died in 1925, leaving the garden in the hands of his daughter, Takano Hagiwara, and her children. They lived there until 1942, when they were evicted from the gardens and forced into internment camps by way of
Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a President of the United States, United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the fo ...
. During World War II, anti-Japanese sentiment led to the renaming of the garden as the "Oriental Tea Garden". After the war, a letter-writing campaign enabled the garden to be formally reinstated as the Japanese Tea Garden in 1952. In January 1953, "a classical Zen garden was added to the Tea Garden" as well as the Lantern of Peace. The Lantern of Peace, weighing 9,000 pounds, was a gift from the Japanese Government as a way to mend the relationship between the U.S. and Japan that was damaged from World War II. In addition, a plaque, designed by
Ruth Asawa Ruth Aiko Asawa (January 24, 1926 – August 5, 2013) was an American modernist artist known primarily for her abstract looped-wire sculptures inspired by natural and organic forms. In addition to her three-dimensional work, Asawa created an ext ...
, now stands at the entrance of the gardens as a tribute meant to honor Hagiwara and his family for their care-taking of the gardens. The garden also still has features such as the Drum Bridge and the
Tea House A teahouse or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel, especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment that only ser ...
from the Midwinter Exposition. As is typical among Japanese style tea gardens, the Golden Gate Park's tea garden has its own stepping stone pathways, stone lanterns, and variety of plants. In the mix there are dwarf trees, bamboo, and azaleas adorning the gardens. The Japanese Tea Garden serves as a spot of tranquility in the middle of the various activities that take place at the Golden Gate Park and provides visitors "a place in which it is possible to be at one with nature, its rhythms, and changing beauties." The Japanese Tea Garden brings in more than $1 million to the Golden Gate Park and the city annually. There is a constant debate whether or not changes should be made to the garden. Adding souvenir shops and a diversity of food options at the garden historically brings in more money to the organization monitoring the Golden Gate Park, the Recreation and Park Commission. Selling products that share knowledge about Japanese gardens and culture also helps maintain the Japanese Tea Garden's authenticity.


Structures and buildings


Conservatory of Flowers


History

The Conservatory of Flowers opened in 1879 and stands today as the oldest building in Golden Gate Park. The Conservatory of Flowers is one of the largest conservatories in the US, as well as one of few large Victorian greenhouses in the United States. Built of traditional wood and glass panes, the Conservatory stands at 12,000 square feet and houses 1,700 species of tropical, rare and aquatic plants. Though it was not originally constructed, William Hammond Hall included the idea of a conservatory in his original concept for the design of the park. The idea was later realized with the help of twenty-seven of the wealthiest business owners in San Francisco. In 1883, a boiler exploded and the main dome caught fire. A restoration was undertaken by Southern Pacific magnate Charles Crocker. It survived the earthquake of 1906, only to suffer another fire in 1918. In 1933 it was declared unsound and closed to the public, only to be reopened in 1946. In 1995, after a severe storm with winds damaged the structure, shattering 40% of the glass, the conservatory was closed again. It was cautiously dissected for repairs and reopened in September 2003.


Rooms within the Conservatory

*The ''Potted Plants Gallery'' follows Victorian architecture and the 19th century idea of displaying tropical plants in non-tropical parts of the world. *The ''Lowlands Gallery'' contains plants from the tropics of South America (near the equator). * The ''Highlands Gallery'' contains native plants from South to Central America. * The ''Aquatic Plants'' room is similar in conditions as those near the Amazon River.


Beach Chalet

The two-story Beach Chalet faces the
Great Highway The Great Highway is a road located on the West Side of San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. Built in 1929, it runs for approximately next to Ocean Beach. Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard ( Sta ...
and Ocean Beach at the far western end of the park. It contains two restaurants and murals from the 1930s.


Windmills

Before the construction of its windmills, Golden Gate Park paid the Spring Valley Water Works up to 40 cents per 1000 gallons of water. To avoid this expense the North (Dutch) Windmill was commissioned in 1902 when Superintendent John McLaren deemed the park's pumping plant insufficient to supply the additional water essential to the life of the park. A survey and inspection of the vast area west of Strawberry Hill revealed a large flow of water toward the ocean. The North windmill was constructed to reclaim the drainage towards the Pacific Ocean and direct fresh well water back into the park. Alpheus Bull Jr., a prominent San Franciscan, designed the North Windmill. The Fulton Engineering Company received the bid for the ironwork, and Pope and Talbot Lumber Company donated sails ("spars") of Oregon pine. The North Windmill was installed, standing 75 feet tall with 102-footlong sails. The windmill pumps water an elevation of 200 feet with a capacity of 30,000 gallons of water per pump per hour, supplying and replenishing Lloyd Lake, Metson Lake, Spreckels Lake, and Lincoln Park. The water is pumped from the valley into a reservoir on Strawberry Hill. From there the water runs downhill into Falls and Blue Heron Lake. The North Windmill was successful, causing another system of wells and a second windmill at the southwestern corner of the park to be recommended. Samuel G. Murphy provided $20,000 to erect the windmill. The South Windmill (Murphy Windmill) stands as the largest in the world, having the longest sails in the world since its construction, with the ability to lift 40,000 gallons of water per hour.


Sculpture

A statue of longtime park superintendent John McLaren stands in the Rhododendron Dell. McLaren had this statue hidden and it was only placed in the dell after his death. Other statues of historical figures are also located throughout the park, including
Francis Scott Key Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and poet from Frederick, Maryland, best known as the author of the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry" which was set to a popular British tune and eventually became t ...
,
Robert Emmet Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Prote ...
,
Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...
, the double monument to
Johann Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
and
Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...
,
General Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was an American army general, educator, and founder of the Pershing Rifles. He served as the commander of the American Expeditionary For ...
,
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
,
Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...
, President Garfield, and
Thomas Starr King Thomas Starr King (December 17, 1824 – March 4, 1864), often known as Starr King, was an American Universalist and Unitarian minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War, and Freemason. Starr King spoke ze ...
. A bronze statue of
Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
and his companion,
Sancho Panza Sancho Panza (; ) is a fictional character in the novel ''Don Quixote'' written by Spain, Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote and provides comments throughout the novel, ...
kneeling to honor their creator,
Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his no ...
, combines historical and fictitious characters. At the Horseshoe Court in the northeast corner of the park near Fulton and Stanyan, there is a concrete bas-relief of ''The Horseshoe Pitcher'' by Jesse "Vet" Anderson, a member of the Horseshoe Club. Across from the Conservatory of Flowers is Douglas Tilden's ''The Baseball Player''. During the
George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...
, on June 19, 2020, demonstrators toppled or otherwise vandalized the statues of Catholic missionary
Junípero Serra Saint Junípero Serra Ferrer (; ; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784), popularly known simply as Junipero Serra, was a Spanish Roman Catholic, Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Francis ...
,
Francis Scott Key Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and poet from Frederick, Maryland, best known as the author of the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry" which was set to a popular British tune and eventually became t ...
(author of the lyrics to ''
The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort ...
''),
Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...
, Cervantes, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. The archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, described the toppling of the saint's statue as "an act of
sacrilege Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physical ...
ndan act of the evil one", and on June 27 performed an
exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be do ...
at the site using the
Prayer to Saint Michael The Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel usually refers to one specific Prayer in the Catholic Church, Catholic prayer to Michael (archangel), Michael the Archangel, among the various prayers in existence that are addressed to him. It falls wit ...
. In the northwest corner of the park, near the Beach Chalet, is a monument to explorer
Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Am ...
and the ''
Gjøa ''Gjøa'' is a museum ship and was the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. With a crew of six, Roald Amundsen traversed the passage in a three-year journey, finishing in 1906. History Construction The square-sterned sloop o ...
'', the first vessel to transit the
Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...
. Following the expedition, ''Gjøa'' was donated to the city in 1906 and put on display for decades near Ocean Beach. After falling into disrepair, ''Gjøa'' was returned to Norway in 1972.


Prayer Book Cross

The Prayer Book Cross, also known as Drake's Cross, is a sandstone Celtic-style cross measuring 60 feet tall. Erected by Episcopalians in 1894, it commemorates Sir
Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...
's first landing on the West Coast in 1579, the first use of the
Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...
in California and (from the inscription) the "First Christian service in the English tongue on our coast." It is located near Rainbow Falls on Crossover Drive between the John F. Kennedy Promenade and Park Presidio Drive. The cross was meant to be visible to ships at sea but has since been overgrown by trees. A gift of George W. Childs, it was designed by the architectural firm Coxhead & Coxhead of San Francisco.


Carousel

William Hammond Hall William Hammond Hall (1846–1934) was a civil engineer who was the first State Engineer of California, and designed Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Biography William Hammond Hall was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, on February 12, ...
persuaded officials to build the Children's House and Play Ground, designed by Percy & Hamilton, finished in 1888, and funded by
William Sharon William Tang Sharon (January 9, 1821November 13, 1885) was a United States senator, banker, and business owner from Nevada who profited from the Comstock Lode. Early life Sharon was born in Smithfield, Ohio, January 9, 1821, the son of Willia ...
s bequest. It was the first public children's playground in the United States, for children and their mothers, offering swings, indoor enclosures, open sitting areas and a steam-powered carousel. The two-story Sharon Children's House now houses the Sharon Art Studio. In 1888, a steam-powered carousel was installed in a circular building near the Children's House and Play Ground. The carousel building was occupied by two more carousels before the 1914 Herschell-Spillman Company carousel was purchased by
Herbert Fleishhacker Herbert Fleishhacker (November 2, 1872 – April 2, 1957), was an American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist. In 1924, he created and helped fund the Fleishhacker Pool in San Francisco, for many years the world's largest outdoor salt ...
from the
Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) was a World's Fair held at Treasure Island in San Francisco, California, U.S. The exposition operated from February 18, 1939, through October 29, 1939, and from May 25, 1940, through September 29, ...
in 1941. The 1914 carousel has undergone several major renovations, the first, a transition from steam to electric power with the assistance of the
PG&E The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the norther ...
Company. In 1977, the carousel closed for safety concerns and The San Francisco Arts Commission hired local artist Ruby Newman to oversee the artistic restoration. Her crew of craftspeople restored the badly deteriorated carousel and hand painted all animals, chariots, painted landscapes of the bay area and decorative housing (she holds the copyright), re-opening in 1984. Presently, the carousel includes sixty two animals, and a German Band Organ. Two of the animals, a goat and an ''Outside Row Stander Carousel Horse'', are by the Dentzel Wooden Carousel Company. In 2007, the
Koret Foundation The Koret Foundation is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California. Its mission is to strengthen the Bay Area and support the Jewish community in the U.S. and Israel through grantmaking to organizations involved with education, arts a ...
funded a $3.8 million renovation, later called the Koret Playground/Children’s Quarter.


Transportation


Public transport

The San Francisco
Muni Metro Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni's light rail lines saw an aver ...
runs along the southern edge of the park. Access to the park on the westbound
N Judah The N Judah is a hybrid light rail/streetcar line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. The line is named after Judah Street that it runs along for much of its length, named after railroad engineer Theodore Judah. It links down ...
line begins at the Carl and Stanyan station, located one block from
Kezar Stadium Kezar Stadium () is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, United States, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It serves as the home of San Francisco City FC of USL League Two ...
. The line continues along the entirety of the park, and includes access to the
California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...
and
De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...
at the 9th Avenue and Irving station; Blue Heron Lake at the Judah and 19th Avenue station;
Polo Fields The Polo Fields is a large multi-purpose stadium and sporting field located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco in Golden Gate Park. Despite its name, polo is rarely played on the Polo Fields. The facility has a multitud ...
at the
Judah and Sunset station Judah and Sunset station is a light rail stop on the Muni Metro N Judah line, located in the Sunset District neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The station opened with the N Judah line on October 21, 1928. The station has two short side ...
; and the Beach Chalet Soccer Fields at the line's western terminus at the
Judah and La Playa station Judah and La Playa station (often called Ocean Beach) is a light rail stop that serves as the western terminus of the Muni Metro N Judah line. It is located in the Sunset District, San Francisco, California, Sunset District neighborhood adjacen ...
. Various bus routes pass through Golden Gate Park or stop along its boundaries. The 18 bus stops along the
Great Highway The Great Highway is a road located on the West Side of San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. Built in 1929, it runs for approximately next to Ocean Beach. Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard ( Sta ...
on the western end of the park. The
5 Fulton 5 Fulton is a trolleybus line operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). It is one of several routes which connects the Outer Richmond to the Financial District. Route description The line runs from the Salesforce Transit Center t ...
runs along the northern boundary of the park along Fulton Street. The
33 Ashbury/18th Street 33 Ashbury/18th Street is a trolleybus line operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway. The route is descendant from the first trolleybus service to open in San Francisco, California, United States. Route description From 25th Street and P ...
stops along the eastern edge of the park in
Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called the Haight and the Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the countercultu ...
. The 7 Haight/Noriega also stops in the Haight, running about halfway along the southern end of the park. The 43 Masonic stops near the Pandhandle on the far eastern end of the park. The 44 and 28 both run through the park.


Natural features


San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum

The
San Francisco Botanical Garden The San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum (formerly Strybing Arboretum) is located in San Francisco, California, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Its 55 acres (22.3 ha) represents nearly 9,000 different kinds of plants from around ...
was laid out in the 1890s, but funding was insufficient until Helene Strybing willed funds in 1926. Planting began in 1937 with WPA funds supplemented by local donations. This
arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
contains more than 7,500 plant species. The arboretum also houses the Helen Crocker Russell Library, northern California's largest horticultural library. Due to the unique climate of San Francisco and Golden Gate Park, the plants in the San Francisco Botanical Garden range from a variety of different national origins, some of them no longer existing in their natural habitats. Areas of origin include but are not limited to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Central and South America. These regions of origin go from desert to tropical. In addition, some native California species are housed in the garden as well, such as Redwood trees. Overall, the tradition of these diverse gardens that eventually served to inspire the San Francisco Botanical Garden comes originally from China, Europe, and Mexico.


Lakes

Blue Heron Lake, formerly known as Stow Lake, surrounds the prominent
Strawberry Hill Strawberry Hill may refer to: United Kingdom *Strawberry Hill, London, England **Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole's Gothic revival villa **Strawberry Hill railway station * Strawberry Hill, a rewilded farm at Knotting Green, Bedfordshire Uni ...
, now an island with an electrically pumped
waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...
. The lake was originally named for William W. Stow, a known
anti-Semite Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
, who gave $60,000 for its construction. Strawberry Hills' waterfall was named Huntington Falls after its benefactor Collis P. Huntington. Blue Heron Lake was the first artificial lake constructed in the park and Huntington was the park's first artificial waterfall. The falls are fed by a reservoir located atop Strawberry Hill. Water is pumped into the reservoir from Elk Glen Lake, the South Windmill, wells, and the city's water supply to keep the system of lakes flowing eastward from Blue Heron Lake. Rowboats and pedalboats can be rented at the boathouse. Much of the western portion of San Francisco can be seen from the top of this hill. The reservoir at its top also supplies a network of high-pressure water mains that exclusively supply specialized fire hydrants throughout the city. The lake itself also serves as a reservoir from which water is pumped to irrigate the rest of the park should other pumps stop operating. In the past the Hill was also topped by Sweeny Observatory, but the building was ruined by the 1906 earthquake and plans to replace it were not approved by park commissioners. Two bridges connect the inner island to the surrounding mainland: the Roman Bridge and the Stone (or Rustic) Bridge. The Stone Bridge is a prominent background feature in the 1915 American silent comedy short ''
Wished on Mabel ''Wished on Mabel'' is a 1915 American silent comedy short or " one-reeler" filmed at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, and directed by Mabel Normand. The short also co-stars Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Plot This "farce ...
'', starring
Mabel Normand Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, comedienne, director and screenwriter. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their K ...
and
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel ...
."''Wished on Mabel'' (1915) – Mabel Normand & Fatty Arbuckle"
American comedy filmed at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, 1915. Complete 12-minute short available for free viewing at the video-streaming service
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
, a subsidiary of
Alphabet, Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...
, Mountain View, California. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
In October 2022, three San Francisco city supervisors introduced a resolution urging the Recreation and Park Commission to rename the lake due to William Stow's outspoken antisemitism, as part of an effort to rename various landmarks across the San Francisco Bay Area. In January 2024, the Commission decided on the new name of "Blue Heron Lake", in honor of the blue herons that nest along the lake. Spreckels Lake Spreckels Lake is an artificial
reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
behind a small
earthen dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...
that lies on the north side of the Golden Gate Park between Spreckels Lake Drive and Fulton Street to the north, and John F. Kennedy Drive to the south. It is named after sugar-fortune heir and then San Francisco Parks Commissioner
Adolph B. Spreckels Adolph Bernard Spreckels (January 5, 1857 – June 28, 1924) was a California businessman who ran the Spreckels Sugar Company and who donated the California Palace of the Legion of Honor art museum to the city of San Francisco in 1924. His wife, ...
. Built between 1902 and 1904 at the request of the San Francisco Model Yacht Club specifically as a model boating facility, the lake was first filled in February 1904 and opened March 20, 1904. One can usually find both 'sail driven,' self-guided Yachts and electric or gas/nitro powered radio-controlled model boats of many types and designs plying the lake's waters most times of year. Alvord Lake is located at the eastern end of the park near the intersection of Haight and Stanyan streets. It was named for
William Alvord William Alvord (January 3, 1833 – December 21, 1904) was an American merchant, banker and political leader in San Francisco. He was the 13th Mayor of San Francisco from 1871 to 1873 and served as president of the Bank of California from 1878 un ...
, Park Commissioner in the 1870s, and Mayor of San Francisco from 1871 to 1873, who financed its construction in 1882. A few yards west of the lake is the Alvord Lake Bridge, the oldest known reinforced concrete bridge built in the United States. Elk Glen Lake is the park's deepest ornamental lake, measuring over 6 ft. deep on average. The lake acts as a reservoir for water from the Reclamation Plant before it is pumped to either Blue Heron Lake or the reservoir atop Strawberry Hill. Mallard Lake is landlocked and not a part of the park's irrigation system. Metson Lake lies west of Mallard Lake and east of the Chain of Lakes. This body of water has a capacity of over 1.1 million gallons that overflow into South Lake or can be redirected elsewhere for irrigation purposes. Chain of Lakes Many naturalistically landscaped lakes are placed throughout the park: several are linked together into chains, with pumped water creating flowing creeks. Out of the original 14 natural marshy lakes within the sand dunes Golden Gate Park was built in, only 5 remain, three of which are the Chain of Lakes. The three lakes, North, Middle, and South Lake, are located along the Chain of Lakes Drive. North Lake is the largest of the three, and is known for its water birds that often live on the small islands within the lake. Some of the birds spotted are
egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...
s, belted kingfishers,
duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...
s, and
great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...
s. It is surrounded by a paved walkway that is often used by families, joggers, and dog walkers. In 1898,
McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...
started a landscaping project, inspired by Andrew Jackson Downing's teachings on building with nature. Seven islands were planted within the North Lake in 1899, using different species of shrubs and trees. A gazebo was built, and wooden footbridges were used to connect the different islands within the lake. Both the gazebo and the bridges were removed in order to conserve nesting birds on the islands. North Lake is the final of the Chain of Lakes that flow into each other south to north, making it the final destination of the lakes' water pumped in from the Water Reclamation Plant. Should the plant's water not meet the lake's needs the water level is maintained by well water pumped from the North Windmill. Middle Lake is particularly known for bird-watching due to the visits of migrant species of birds like
tanager The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird family (biology), family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has a Neotropical distribution and is the second-largest family of birds. It represents about 4% of all avian species and 12 ...
s,
warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers T ...
s and
vireo The vireos make up a family, Vireonidae, of small to medium-sized passerine birds found in the New World (Canada to Argentina, including Bermuda and the West Indies) and Southeast Asia. The family contains 62 species and is divided into eight ...
s. It is surrounded by a dirt trail and vegetation. The lake resembles the
marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...
es that existed before Golden Gate Park, and is known for being a more remote and romantic setting. South Lake is the smallest of the three lakes, and borders Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. This lake is the smallest in the Chain of Lakes. Its water is sourced from either a direct flow from Metson Lake, or by Blue Heron Lake water released by a valve. It does not contribute to irrigation in the park but it does feed into Middle Lake. Its noteworthy bird population is its ducks.


Bison Paddock

Bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...
(''Bison bison'') have been kept in Golden Gate Park since 1891, when a small herd was purchased by the park commission. At the time, the animal's population in North America had dwindled to an all-time low, and San Francisco made a successful effort to breed them in captivity. In 1899, the paddock in the western section of the park was created. At its peak and through a successful captive breeding program, more than 100 calves were produced at Golden Gate Park, helping preserve the iconic bison population numbers in North America, which has been critical to the culture and livelihood of Native Americans. In 1984, Mayor
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel Feinstein (; June 22, 1933 – September 29, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1992 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 38th ...
's husband,
Richard C. Blum Richard Charles Blum (July 31, 1935 – February 27, 2022) was an American investor and the husband of United States Senator Dianne Feinstein. He was the chairman and president of Blum Capital, an equity investment management firm. Blum wa ...
, purchased a new herd as a birthday present for his wife. The older bison in the paddock today are descendants of this herd. In December 2011, after the number of bison in the paddock had dwindled to three, Assemblywoman
Fiona Ma Fiona Ma (born March 4, 1966) is an American politician and accountant. She has been serving as the California state treasurer since January 7, 2019. She previously was a member of the California Board of Equalization (2015–2019), the Californ ...
's office led another preservation effort. With donations from the Theodore Rosen Charitable Foundation,
Richard C. Blum Richard Charles Blum (July 31, 1935 – February 27, 2022) was an American investor and the husband of United States Senator Dianne Feinstein. He was the chairman and president of Blum Capital, an equity investment management firm. Blum wa ...
, and the Garen Wimer Ranch, Assemblywoman Ma's office worked with the
San Francisco Zoo The San Francisco Zoo and Gardens is a zoo located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, in the southwestern corner of the city between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean along the Great Highway. The zoo's main entrance (o ...
and San Francisco Recreation and Parks to add seven new bison to the existing herd. The paddock is open to the public for viewing.


Hippie Hill

Nestled in the trees between the
Conservatory of Flowers The Conservatory of Flowers is a greenhouse and botanical garden that houses a collection of rare and exotic plants in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. With construction having been completed in 1879, it is the oldest building in the ...
and
Haight Street Haight Street () is the principal street in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, also known as the Upper Haight due to its elevation. The street stretches from Market Street, through the Lower Haight neighborhood, to Stanyan Street in th ...
, Hippie Hill displays a lifestyle unique to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. East of the Golden Gate Park tennis courts, the green space known as Hippie Hill is a gentle sloping lawn just off of Kezar Drive and overlooking Robin Williams Meadow, with Eucalyptus and Oak on either side. Additionally, the hill contains several uncommon trees: coast banksia, titoki, turpentine, and cow-itch. Hippie Hill has been a part of San Francisco's history, namely the
Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. As many as 100,000 people, mostly young people, hippies, beatniks, and 1960s counterculture figures, converged in San Francisco's Haig ...
, in 1967, a large counterculture movement that partially took place on the hill. With its close proximity to Haight Street, the main site of the Summer of Love, the movement often overflowed onto the hill. During this era, people gathered in the area to connect with one another through many activities, including the playing of music, consumption of
LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
and
marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
, and expression of
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...
ideals. With time, area residents began to complain of the flower children's open sexuality, nude dancing, panhandling, and excess litter. Through this movement, music came to have its own history on the hill as well. Musicians and bands such as
Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful Rock music, rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her "electric" ...
, the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
,
Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...
, and
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
all played free shows for the public near by. Today, improvised drum circles form on the weekends where people come together and fill the hill with a constant beat for hours on end. A space filled with their culture, the hill played a major part in the hippies' ability to openly use drugs and express themselves as the police adopted a policy of looking the other way. Though the police have been known to crack down on certain occurrences in the park, the
SFPD The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is the Municipal police, municipal law enforcement agency of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco, as well as San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County, California, San Ma ...
are lenient with activity on the hill. Starting from the Summer of Love when the police were unable to address the enormity of the situation, some activity is overlooked. As supervisor
London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...
stated, "smoking anything in any city park is illegal, but San Francisco has a tradition of turning a blind eye to infractions for official or unofficial events." The police department has stated that they are not naïve enough to attempt to catch all the people smoking marijuana on the hill, but as Police Chief Greg Suhr said, "There are plenty of other things that come with it that we will not have."


Plants

A diverse collection of plants, from all over the world, can be found in Golden Gate Park. Acacias, like the Sydney golden wattle from Australia, were some of the first planted in the park by William Hammond Hall to stabilize the sand dunes. They still play that role in the western portion of the park and are common all around the park. While ninety-six percent of the park is considered not a natural area, four out of the thirty-two San Francisco locations designated as natural areas by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department's Natural Areas Program are found in Golden Gate Park. These are the Oak Woodlands, the Lily Pond, Strawberry Hill, and Whiskey Hill. The California live oak is the only tree native to the park. Some of the oldest plants in the park are the coast live oaks in the Oak Woodlands in the northeastern portion of the park which are hundreds of years old. Oaks also grow on Strawberry Hill and in the AIDS Memorial Grove. Acorns from the oak trees were an important food source to Native American groups in San Francisco. Other than the oak trees, the plants that are currently in the park are non-native, some of which are considered invasive species. Many have disrupted the ecosystem and harm birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects in the park. Volunteers with the Strawberry Hill Butterfly Habitat Restoration Project are removing and replacing invasive plant species to help restore the butterfly population on Strawberry Hill. Under the Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan, the city will remove many invasive species and replace them with native plants. Blue gum eucalyptus,
Monterey pine ''Pinus radiata'' (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Pinus insignis''), the Monterey pine, insignis pine or radiata pine, is a species of pine native to the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California and Mexico (on Guadalupe Island and Ced ...
, and
Monterey cypress ''Hesperocyparis macrocarpa'' also known as ''Cupressus macrocarpa'', or the Monterey cypress is a coniferous tree, and is one of several species of cypress trees native to California. The Monterey cypress is found naturally only on the Centr ...
were the most commonly planted trees in the park during the late 1800s. Blue gum continued to grow and spread and is now one of the most important trees found in the park. They can be found near McLaren Lodge, on Hippie Hill, and in a eucalyptus forest near Middle Lake. Monterey pines are also prevalent today and can found in the Strybing Arboretum, the Japanese Tea Garden, and in the western portions of the park around the Buffalo Paddock.
Redwoods Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Cupressaceae, that range in the northern hemisphere. It includes the largest and tallest trees in the world. The trees in the subfamily are a ...
were planted in the park during the 1880s and can be found all around the park, most notably in Heroes Grove, Redwood Memorial Grove, AIDS Memorial Grove, Stanyan Meadows, on top of Hippie Hill, and in the Panhandle. Tree ferns were planted early on by McLaren and continue to thrive in the park. Many can be found in the Tree Fern Dell, near the Conservatory of Flowers, which is made up of mostly Tasmanian tree fern.


Wild animals

In 2013, San Francisco photographer David Cruz shot pictures of
coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...
pups in Golden Gate Park. It is estimated that over 100 coyotes live in San Francisco, and there have been more sightings in Golden Gate Park than any other spot in the city. Coyotes have proven adaptive in the city, as they live primarily in open prairies and deserts.
Mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...
s occasionally roam the park. The first colony of
great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...
s to nest in San Francisco was discovered at Blue Heron Lake in Golden Gate Park in 1993 by Nancy DeStefani and has been continuously returning to the park during the breeding season since then. The heronry features in ''Heron Island'' (1998), a short documentary directed by filmmaker
Judy Irving Judy Irving is an American filmmaker. She directed the documentary '' The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill'', about writer Mark Bittner's relationship with a flock of wild parrots. The film won the Genesis Award for "Outstanding Documentary Fil ...
.


Dedicated areas and memorials


National AIDS Memorial Grove

In the decades following the first reports of
AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
in the United States in 1981, some Americans were overwhelmed with the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. In 1988 a few San Franciscans belonging to communities hit hard by the AIDS epidemic envisioned a place of remembrance for those who had died from AIDS. They imagined a serene AIDS memorial where people could go to heal. Renovation for the
National Aids Memorial Grove The National AIDS Memorial Grove, or "The Grove," is located at the de Laveaga Dell in eastern Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco, California.
began in September 1991 and continues today as communities are constantly working to improve it. Located at 856 Stanyan Street, in the eastern portion of Golden Gate Park, the Grove stretches across seven acres of land. In 1996, due to Nancy Pelosi's efforts, the "National AIDS Memorial Grove Act" was passed by Congress and the President of the United States,
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
, which officially made those seven acres of Golden Gate Park the first AIDS memorial in the United States. Then in 1999, it earned the Rudy Bruner Silver Medal
Award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...
for excellence in the urban environment. Due to its serene environment of redwoods, maples, ferns, benches, logs, and boulders, this memorial remains a place where people go to grieve, hope, heal, and remember. Located at the Dogwood Crescent the Circle of Friends is the heart of the grove. The Circle of Friends has over 1,500 names inscribed on its flagstone ground which represent lives lost to AIDS. If one wishes to inscribe a name into the Circle of Friends they must donate $1,000 to the memorial and the name will be inscribed before the Worlds AIDS day commemoration on December 1. Funded privately and tended by over 500 of volunteers, The National AIDS Memorial Grove remains a sanctuary for remembrance. On November 30 an annual Light in the Grove fundraising gala is held in the Grove. This event, held on the eve of Worlds Aids Day, sells out each year and was voted "Best Bay Area LGBT Fundraiser" by ''Bay Area Reporter'' readers in 2015.


Shakespeare Garden

The Shakespeare Garden is a relatively small "17th century classical garden" located directly southwest of the California Academy of Sciences. It is a tribute to William Shakespeare and his works, decorated with flowers and plants that are mentioned in his plays. The entrance is an ornate metal gate that says "Shakespeare Garden" intertwined with vines. Directly past the entrance is a walkway overarched with trees and lined with small flowers and a sundial in the center. The main area has a large moss tree and benches. At the end of the garden there is a wooden padlocked shelf containing a bust of William Shakespeare. The cast was made and given to the garden by George Bullock in 1918 and has remained behind locked doors since around 1950 to prevent people from cutting off pieces of the bronze statue to melt down. Around the bust, there are four plaques, originally six, with quotes from Shakespeare. The missing two were stolen and most likely sold and melted down so the thieves could make a profit from the bronze the plaques were made from.
Alice Eastwood __NOTOC__ Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She published over 310 scient ...
, the director of botany from the California Academy of Sciences at the time, came up with the idea for the garden in 1928, and it was carried out by Katherine Agnes Chandler. It however is not unique, as there are several Shakespeare gardens around the world, including "Cleveland, Manhattan, Vienna, and Johannesburg." The garden is a popular spot for weddings. There are over 200 plants mentioned in Shakespeare's works.


Rose Garden

The Rose Garden is found between the John F. Kennedy Promenade and Park Presidio Boulevard.


Dahlia Garden

The Dahlia Garden is found just to the East of the Conservatory of Flowers, and is maintained by volunteers from the Dahlia Society of California, founded in 1917.


Sports and recreation

Golden Gate park contains many areas for sports and recreation including tennis courts, soccer fields, baseball fields, lawn bowling fields, an angling and casting club, a Golden Gate Park Disc Golf Course, disc golf course, horseshoe pits, an archery range, the polo field, and Kezar Stadium. Golden Gate park formed the first Lawn Bowling Club in the United States in 1901, with an Edwardian style clubhouse constructed in 1915. The 2015 San Francisco 1st Half Marathon, started near the Ferry Building and finished inside Golden Gate Park.


Kezar Stadium

Kezar Stadium Kezar Stadium () is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, United States, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It serves as the home of San Francisco City FC of USL League Two ...
was built between 1922 and 1925 in the southeast corner of the park. It hosted various athletic competitions throughout its existence. It served as the home stadium of the San Francisco 49ers of the All-America Football Conference, AAFC and NFL from 1946 to 1970, and for one season in 1960, it hosted the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League, AFL The 59,000-seat stadium was demolished in 1989 and replaced with a modern 9,044-seat stadium, which includes a replica of the original concrete arch at the entryway. The stadium has been used in recent years for soccer, lacrosse, and track and field. The stadium also holds the annual city high school football championship, the Turkey Bowl. The Turkey Bowl dates to 1924 and is played each Thanksgiving. The game was held at Lowell High School in 2014 because Kezar was closed due to renovation of the running track. Galileo High School has the most overall wins in the game (16) after breaking Abraham Lincoln High School (San Francisco, California), Lincoln High School's record four-game winning streak in 2009. The stadium also hosts the football game in the three-part Bruce-Mahoney Trophy competition between Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory and Saint Ignatius College Preparatory, two Catholic high schools in San Francisco, in addition to serving as the home field for Sacred Heart Cathedral's football program.


The Polo Field

The sport of polo came to California in 1876, when the California Polo Club was established with help of San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area native, Captain Nell Mowry.Starr, Kevin. The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print. By the late 1800s, polo in San Francisco was dominated by the Golden Gate Driving Club and the San Francisco Driving Club. In 1906, the Golden Gate Park Stadium was built by private subscription from the driving clubsKipen, David. ''San Francisco in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City by the Bay''. Berkeley, California: University of California, 2011. Print. which contained both a polo field and a cycling velodrome. Later on, the stadium was renamed simply the Polo Field. In the mid-1930s, the City and County of San Francisco used Public Works Administration, PWA and WPA funds to renovate the polo field. In 1939, additional WPA funds were used to build polo sheds, replacing already-standing horse stables. Polo continued being played through the 1940s but by the 1950s polo stopped being played on the Polo Field because the sport had largely migrated to other bay area cities where land more suitable for polo was available."Polo and Horse Show in Golden Gate Park." Sunset, September 1986: 55. Print In 1985 and 1986, polo was brought back to the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park for the second and third annual San Francisco Grand Prix and Equestrian Festival. Today, polo is not regularly played on the Polo Field, but from 2006 to 2010 Polo in the Park was hosted annually. The Polo Fields has a history of cycling lasting from 1906 to the 21st century. The Polo Fields were originally created for track cycling in 1906, as track cycling was a popular sport in the early 1900s. Despite a down-surge of popularity in the mid-1900s, track cycling has seen a rebirth ever since the introduction of more track cycling programs in the Olympics in 2003. San Francisco has seen a surge in cycling popularity, and groups such as "Friends of the Polo Field Cycling Track" have recently formed. The field has an extensive history with music and events. Because of the location and size of the Polo Fields, various events are commonly held on the field. Historically, many major music festivals took place in the park, including the Human Be-In, which featured bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. More contemporary music festivals such as the Outside Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass also take place on or nearby the Polo Fields. One of the largest public gatherings in San Francisco took place in the Polo Fields—a public Rosary in 1961 with 550,000 people. Public political events were also held at the field, such as the anti-Vietnam War rally in 1969 and the Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996. Now in the 21st century, the Polo Field is split into two divisions: the inner soccer field, and the flat-style cycling velodrome found around the field itself. Today many sports are played in the polo fields, including soccer, cross country running, and various types of cycling. The cycling track is still alive, with a large number of time-trial races held every cycling season. A cyclist in 2013 set a record in the park by riding a total of 188.5 miles on the Polo Field velodrome, circling it 279 times in just over twelve hours. In 2023 a new cycling track distance record was set at 201.0 miles over 296 laps in 11 hours 6 minutes.


Archery range

Archery was first organized in Golden Gate Park in 1881. However, there was not a devoted range specifically for archery until around 1933. In 1936, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, many parts of Golden Gate Park, including the archery range, were improved as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). With WPA support, the archery range was increased in size and the adjacent hill was carved to serve as a backdrop for stray arrows. Bales of hay are used as targets and are provided by the Golden Gate Joad Archery Club as well as donations from other donors. The Golden Gate Park Archery Range is located right inside the park off of 47th Street and Fulton Street. It is open whenever the park is open and is free to use by anyone. There is no staff and equipment is not offered to be rented at the range, however there are archery stores nearby for rentals and there are multiple groups that offer training and lessons.


Golden Gate Park Nursery

Established in 1870, the Golden Gate Park Nursery has remained one of the few places in the park restricted to the public. This nursery began with donated plants from around the world and expanded over the years with the care of past Golden Gate Park gardeners. The nursery has moved around the park thrice; first to where McLaren Lodge stands today, then to where Kezar Stadium is currently located and finally to its current location of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. This Nursery houses over 800 species of plants, some of which are exclusive to the nursery, and are sold to the public on the third Saturday of the month. Every week over 3,000 plants are dispersed within the city and park.


Homeless population

In 2017, there were approximately 7,500 homeless people living in San Francisco. Around 40 to 200 of these people were estimated to reside in the park as of 2013. Around half of the homeless population in Golden Gate Park are short-term residents that leave after a certain amount of time, and the other half are more long-term residents. Short-term residents tend to be younger, while permanent residents tend to be older, military veterans. Most of the homeless population is male. It is estimated that around 60% of the population may have a mental disability. However, it is hard to gather data about the population due to its variability. The city government of San Francisco has attempted to establish various outreach programs in order to help the homeless population. The city's government stated in 2013 that "current outreach efforts to inform park dwellers about support services are limited, and efforts that do take place are not documented in a way that makes it possible to analyze their efficiency or success". The City of San Francisco has grappled with what to do about camps of homeless people living in Golden Gate Park, which have been criticized as unsanitary, and "demoralizing" for park users and workers. The camps have been described by journalists as full of garbage, broken glass, hypodermic needles, and human excrement, and the people in them are described as suffering from serious addictions and often behaving aggressively with police and park gardeners. There have been occasional incidents of violence against homeless people in the park, including the 2010 park beating to death of a homeless man and an attack on park visitors by dogs owned by a park resident, also in 2010. In the 1990s, then-Mayor Willie Brown sought unsuccessfully to borrow the Oakland Police Department's helicopters in order to find homeless people's camps. Starting in 1988 under then-mayor Art Agnos, and continuing under the direction of subsequent mayors including Frank Jordan, Willie Brown (politician), Willie Brown, and Gavin Newsom, San Francisco police have conducted intermittent sweeps of the park aimed at eliminating the camps. Tactics have included information campaigns designed to inform homeless residents about city services available to help them; waking sleeping homeless people and making them leave the park; issuing citations for infractions and misdemeanors such as camping, trespassing, or public intoxication, which carry penalties of $75 to $100; and the seizure and removal from the park of homeless people's possessions. During the night, police urge visitors to Golden Gate Park to be careful around homeless people. The crackdowns have been criticized by anti-poverty activists and civil liberties groups, who say the measures attack only the symptoms of homelessness, while ignoring its root causes, and criminalize the poor for their poverty while ignoring their property rights and constitutional rights. In 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit against the city government on behalf of 10 homeless people, alleging property violations by the city during sweeps in Golden Gate Park the year before.


In popular culture

;Books *A book, titled ''Five Thousand Concerts in the Park'', lists and describes the long history with music of Hellman Hollow, originally called Speedway Meadow and renamed in 2011 in honor of Warren Hellman. ;Events The tradition of large, free public gatherings in the park continues to the present, especially at Hellman Hollow. Since the park's conception, over 5,000 concerts have been held in the park. *In 2001, Hellman founded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (formerly the "Strictly Bluegrass Festival"), a free music festival held in October. *Hellman Hollow also plays host to a number of large-scale events, such as th
911 Power to the Peaceful Festival
held by musician and filmmaker Michael Franti with Guerrilla Management. *Since 2008, the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival has been hosted every August in the park's
Polo Fields The Polo Fields is a large multi-purpose stadium and sporting field located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco in Golden Gate Park. Despite its name, polo is rarely played on the Polo Fields. The facility has a multitud ...
. ;Films * Charlie Chaplin filmed scenes in the park for at least two 1915 movies, including ''A Jitney Elopement'' and ''In the Park'' * Another silent comedy short was filmed in the park, ''
Wished on Mabel ''Wished on Mabel'' is a 1915 American silent comedy short or " one-reeler" filmed at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, and directed by Mabel Normand. The short also co-stars Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Plot This "farce ...
'' (1915), starring
Mabel Normand Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, comedienne, director and screenwriter. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their K ...
and
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel ...
; various early features of the park can be seen in this 12-minute film, including several views of Stone Bridge *A sequence in the lost film , lost Sessue Hayakawa film, ''A Heart in Pawn'' was filmed at the Japanese Tea Garden (San Francisco) , Japanese Tea Garden. * A scene in Orson Welles' ''The Lady from Shanghai'' (1947) was shot in the Steinhart Aquarium in the old
California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...
building * In the Bugs Bunny cartoon ''Bushy Hare'' (1950), Bugs pops up at Portals of the Past at Lloyd Lake (San Francisco), Lloyd Lake, the remains of the A. E. Towne mansion from Nob Hill after the 1906 earthquake * ''Scaramouche (1952 film), Scaramouche'' (1952) includes scenes of duels looking west into the fog at Speedway Meadows, and interiors in De Young Museum's old period rooms * In ''The Lineup (film), The Lineup'' (1958), scenes were shot inside the Steinhart Aquarium * ''At Golden Gate Park'' is a live recording of the concert given on May 7, 1969, by the
Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...
in Golden Gate Park * ''Dirty Harry'' (1971) scenes were filmed in Kezar Stadium * The
Conservatory of Flowers The Conservatory of Flowers is a greenhouse and botanical garden that houses a collection of rare and exotic plants in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. With construction having been completed in 1879, it is the oldest building in the ...
was filmed in ''Harold and Maude'' (1971) * The opening scene of the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 film), Invasion of the Bodysnatchers was filmed on the outskirts of Golden Gate Park * In the film ''Time After Time (1979 film), Time After Time'' (1979), Malcolm McDowell can be seen exiting the park near 6th Avenue in the Richmond District * The Spock casket scene near the end of ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' (1982) was filmed in an overgrown corner of the park, using smoke machines to add a primal atmosphere *In ''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986), a Klingon Bird-of-Prey is said to land in the park, but the scene was actually filmed at Will Rogers State Historic Park near Los Angeles due to heavy rainfall * One of a number of scenes of characters playing American football, football in ''The Room'' (2003) is shot in Golden Gate Park's Hellman Hollow * A scene from ''The Pursuit of Happyness'' (2006) was shot in the Children's Playground * ''Contagion (2011 film), Contagion'' (2011) includes a scene filmed at the Music Concourse *The film ''The Diary of a Teenage Girl, The Diary Of A Teenage Girl'' (2015) filmed its opening scene in Golden Gate Park * Several scenes in ''Always Be My Maybe'' (2019) are set in Golden Gate Park. ; ;Television * In the ''Eli Stone'' TV episode, "Waiting for that Day" (2008), some citizens of San Francisco seek refuge in the park during a 6.8 earthquake; they later witness the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge from the park, though in reality, the bridge isn't visible from the park


See also

*List of parks in San Francisco * Kezar Pavilion * California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, 1894 California Midwinter Exposition


References


External links


Golden Gate Park official websiteSan Francisco Parks AllianceSan Francisco Recreation & Parks DepartmentMap of Golden Gate Park (1) 1876Map of Golden Gate Park (2) 1876Map of Golden Gate Park, 1896Map of Golden Gate Park, 1940
{{Portal bar, San Francisco Golden Gate Park, Municipal parks in California Parks in San Francisco Landmarks in San Francisco Culture of San Francisco Urban public parks Urban forests in the United States Music venues in the San Francisco Bay Area National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in California Parks in the San Francisco Bay Area World's fair sites in California Works Progress Administration in California Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California Rose gardens in the United States Articles with WikiMiniAtlas displaying incorrectly; WMA not showing area Linear parks