Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park

Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park

Photo: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.

In 1870, when the city set aside more than 1,000 acres of windswept sand dunes for a park, plenty of people thought it was a joke. Engineer William Hammond Hall worked out how to anchor the sand with grasses and trees, and John McLaren, superintendent for more than 50 years, planted much of the forest you see today. The park was meant as an escape from the crowded city, and it is larger than New York's Central Park.

In 1894 the park hosted the California Midwinter International Exposition, a world's fair that left behind this Music Concourse and the Japanese Tea Garden. After the 1906 earthquake, tens of thousands of refugees lived in the park in tents and wooden shacks.

The park could fill days on its own; this stop keeps to its history. The N Judah streetcar and several bus lines reach the park. The mini tour takes about 45 minutes.

Getting here: From Hippie Hill, follow the park paths west past the Conservatory of Flowers to the Music Concourse, about 15 minutes on foot.

Did you know?: The Conservatory of Flowers, opened in 1879, is the oldest building in Golden Gate Park.

Photo op: Stand at the Spreckels Temple of Music and frame the long rows of clipped trees across the Music Concourse.

More on Wikipedia: Golden Gate Park · California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 · William Hammond Hall · John McLaren

Stops on this tour

  1. Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
  2. Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
  3. Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
  4. North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
  5. Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
  6. Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
  7. The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
  8. Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
  9. Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
  10. Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
  11. The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
  12. The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
  13. Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
  14. South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom