Golden Gate Park – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

What is Missing?

Posted by Cindy on May 31, 2013

May 312013

California Academy of Sciences
Golden Gate Park

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This piece, titled What’s Missing is by Maya Lin. The photo above was taken from outside the fence that rings the Academy of Sciences. Entry to the Academy is $30 for adults.

The permanent site-specific sculpture is the first component of an international multi-sited, multimedia art work dedicated to raising awareness about the current crisis surrounding biodiversity and habitat loss. The dedication of the sculpture, which was commissioned by the SFAC, coincided with the Academy’s one-year anniversary in its new location. The Academy is the only institution in the world to house two permanent sculptures by Maya Lin.

The conical bronze and wood sculpture is located on the East Terrace of the building and is Lin’s multi media art work containing sounds of endangered and extinct species, as well as images created from still photos and video footage from a wide variety of scientific sources.

You can read an in-depth interview with Lin about this piece and her What is Missing Project here.

Photo credit: SFAC

Spreckles Temple of Music

Posted by Cindy on May 25, 2013

May 252013

Music Concourse
Golden Gate Park
Spreckels Temple of Music

This is the third bandstand to grace Golden Gate Park. Claus Spreckels (The Sugar King) gave $75,000 towards the $78,810 cost of the building. The shell is an Italian Renaissance style with an acoustically reflective coffered shell standing 70 feet high and covered in Colusa Sandstone.

The Temple, dedicated on September 9, 1900, suffered damage in the 1906 earthquake (much of its Colusa sandstone cornices, balustrades and corners collapsed). It was further rattled by the region’s 1989 earthquake. This time the restoration was over seen by restoration architects Cary and Company. Performers under the dome have ranged from John Philip Sousa to Pavarotti and the Grateful Dead.

The band shell is home the the Golden Gate Park Band, an institution since 1882. They provide free concerts 25 Sundays each year.

Designed by Reid Brothers architects, it is similar to another structure designed by the Reid Brothers in Bellingham, Washington. There is an excellent history of the Reid Brothers by the San Francisco Examiner here.

The two relief sculptures are by Robert Aitken. The one on the left holds a lyre and the one on the right a trumpet.

Born in San Francisco, California, Robert Aitken became a noted sculptor who spent most of his career teaching at the National Academy of Design in New York City. He did numerous portraits, full size and bust, of well known figures.

For his early study he was a painting pupil of Arthur Mathews and Douglas Tilden at the Mark Hopkins Institute, San Francisco, and by the time he was age 18 he had his own studio. In 1897, he studied briefly in Paris, where influences turned him to sculpture.

He taught at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, University of California, from 1901 though 1904, and was awarded some of the premier sculpture commissions including monuments to the Navy and to President McKinley in Golden Gate Park. In 1904, he returned to Paris for three more years, and then settled in New York City where he was an instructor at the National Academy of Schools Sculpture Class, and at the Art Students League.

The Drum Bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 12, 2013

Feb 122013

Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park

San Francisco’s first Japanese Tea Garden was originally developed by art-dealer George Turner Marsh as part of the 1894 Midwinter Fair, an event that brought the City by the Bay into the international limelight.

Shinshichi Nakatani was selected to design and build the Drum Bridge (Taiko Bashi).

He built the bridge in Japan, dismantled it and brought back with him. Halfway through completion, the Expo ran out of funds. Shinshichi left San Francisco and returned to Japan. He sold off personal land holdings and brought the money back with him to complete the project.

After the Expo was over, the decision to donate the bridge and gate to the City of San Francisco was made. The bridge and gate have been there ever since.

Historically, the design has had several different functions

It reveals a reflection of a full circle or full moon over still water. The steepness forces those entering a tea garden to slow down, allegedly putting them in the right state of mind for a tea ceremony, and perhaps the most practical – it allows for boats to pass underneath, while using minimal amount of space on the plots of land that support it.

Japanese Tea Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 11, 2013

Feb 112013

Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park

The Japanese Tea Garden was created by George Turner Marsh as a “Japanese Village” feature of the 1894 MidWinter Exposition. Marsh, an Australian, had lived for several years in Japan and had an interest in traditional Japanese Gardens. To create the village, he brought materials and hired craftsmen directly from Japan. It is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States.

The Tea Garden was designed and constructed by Makoto Hagiwara.

It used the “Hill and Water” landscape concept to create a traditional Japanese rural style garden. At the close of the exposition, Mokoto Hagiwara approached John McLaren with the idea to convert the temporary exhibit into a permanent park. . Originally one acre in size, the garden was expanded to five acres in 1902 and Makoto Hagiwara designed the expanded garden. Hagiwara specifically requested that one thousand flowering cherry trees be imported from Japan, as well as other native plants, birds, and the now famous goldfish. The Hagiwara descendants continued to live and work in the garden pouring all of their personal wealth, passion, and creative talents into creating a garden of utmost perfection. In 1942 the family was interned during World War II. At that time the garden was renamed the “Oriental Tea Garden” and fell into disarray. When the war was over, the Hagiwara family was not allowed to return to their home at the tea garden and in subsequent years, many Hagiwara family treasures were removed.

While I have been unable to find what subsequently happened to the Hagiwara family , in 1986 the Recreation and Park Department named the roadway in front of the Japanese Tea Garden “Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive” in honor of the Hagiwara family.

The garden consists of a number of elements including entry gates, a teahouse, a gift shop, pagodas,and several bridges. The landscape is primarily evergreen, with deciduous accent plants. Meandering paths follow and cross the small waterway and ponds. Stone is used extensively in many of the site elements.

The Main Gate, which dated to 1894, was reconstructed in 1985. The South Gate was also reconstructed in 1985.

The five-story pagoda was originally constructed for a Japanese village at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. It was purchased by the Hagiwara family and moved to the Tea Garden after the fair closed.

The name ‘Japanese Tea Garden’ was officially reinstated in 1952. In 1953 the Zen Garden, designed by Nagao Sakurai and representing a modern version of kare sansui (a dry garden which symbolizes a miniature mountain scene complete with a stone waterfall and small island surrounded by a gravel river) was dedicated at the same time as the 9,000-pound (4,100 kg) Lantern of Peace, which was purchased by contributions from Japanese children and presented on their behalf as a symbol of friendship for future generations.

A very in depth history of the garden can be read here.

Amazarasti-No Hotoke

Posted by Cindy on February 8, 2013

Feb 082013

Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park

At the eastern end of Long Bridge, inside the Japanese Tea Garden sits this magnificent statue. It is “Amazarasti-no Hotoke” meaning “The Buddha that sits throughout the sunny and rainy weather without shelter”.

The figure was cast in 1790 at Tajima, Nara Prefecture, on Honshu for the Taioriji Temple. It passed from one Japanese collector to the next until is was purchased by A. L. Gump in 1928. It sat in the downstairs Oriental Court of the Post Street Gump’s store until remodeling banished it to storage. When a wooden Buddha in the Garden was destroyed by vandals, the Gump family donated the giant figure in memory of their father.

In 2000 the Buddha was taken to the conservation lab of Baird/Rief in Grass Valley where old repairs and corrosion were carefully removed and filled with new materials before restoring the patina. Meanwhile, back at the park, the old rotted wooden pedestal was replaced with a hand-cut black granite base that will seat the Buddha for a century or two more. To insure that the Buddha doesn’t shift or slump, a new armature rises from the base and supports the weight of the satori that rings the Buddha’s head. The carpenters at the Recreation and Park Department completed the project by enclosing the Buddha with an elegant fence. This $173,000 project was partially funded by the Adopt-a-Monument program with the help of Gump’s Department Store and the Recreation and Parks Department. Contractors on the project besides Baird/Rief were Robert Bailey, Structural Engineer, Atthowe Fine Arts Services, Rocket Science and Edwin Hamilton.

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

Posted by Cindy on January 12, 2013

Jan 122013

100 JFK Boulevard
Golden Gate Park
The oldest extant structure in Golden Gate Park is also its most beloved: the Conservatory of Flowers. This beautiful, white-washed structure is the oldest wood-and-glass conservatory in America.

It is believed that James Lick, a prominent and wealthy San Franciscan, purchased the conservatory as a kit from Ireland for $2050 and had it shipped to his estate on the Peninsula. However, it is also thought that portions of the original building contained California redwood. Upon Lick’s death in 1876, The Society of California Pioneers found themselves the owners. They chose to sell it to a group of 27 San Francisco businessmen. These men, in turn, gave it to the City of San Francisco for use in Golden Gate Park. The state legislature appropriated $40,000 for the construction of the greenhouse, beginning a financial arrangement between public and private sources that exists to this day.

Assembled by the New York greenhouse manufacturing firm Lord and Bunham, this fine example of Victorian architecture opened to the public in 1876. When it was destroyed in 1883 by a boiler fire, banker and railroad baron Charles Crocker funded the restoration. Though it survived the 1906 earthquake intact, by 1933, structural instability caused the Park Commission to close the conservatory for 13 years.

Several other incidents required major repairs through the life of the conservatory, yet none dealt a bigger blow than the wind storms of 1995. Over 400 trees were blown down throughout Golden Gate Park and the park was closed for the first time in its history. The damage to the conservatory was extensive: 40% of the glass was smashed, and several wood arches were damaged. As a consequence, the conservatory had the dubious honor of being placed on the World Monument Funds list of 100 Most Endangered Buildings. In 1998, the National Trusts, Save the Americas Treasures, began the process of raising the $25 million required to restore the conservatory.

This restoration was not easy. The conservatory is 12,000 square feet. The central dome is 56 feet in diameter, 55 feet high and weighs 29,000 pounds. Each wing is 93’ long. The finial on top of the dome is 13’ tall and weighs 800 pounds. There are 16,800 windowpanes within a grid of 100 redwood and douglas fir arches. The original walkways formed one of the oldest concrete pours in the west.

Architectural Resources Group and Tennebaum Manheim Engineers tackled the task of putting the conservatory back into public use. It was found that in addition to the ruin done by the storm, the building had an inadequate brick foundation and there was extensive rot in the non-redwood sections.

The six-year restoration included conservation, restoration and rehabilitation. Two-thirds of the redwood architectural elements were reused; the rest came from fallen, old-growth, buckskin redwood logs. All of the clear glass was replaced with safety glass, 90% of the colored glass pieces were reused and 70% of the mullions were salvaged.

The conservatory is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and The California Register of Historic Places. It is a City and County of San Francisco Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

If you are interested in viewing the oldest complete collection of highland orchids, the huge Amazon water lilies, or the 100-year-old giant Imperial Philodendron named Phil, you can do so Tuesdays through Sunday from 10 to 4. Ticket information can be found on the Conservatory’s website.

Golden Gate Park – William McKinely

Posted by Cindy on March 18, 2012

Mar 182012

The Panhandle

Baker Street

Between Oak and Fell

William McKinely by Robert Ingersoll Aitken

The Panhandle is a park that forms a panhandle with Golden Gate Park. The Panhandle is near the geographic center of the city, and forms the southern boundary of the Western Addition neighborhood and the northern boundary of the Haight Ashbury.

The McKinley statue stands at the beginning of the Panhandle as you enter into Golden Gate Park. William McKinley was the 25th President who died on September 14, 1901 after being shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Just four months prior to his being shot he had a successful visit to San Francisco. When it was decided to create a monument, nine sculptors were invited to compete, and this competition was called the Spring Exhibition of the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. The contest was won by Robert Ingersoll Aitken.

Born in San Francisco, California, Aitken studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art with Douglas Tilden. From 1901 until 1904 he was an instructor at the Institute. In 1904 he moved to Paris where he continued his studies. He returned to New York City after his sojourn in Paris and was employed as an instructor at the Art Students League.

Originally intended for the intersection of Van Ness and Market, the citizens of San Francisco were stuck with the moving bill of $30,000, when it was brought to the Panhandle outside of Golden Gate Park. Ironically, all of the presidents honored in the park are from Ohio, Garfield and Grant are the other two.

Ground for this statue was broken by Theodore Roosevelt. The spade that Roosevelt used to break ground for the monument was a copy that McKinley had used to break ground for the Dewey Monument in Union Square.

As a side note, this visit to San Francisco by Roosevelt included a four day camping trip with John Muir in Yosemite. This resulted in his expansion of federal protection for extraordinary land areas such as Yosemite.

Golden Gate Park – Windmills

Posted by Cindy on March 16, 2012

Mar 162012

Golden Gate Park

Windmills

The North Windmill

Queen Wilhelmina Park

The Murphy Windmill

The Murphy Windmill Today

There are two windmills in Golden Gate Park that served a valuable purpose when they were built. When the park was first being developed the focus was on planting trees to stabilize the ocean dunes that covered three-quarters of the park’s area. The two windmills together pumped over 1 1/2 million gallons of water a day to help with this stabilization.

In 1902, the park saw the completion of the Dutch windmill, or the North windmill. The design for the attraction came from Alpheus Bull, Jr. a well-known San Francisco resident, and cost $25,000 to build. The Fulton Engineering Company received the bid for the ironwork, and Pope and Talbot Lumber Company donated sails (“spars”) of Oregon pine. A cottage was built for the caretaker and his wife. In addition to his regular duties of maintaining the mill and positioning it into the wind, the caretaker planted a garden to raise vegetables for the animals in Golden Gate Park’s Menagerie.

The North Windmill was such a success that Mayor Eugene Schmitz encouraged the building of a second windmill, which was largely funded by the vice president of Hibernia Bank, Samuel Murphy. Eventually, the South Windmill or Murphy windmill, was constructed and it became the largest of its kind in the world. The dome was made from copper donated by Louis Sloss , while George Zavier Wendling of the local lumber company Wendling Cross Lumber, contributed the timber.

The windmills were eventually mechanized, and then not needed at all, so they fell into disrepair. In 1964, Eleanor Rossi Crabtree, daughter of Mayor Angelo Rossi initiated a campaign to restore the North windmill. Due to the success of the restoration Queen Wilhelmina Park, a tulip garden that was a gift of the Queen of the Netherlands, was created adjacent to it.

In 2000 the City of San Francisco committed $500,000 to ithe Murphy windmill restoration.

Ron Henggeler was charged with documenting the Murphy windmill restoration, you can see the progress at his website.

Kezar Stadium

Posted by Cindy on March 15, 2012

Mar 152012

Golden Gate Park

Kezar Stadium

What it looked like originally

Every San Francisco 49er faithful knows that this was the first home of the team. What they may not know is who played their first.

An appropriation of $200,000 from the City of San Francisco and a $100,000 endowment by Mary Kezar in 1922 gave San Francisco Polytechnic School and San Francisco a football field. The stadium was designed by Willis Polk and built by contractor Palmer and McBride. Most stadiums are built from North to south so that a majority of the spectators don’t sit with the sun in their face, however, Golden Gate Park Superintendent McClaren insisted that the stadium be oriented East to West to protect acreage belonging to the park.

The stadium was opened to a crowd of 22,000 for a race between two major track stars of their day, Paavo Nurmi and Willie Ratola. The field served the 49ers from 1946 until 1971. President Gerald Ford played a shriners East-West game here in 1935.

The stadium was demolished in 1989 due to structural deficiencies. The arch is a replica of one that was part of the original stadium, the columns are a hat tip to the old stadium but not original.

This sign, which was on the original stadium, can be found near a field level bench:

This Stadium And Oval Presented To Golden Gate Park By Mary A. Kezar As A Memorial To Her Mother, Nancy H. Kezar, And Her Uncles, Bartlett Doe, John Sanborne Doe, Charles Franklin Doe, Pioneers Of California, Erected By Her Executor, 1924.

If you are a football fan, and want to read all about Kezar through the ages you will love the NFL’s history page.

Golden Gate Park – Sharon Building

Posted by Cindy on March 14, 2012

Mar 142012

Golden Gate Park

Sharon Building

This delightful example of what some say is Victorian Romanesque architecture and others say is Richardsonian Romanesque, was designed by architects George Washington Percy and Frederick F. Hamilton. The building is the result of a $50,000 donation from silver baron, Nevada senator, and unscrupulous bank owner, William Sharon. The building and the intent of the donation, included a playground.

The building was originally intended to give families with children a place to play indoors and have refreshments during inclement weather, it now houses the non-profit Sharon Art Studio, offering art classes in various mediums to both adults and children.

Damaged terribly after the 1906 earthquake, and again by a fire in 1974 that gutted the interior and another fire in 1980 which did damage to the structure, the building was finally renovated in 1992.

According to the San Francisco Encyclopedia:

Frederick F. Hamilton was born in Addison, Maine in 1851. He began work in 1866 as a draftsman in the office of Boston architect and book illustrator Hammatt Billings. In September 1875 he journeyed out to California and worked on the ill-fated San Francisco City Hall, then under the direction of original architect, Augustus Laver. That building took 20 years to complete, but, when the earthquake of April 18, 1906 shook it apart, was found to have been very badly constructed. In 1878 Hamilton traveled back east, but returned again to San Francisco in 1879. He joined fellow Maine native, George W. Percy, in partnership in January 1880.

Percy was Hamilton’s senior by four years, having been born in 1847, in Bath, Maine. He apprenticed with prominent Portland, Maine architect, Francis H. Fassett, from 1866 until 1870, when he came out to California to work in Stockton for two years. In April 1872 he relocated to Chicago to work on the rebuilding of that city following the great fire of October 1871. Percy made his final move out to San Francisco in September 1875, opening his own office in the City until the partnership with Hamilton was formed in 1880. Theirs was one of the city’s most highly regarded Victorian architecture partnership.

Golden Gate Park – Verdi

Posted by Cindy on March 13, 2012

Mar 132012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

Giuseppe Verdi by Orzio Grossoni March 23, 1914.

The statue was dedicated to the sounds of the sweet voice of soprano Luisa Tetrazzini. She sang the aria from Aida to a reported audience of 20,000. The memorial was a gift of the Italian Community spearheaded by Ettore Patrizzi owner and publisher of San Francisco’s Italian newspaper L’Italia (published form 1887 to 1943). The subscription fund raised $15,000 for the statue and commissioned the work through a contest at the the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.

The sculptor chosen was Italian Orazio Grossoni of Milan. Grossoni studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan with, Raffaele Casnedi and Ambrogio Borghi and worked in the studio of the sculptor Ernesto Bazzaro. Grassoni specialized in portraiture, genre and funerary sculpture, as well as, the design of medals.

The allegorical figures around the statue represent the four muses; Love, Tragedy, Joy and Sorrow, the fundamental elements said to inspire most artists.

In 2003 the 6′ tall bronze bust of Verdi was regilded along with an inscription on the rear face of the granite pedestal. The bronze frieze and sculptures below were spot repatinated and treated with a custom wax coating. Copper stains were chemically poulticed from the pedestal and a sacrificial graffiti barrier was applied; a new dedication plaque was fabricated and installed.

Golden Gate Park – Robert Emmet

Posted by Cindy on March 12, 2012

Mar 122012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

Robert Emmet was an Irish nationalist and Republican, orator and rebel leader born in Dublin, Ireland. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1798. In 1803 he was captured, tried and executed for high treason.

The Emmet statue shows the 25 year old making his famous “Speech from the Dock” during his sentencing.

The artist was Gerome Connor who created the bronze in 1916. The statue was a gift of Senator James Duval Phelan. The piece was cast by the Bureau Brothers Foundry of Philadelphia and the granite pedestal and platform were designed by architect Charles E. Gottschalk.

Gerome Connor was born in 1874 in County Kerry, Ireland. At the age of 14 his father sold the family farm moved the family to Holyoke Massachusetts, a typical destination for emigrants from this part of Ireland. In 1899 Gerome joined the Roycroft arts community, where he assisted with blacksmithing and later started creating terracotta busts and reliefs and eventually, he was recognized as Roycroft’s sculptor-in-residence. After four years at Roycroft, he went on to work with Gustav Stickley and became well known as a sculptor being commissioned to create civic commissions in bronze. Connor was a self-taught artist who was highly regarded in the United States where most of his public works can be seen. He died in Ireland in 1943 of heart failure, and reputedly in poverty.

Golden Gate Park – Beethoven

Posted by Cindy on March 11, 2012

Mar 112012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

As a gift from the Beethoven Men’s Choir, the dedication of this statue coincided with the attendance of the Choir at the Pan Pacific International Exposition and a grand concert of Beethoven’s works held at the Civic Auditorium that evening (August 6, 1915). The monument, which was draped in American and German flags for the unveiling is a replica of the Henry Baerer work that stands in Central Park. The bronze copy was cast at the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company of Mt. Vernon, NY.

Heinrich Baerer was born in Kirchhain, Kurhessen, Germany, in 1837. He first came to America in 1854 and changed his name to Henry. He later returned to Germany to be a student at the Royal Academy in Munich. He died in the Bronx on December 6, 1908.

Golden Gate Park – Pioneer Woman

Posted by Cindy on March 10, 2012

Mar 102012

Golden Gate Park

Pioneer Woman and Children
Charles Grafly
1915

This is the only statue of a woman in Golden Gate Park. It is the 1914 work of Charles Grafly. It was featured at the PPIE (Panama-Pacific International Exposition) in 1915 and then again at the GGIE (Golden Gate International Exposition) in 1939. In 1940 it was placed in Golden Gate Park near the Pioneer Log Cabin which has been in the Park since 1911.
A 1915 article about the sculpture when it was at the Pan-Pacific International Exposition:

The “Pioneer Mother” monument, by Charles Grafly, is a permanent bronze, a tribute by the people of the West to the women who laid the foundation of their welfare. It is to stand in the San Francisco Civic Center, where its masterful simplicity will be more impressive than in this colorful colonnade. It is a true addition to noteworthy American works of art and fully expresses the spirit of this courageous motherhood, tender but strong, adventurous but womanly, enduring but not humble. It has escaped every pitfall of mawkishness, stubbornly refused to descend to mere prettiness, and lived up to the noblest possibilities of its theme. The strong guiding hands, the firmly set feet, the clear, broad brow of the Mother and the uncompromisingly simple, sculpturally pure lines of figure and garments are honest and commanding in beauty. The children, too, are modeled with affectionate sincerity and are a realistic interpretation of childish charm. Oxen skulls, pine cones, leaves and cacti decorate the base; the panels show the old sailing vessel, the Golden Gate and the trans-continental trails. The inscription by Benjamin Ide Wheeler perfectly expresses what the sculptor has portrayed.

The plaque is no longer there -a written account from the “Pioneer Motherhood Monument Association of California” says the inscription was:

“Over rude paths, beset with hunger and risk, she
pressed on toward the vision of a better country. To an
assemblage of men busied with the perishable rewards
of today, she brought the threefold leaven of enduring
society faith, gentleness, hope, with the nurture of
children.”

It went on to say that below the inscription is relief map of the old Oregon and California trails to the West, secured from the Iowa State Geographical Society. Another bronze panel with prairie schooner and western group, occupies the rear of the base.

In a book titled “Problems Women Solved” by Anna Pratt Simpson published in 1916, there was this description of the woman’s group that sponsored the statue.

…to make the monument for $22,500 and estimated that $2,500 more would be required for the pedestal and installation. The statue was due to be delivered at the Exposition December 31, 1914.

In justice to Mr. Grafly, as well as to the men and women and children who were making the monument possible, nothing was left undone to insure satisfactory results. When Mrs. Sanborn reached this country from a stay in Europe, she went with Mr. Sanborn, July 19, 1914, to Gloucester, Mass., where Mr. Grafly had his summer studio and where he modeled the statue. From this visit, a satisfactory report was brought to the Association in San Francisco. It was agreed, however, at that time, that still another committee should see the model before it was sent to the foundry. The committee was composed of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst and United States Senator James D. Phelan. They reached Boston on their appointed day, and gave the final approval and the model was hurried to the foundry in Pennsylvania. The extra precautions taken in regard to this monument meant several months of delay, so instead of being installed at the Exposition on the last day of December, 1914, it was June, 1915, before it was ready for unveiling. The ceremony took place June 30th at four o’clock, and it was agreed that it was by far the most beautiful and impressive celebration of the thousands that had marked the interesting way of the Exposition.

Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. (December 3, 1862 – May 5, 1929) was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 37 years.
California Questers, a group dedicated to preserving antiques and historical landmarks, restored the statue and the base in 1999. This statue is the first of the “gravely weathered and neglected statues” in the park to be restored by a private group under the “Adopt-a-Monument” program.

Golden Gate Park – Thomas Starr King

Posted by Cindy on March 9, 2012

Mar 092012

Golden Gate Park

JFK Drive

Thomas Starr King – Bronze – 1892 – by Daniel Chester French

This statue was unveiled by Thomas Starr King’s grandchildren on October 26, 1892.

Thomas Starr King was born December 17, 1824 Mr. King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic. He wrote a book about Yosemite National Park, where there is a peak named for him. He died of diphtheria in San Francisco March 4, 1864.

The sculpture, which cost $18,000, was executed in New York City. It stands on a pedestal of pink Missouri granite.

Daniel Chester French is one of America’s most important sculptors. His works include the seated figure of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. and the Minute Men statue in Concord Massachusets.

French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1850. He was a neighbor and friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Alcott family. His decision to pursue sculpting was influenced by Louisa May Alcott’s sister May Alcott. French died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1931 at age 81 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

Golden Gate Park – John McClaren

Posted by Cindy on March 8, 2012

Mar 082012

Golden Gate Park

Rhododendron Grove

John McLaren, Supervisor of Golden Gate Park from 1890 until his death in 1943, detested statues. He hated them with such a passion that he defied the City authorities and persisted in his lifelong crusade to keep Golden Gate Park statue-free. It is fitting, then, that for his efforts McLaren was immortalized in the form of–what else? –a statue, which may be found near the entrance to the Rhododendron Dell that bears his name. Interestingly, the McLaren statue is placed at the very back of a hedged-off grassy space, far from the gaze of visitors. Perhaps those responsible for the statue felt a tinge of guilt. By attempting to conceal the McLaren statue, they were following McLaren’s own policy of “if you can’t beat ’em, hide ’em.” When McLaren lost his battles against those who wanted to erect a statue, he exacted revenge by re-arranging the park to make the statue as unobtrusive as possible. Usually he did so by planting trees, shrubs, and assorted verdant objects on all sides of the offending idol. To this day, most of the dozens of statues that grace (or deface) Golden Gate Park are so well-concealed by McLaren’s greenery that few visitors even suspect their existence.
-Dr. Weirde of FoundSF.com

In this statue McClaren is holding a pinecone and stands directly on the soil, rather than a pediment. The statue was sculpted by M. Earl Cummings, (Cummings is responsible for many of the statues in Golden Gate Park) around 1911. It was refused by McClaren when it was presented as a gift by Adolph Bernard Spreckels. One story says it sat on McClaren’s porch for years.

John McClaren by M. Earl Cummings

Golden Gate Park – Father Junipero Serra

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2012

Mar 072012

Golden Gate Park

Father Junipero Serra by Douglas Tilden

This is Father Junipero Serra, one of the most studied men in California history. Born November 24, 1713, Serra was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the chain of missions that go from Mexico to San Francisco, California, he died August 28, 1784. Father Serra was such a vital part of California history, that every public school child in California learns of his life.

The shrubbery has grown up to cover most of the friar but his base, designed by architect Edgar A. Mathews, reads Padre Junipero Serra – Founder of the California Missions 1713-1784. Also inscribed in the base is October 9, 1776. This is the official founding date of the first Mission San Francisco de Asis, known to most at Mission Dolores. The stone for the base was taken from Monterey County at the spot where Serra first landed in California.

The statue was commissioned by James Phelan and executed by Douglas Tilden, who was responsible for many of the statues in Golden Gate Park. Tilden completed the plaster statue in his Oakland studio in March of 1906. Luckily it survived the earthquake, and the statue was dedicated in Golden Gate Park in November 1907, the bronze casting having been done at The American Bronze Company in Chicago.

UPDATE: June 20, 2020

The statue was pulled down by protestors. The fate of the statue is unknown at this time. This post will be updated as events unfold.

Notification San Francisco Mayor London Breed:

“There is very real pain in this country rooted in our history of slavery and oppression, especially against African-Americans and Indigenous people. I know that pain all too well. But the damage done to our park last night went far beyond just the statues that were torn down, and included significant damage to Golden Gate Park. Every dollar we spend cleaning up this vandalism takes funding away from actually supporting our community, including our African-American community. I say this not to defend any particular statue or what it represents, but to recognize that when people take action in the name of my community, they should actually involve us. And when they vandalize our public parks, that’s their agenda, not ours.

If we are going to make real change, let’s do the work with our impacted communities to make that change. To do that, I have asked the Arts Commission, the Human Rights Commission, and the Recreation and Parks Department and its Commission to work with the community to evaluate our public art and its intersection with our country’s racist history so that we can move forward together to make real changes in this City. Who and what we honor through our public art can and should reflect our values.”

Golden Gate Park – General Pershing

Posted by Cindy on March 5, 2012

Mar 052012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

A tribute to General Pershing and the victorious armies of the United States and her co-belligerents during the World War 1914-1918

Presented by Dr. Morris Herzstein 1922

Bronze by Haig Patagian

Haig Patigian is noted for his classical works, which are especially numerous in public venues in San Francisco, California. Patigian was born in Van, Armenia, which at that time was under Turkish rule. Haig was the son of Avedis and Marine Patigian. His parents, teachers in a missionary school, wanted their two sons to find freedom in the growing United States. When Patigian’s father was accused of creating propaganda for the Russian government — he was an artist, photographer — he took the opportunity to flee to the West.

They settled outside of Fresno. After working on a few farms in the area, the father found himself able to buy a ranch and a vineyard to establish his family. The parents, both believing passionately in art, encouraged the two boys to develop their artistic skills. And living in a peaceful community, Patigian developed quite well.

By the time he was 17 (around 1893), Patigian had found an apprenticeship painting signs. He painted the natural scenery, working with watercolors and oils. He soon had his own shop, once he put some money aside he moved to San Francisco, his older brother already worked in San Francisco as an illustrator. And in 1900, Patigian found employment at the San Francisco Bulletin as an illustrator.

Golden Gate Park – Ulysses S. Grant

Posted by Cindy on March 4, 2012

Mar 042012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

Ulysses S. Grant by Rupert Schmid

The pedestal of the bronze bust lists the principle battles of the generals’ command. It was sculpted by Rupert Schmid and funded by a citizens committee in 1904. (However, there are articles the say it was installed in 1894 and 1896). Schmid had modeled the General at Mount McGregor a few weeks before he died and that concluded in a monument at Grant’s Tomb in Riverside Park, New York. This was why Schmid was chosen.

This is excerpted from “San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: A Thousand and Seventeen Acres of Stories”

Several unfortunate events during the creation of this sculpture make its story colorful. Just weeks after Ulysses S. Grant died in 1885, a committee was formed to erect a memorial to the Civil War General and 18th U.S. president, who spent time in northern California The desired funding of $500,000 couldn’t be raised, however, and what little money was collected sat in a bank account for nine years. When the project finally proceeded, the committee members – Cornelius O’Connor, Theodore Reichert, and Isaac Hecht – agreed to shore up the funds to create an appropriate monument. …

With the project underway, plans were made to dedicate the monument on Memorial Day, 1896, and the sculpture was complete by mid-May. It was torn down a few days later, however, a victim of the stonecutters’ union and public opinion. To save money, the granite portions had been cut and dressed by convicts at Folsom Prison. The union protested, claiming that the use of prison labor had desecrated Grant’s memory. A new base, using materials from the McClennan Quarry in Madera County, was in place by late June.

Complete, the veiled monument awaited dedication, but a new complication arose. Schmid billed the monument committee $560 more than the agreed-upon $8000…(there was a change in the design for the base by committee member Hecht, who died before getting permission from the others).

The work was officially but unceremoniously accepted… If it was dedicated the date is obscure…(explaining the conflicting dates for the statue)

The obelisk-shaped granite pedestal was once draped with a bronze grouping containing a uniform, campaign hat, trench coat, rifle, spear, and sword. One of the four cannonball corner supports has been missing for decades.

Born in Egg, Bavaria, Germany, Rupert Schmid was a sculptor who was the son of a stone carver. He studied at the Royal Academy in Munich, and in 1884, immigrated to the United States. The next year he exhibited at the National Academy of Design, and by 1890 had settled in San Francisco where he established a studio and got many important commissions including the decorations for the Spreckels and Chronicle buildings as well as portraits busts of many prominent persons of San Francisco.

UPDATE: June 20, 2020

This statue was vandalized by protestors. The fate of the statue is unknown and this post will be updated when more is learned.

Notification San Francisco Mayor London Breed:

Golden Gate Park – Rideout Memorial Fountain

Posted by Cindy on March 3, 2012

Mar 032012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

Rideout Memorial Fountain

The Rideout Memorial Fountain – 1924

This area was developed for the Midwinter Fair’s Grand Court of Honor. The grounds were sculpted from sand dunes by men using horse-drawn sleds.

The fountain, dedicated in 1924, was made possible with a $10,000 gift from Corrine Rideout. Corrine Rideout was the widow of Norman Rideout, who died in a mining accident in 1896. Mr. Rideout’s father, also Norman, came from Maine to Oroville, California and opened a bank. He successfully opened five more in the central valley of California. After his death in 1907 the banks were sold to A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy later to become the Bank of America. The family surmises that the money to pay for the fountain may have come from the sale of these banks. The Rideouts have given quite a bit to California.

The cast stone pool was designed by architect Herbert A. Schmidt. The statue is by M. Earl Cummings. The original intention was for the statue to be of bronze, but the budget did not allow it.

Golden Gate Park – Portals of the Past

Posted by Cindy on March 2, 2012

Mar 022012

Golden Gate Park

Lloyd’s Lake

This is the reservoir for the water pumped up its adjacent hill to Rainbow Falls. The water is circulated via the JFK Drive stream, and pours back into the lake in a cascade at its southwest corner. A trail entrance from Transverse Drive leads up the hill overlooking the water. The lake itself has a placid, dreamlike quality due in part to the stately presence of the Portals of the Past. It was also previously referred to as Mirror Lake.

The Portals of the Past has always been one of those folly’s that seem so perfect where it is, a reason to sit on one of the benches and just relax and enjoy the calm of the lake and the park itself.

These columns actually have an interesting history. During the ’06 earthquake and fire, most of Nob Hill was completely destroyed. However, somehow, the entranceway to the mansion of A.N. Towne, then Vice President of Southern Pacific, survived. The home was once a lavish example of Colonial Revivalism designed by the architect Arthur Page Brown and stood at 1101 California Street. In 1909 the portico was donated to the city of San Francisco by Mrs. Caroline Towne in memory of her husband. That same year it was presented by Mayor James Phelan to Park Superintendent John McLaren who placed it in its current location. The monument was named Portals of the Past after a quote found by poet Charles Kellogg Field describing the forward-looking nature of San Franciscans.

In the summer and fall of 2008 the Arts Commission contracted Architectural Resources Group, a San Francisco-based practice specializing in architectural rehabilitation and material conservation, to complete restorative treatment. ARG then contacted Michael H. Casey Designs to recreate missing elements, these included one of the columns and repair to all of the column capitals.

Golden Gate Park – Stow Lake

Posted by Cindy on March 1, 2012

Mar 012012

Golden Gate Park

Completed in 1893, Stow Lake is considered a landscaping masterpiece. Created out of sand dunes by park superintendant John McLaren, it is the largest of Golden Gate Park’s lakes. Massive holes were dug out of the sand, carloads of clay were wheeled in and windmills were built to draft water from natural wells. Strawberry Hill, the highest point in the park, became a central focus as an island in the middle of the lake. The Rustic Bridge and the Roman Bridge, both completed in 1893 and still standing, connect the lakeshore with the island, allowing visitors panoramic views from the crest of the hill. There is access to walking paths as well as to the stone staircase that parallels dramatic Huntington Falls, which at its top contains one of the reservoirs that supply a network of high-pressure water mains that exclusively supply specialized fire hydrants throughout the city.

The Chinese Pavillion on the island. This structure was a gift from San Francisco’s sister city, Taipei, and was dedicated in 1981.

It is perfectly proportioned in size, decoration, and location. Considering how popular Golden Gate Park is, this location is quite peaceful as relatively few people take the walk around the lake to reach it.

The Rustic Bridge across Stowe Lake to Strawberry Hill. Built using boulders dug out during the building of Stow Lake

The bridge was designed by Arthur Page Brown. Arthur Page Brown was born in Adams, New York in 1859. He attended Cornell University and joined the prominent New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White as a draftsman. He received a formal training and then continued his architectural studies with a trip to Europe, returning to New York in 1885 to open his own practice. He was brought out to San Francisco in 1889 by Mary Ann Crocker to design a mausoleum for her husband Charles, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, who had died the year before, to be placed on top of a hill in Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery. He is most famously known for the San Francisco Ferry Building.

The Lower portion of Huntington Falls

Park Superintendent John McLaren met with John Muir in the high sierras. At that time he was shown several natural cascades. McLaren returned and convinced Stow, the chair of the park commission that one would look great in the park. Stowe convinced railroad baron Collis P. Huntington to fund the project at a cost of $25,000. The 110 foot tall cascade began its life on May 9, 1894. The falls fell into disrepair in 1962 and were left that way until a 1984 restoration project costing $846,000 was spearheaded by then Mayor Dianne Feinstein.

Part of the Panoramic view from Strawberry Hill

Strawberry Hill was the home to the Sweeney Observatory constructed in 1891 with a grant from wealthy landowner Thomas U. Sweeney. It was more of a look out point than an observatory, despite claims that it was earthquake proof, it tumbled in the 1906 quake. It was never replaced.

The Stow Lake Boat House.

Designed by Warren Charles Perry, dean of UC Berkeley School of Architecture, the boathouse was built in 1946 for $34,249. This iteration replaces an 1893 rustic cabin style building designed by Arthur Page Brown.

Golden Gate Park – William D. McKinneon

Posted by Cindy on February 29, 2012

Feb 292012

Golden Gate Park

Chaplain William D. McKinneon

First California

US VOL INF

1898-99

Here is an excerpt from “San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: A Thousand and Seventeen Acres of Stories”

“William D. McKinnon taught at Santa Clara University and was chaplain with the First U.S. Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War in the Philippines. This sculpture, created by D. John MacQuarrie was placed in the park on August 21, 1927, 15 years after it was cast at the Louis de Rome Memorial Bronze, Brass and Bell Foundry of Oakland. The donors, the Bay Area Spanish American War veterans and American Legion Posts, had not liked the outcome of the final bronze and consequently, the park commission had denied its installation. The statue sat in an oakland backyard but was finally rescued and redesigned. Native San Franciscan MacQuarrie also created the Bear Flag Monument in Sonoma and Donner Lake Monument near Interstate Route 80.”

John MacQuarrie was a native of San Francisco. He was a graduate of the Mark Hopkins Institute, which later became the San Francisco Art Institute. He maintained a studio at 1370 Sutter Street. According to his obituary he executed the building decoration and window design of Holy Cross Cemetery mausoleum and murals in the Southern Pacific terminals and throughout Southern California.

Golden Gate Park – Cervantes

Posted by Cindy on February 28, 2012

Feb 282012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

Museum Drive just off JFK Drive

Miguel Cervantes Memorial by Jo Mora

Bronze and Stone

1916

This work was presented to the City of San Francisco by J.C. Cebrian and E.J. Molera, September 3, 1916. It is so appealingly, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza looking up to their creator, the famous Spanish writer, Miguel Cervantes.

Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora, was born October 22, 1876 in Uruguay and died October 10, 1947 in Monterey California. Jo Mora came to the United States as a child, studied art in the New York, and worked for Boston newspapers as a cartoonist. He was a man of many other talents, art historian, sculptor, painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist and author.

Regarding the two benefactors:

“ONE of the most interesting private libraries in San Francisco is the property of E. J. Molera and John C. Cebrian, two young Spanish gentlemen. Associated together in their boyhood, schoolmates together ; partners in business in after life, their friendship has become so established and their interests are so identified, that they have accumulated a common library, every book of which bears the
stamp “Molera & Cebrian.”

This collection numbers more than two thousand volumes, and contains so many and valuable works
in the Spanish section, that we shall give a somewhat detailed account of its contents, trusting that
the scholar and student will find it of interest.

… This is the best collection of Spanish writers to be found, and one of the best of its kind ever published. The student may follow therein the true evolution of Spanish language and thought since the beginning of the thirteenth century; as it not only contains the classical or standard authors, but also any writer who has had any influence in Spanish literature, either for the better or for the worse. This collection contains the complete Spanish works of Cervantes, Quevedo, Calderon, Lope, Leon and their compeers, and even translations of some of their Latin works. ”

From Popular Science Monthly of December 1879:

A recent trial, in San Francisco of Molera’s and Cebrian’s system of dividing and distributing the electric light, is thus described in the San Francisco “Morning Call” of September 30th: “An exhibition of a new system of utilizing and dividing the electric light, recently discovered by Messrs. Molera and Cebrain, civil engineers, of this city…

This was apparently all an improvement on Edison’s electric light.

The gentlemen were true California immigrant pioneers and their lives may be more thoroughly investigated in the book “Conquerors, Immigrants, exiles: The Spanish diaspora in the United States”

Golden Gate Park – Atop Rainbow Falls

Posted by Cindy on February 27, 2012

Feb 272012

Golden Gate Park
Atop of Rainbow Falls

Atop of Rainbow Falls is the Prayer Book Cross (also called Drake’s Cross). It is the tallest monument in the park at 64 feet with base. It is not easy to reach, and is well hidden by foliage. It was erected in Golden Gate Park in 1894 as a gift from the Church of England and was created by Ernest Coxhead. Made of sandstone, the cross commemorates the first use of the Book of Common Prayer in California by Sir Francis Drake’s chaplain on June 24, 1579.

On January 2, 1894 the New York Times was there to cover the dedication.

Ernest Coxhead was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1863 and died in Berkeley, California March 27 1933. He was an English architect, active in the USA. He was trained in the offices of several English architects and attended the Royal Academy Schools, London. In 1886 he moved with his older brother, Almeric to Los Angeles where he established an independent practice. The Coxheads moved to San Francisco four years later and soon formed a partnership that lasted until Almeric’s death. Coxhead was an important and innovative designer who contributed to the woodsy regional design known as Bay Area Traditional.

The front of the cross reads:
Presented to Golden Gate Park at the opening of the Midwinter Fair January 1, AD 1894 – As a memorial of the service held on the shore of Drakes Bay about Saint John Baptists Day June 24 Anno Domini 1579 by Francis Fletcher priest of the Church of England and chaplain of Sir Francis Drake chronicler of the service.

The back reads:
First christian service in the English tongue on our coast. First use of Book of Common Prayer in our country – One of the first recorded missionary prayers on our continent. – There is a bottom panel, but it is too worn to read – something that often happens to sandstone structures.

Rainbow Falls was named for the colored lights that originally framed the falls at their dedication in 1930, this is the second of two artificial waterfall systems created in Golden Gate Park (the other being Huntington Falls in Stow Lake). Water is pumped from nearby Lloyd Lake, and circulated in the trench stream along JFK Drive. The very top of the falls is enclosed by fences, so no vantage point looking down over the cascade is possible.

Golden Gate Park – Robert Burns

Posted by Cindy on February 26, 2012

Feb 262012

Golden Gate Park

The Plaque reads:Robert Burns
1759-1796To a Mountain Daisy 1786

Wee, modest crimson-tipped flow’r,
Thou’s met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow’r,
Thou bonie gem.

This plaque donated by the Caledonian Club of San Francisco May 1979

A campaign to have a statue of Robert Burns in San Francisco was started by John McGilvray in 1905.

The required cash was raised and Melvin Earl Cummings (whose grandparents were born in Scotland) was commissioned to produce the figure. Cummings modelled a standing figure of the poet which was then sent to the De Rome Foundry in San Francisco for casting. Sadly, the foundry and its entire contents were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and the fire.

The rebuilding of the city took precedence and the project was put on hold until 1907. Cummings had to start from the beginning, however the model and casting were finished by the end of the year and the statue was unveiled in Golden Gate Park on Washington’s birthday, February 22, 1908.

The statue itself is eleven feet high and stands on a pedestal of Californian granite nine feet high. The statue is off JFK Drive near the Rhododendron Grove.

Golden Gate Park – Turtle Sun Dial

Posted by Cindy on February 25, 2012

Feb 252012

Golden Gate Park

In front of the de Young Museum

This sundial by Melvin Earl Cummings was named by the North American Sundial Society ‘Navigator’s Dial’ because on the dial face there are the images of three explorers of the California coastline.

The memorial sun dial was given to San Francisco by the California members of the National Society of Colonial Dames, in honor of the first navigators who approached the Pacific coast. These pioneers were Fortun Jiminiez, who came to the coast in 1533; Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, 1542, and Sir Francis Drake, 1575.

The base of the dial is of Utah stone. The dial is bronze in the form of a half globe, resting on the back of the turtle. The inscription on the face translates to “I tell not the hours when the sun will not.” On the outside of the half globe is a relief map of the Western Hemisphere, the cost at the time was about $3000.

Golden Gate Park – Pool of Enchantment

Posted by Cindy on February 24, 2012

Feb 242012

Golden Gate Park

This is the Pool of Enchantment, it sat between the two circular stairway entries to the old de Young Museum. The pool is now on the east side of the entryway.

The Pool of Enchantment actually preceded the Museum by a few years. Donor Marie Becker, widow of banker Bernard Adolph Becker, originally proposed using her $42,000 bequest to rebuild the Sweeny Observatory on Strawberry Hill. The park commission rejected this proposal but struck a compromise and applied the funds to create the Pool of Enchantment in 1917. M. Earl Cummings sculpted the Native American boy playing a flute and the two mountain lions in the center. Architect Herbert A. Schmidt designed the carved granite stonework.

This work consists of four parts, the young man playing a reed flute, the cats listening, the island of vegetation, and the pool (The Pool of Enchantment).

The animals are lifelike bronze statues of native California mountain lions. The young man does not look like any particular person or ethnic group, portraying the better nature common to all humanity. Since the sculpture was first placed in 1894, the ferns and reeds have had to be replanted, but the original boulders and turtle-sunning rocks remain the same.

M. Earl Cummings (given name Melvin Earl Cummings) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on August 13, 1876. As a teenager Cummings was apprenticed to a wood carver in decorating the Mormon Temple. After moving to San Francisco in 1896, he won a scholarship to the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art where he was a pupil of Douglas Tilden. His benefactress, Mrs. Phoebe Hearst enabled his further study in Paris with Mercie at Ecole des Beaux Arts. Returning to San Francisco, he exhibited regularly at the Bohemian Club while sharing a studio with his close friend and sculptor Arthur Putnam. He taught sculpture at the Mark Hopkins until 1915 and also was instructor of modeling at University of California Berkeley from 1904-16. He did numerous portrait busts, statues, and public monuments and served on the San Francisco Park Commission for 32 years.

Golden Gate Park – Roman Gladiator

Posted by Cindy on February 23, 2012

Feb 232012

Golden Gate Park

Roman Gladiator – 1881 by Geef

In Commemoration
of the
Inauguration
of the
California Midwinter International
Exposition
On this spot the first shovelful of earth was turned
with ceremonies on August 24th 1893.
(That first spade of shovel was turned by President William Howard Taft)

After the popular 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, many American cities planned similar expositions to highlight progressive business ideas. Golden Gate Park became the setting for a hastily assembled fair, the first such west of the Mississippi. With a theme of “California: Cornucopia of the World”, the Midwinter Fair, as it is commonly called showcased the ideal climate and abundance of the state. It opened on January 27, 1894, during the depths of winter.

Michael H. de Young, publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and the fair’s instigator, had been a director and a national commissioner at large for Chicago’s Exposition. As president and director general of San Francisco’s fair, he hoped the event would help offset the financial panic of 1893 then in full swing. On July 9, 1893, the fair committee met with park commissioners. Park Superintendent John McLaren objected to handing over his newly created park to a profit making venture; he had intended the park to be a haven from just such things. But the highly political and willful de Young got his way. Ground was broken on August 24, 1893, and construction took just five months. The fair was delayed for 26 days, however, because a sever snowstorm delayed rail cars delivering the exhibits from Chicago. (The recycling of exhibitions saved time and expense.) When the fair opened, 77,248 people attended on the first day, and the seven-month term saw 2,219,150 visitors, a triumph. The fair closed on July 4, 1894.

Known as the Sunset City, the 160-acre exposition site boasted 180 structures representing all of California’s counties, 4 other states, the Arizona Territory, and 18 foreign nations. No one architectural style predominated at it had in Chicago, but rather an eclectic approach echoed California’s multicultural population.

The above was excerpted from: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: A Thousand and Seventeen Acres of Stories by Chris Pollock and Erica Katz.
The Smithsonian puts the artist of this piece as Georges Geef. A reader kindly pointed out that it was by Belgian artist Willem Geefs, whose first name in French is Guillaume.

Willem Geefs (1805 – 1883), also Guiliaume Geefs, was a Belgian sculptor. Although known primarily for his monumental works and public portraits of statesmen and nationalist figures, he also explored mythological subject matter, often with an erotic theme.

Geefs was born at Antwerp, the eldest of six brothers in a family of sculptors, the best-known of whom are Joseph Geefs (1808–1885, winner of the Prix de Rome in 1836) and Jean Geefs (1825–1860, and winner of the prize in 1846). Guillaume first studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp under the late–Flemish Baroque sculptor Jan Frans van Geel and his son, Jan Lodewijk van Geel, who was also a sculptor. He completed his training under Jean-Etienne Ramey at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and began exhibiting his work in 1828.
In 1829, Geefs traveled to Italy. When he returned to Antwerp, he began teaching at the art academy. During the 1830s, he executed the colossal work Victims of the Revolution at Brussels, as well as numerous statues and busts. In 1836, he married Isabelle Marie Françoise Corr, a Brussels-born painter of Irish descent known professionally as Fanny Geefs. In the mid-19th century, the sculptor Guillaume-Joseph Charlier was an assistant to him and his brother Joseph.
The Geefs family played a leading role in the craze for public sculpture that followed Belgian independence in the 1830s, producing several propagandistic monuments that emphasized a “historical continuity of the southern Low Countries in the new independent state

Golden Gate Park – Sphinx

Posted by Cindy on February 22, 2012

Feb 222012

Golden Gate Park

Copies of Sphinx by Arthur Putnam – 1912

These sit to the right of the entry to the new de Young Museum. The plaque on them reads: This pair of concrete sphinxes replaces the original black granite sculptures commissioned from Arthur Putnam for the entrance to the Egyptian revival Fine Arts Building of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. At the fair’s end, this building served as the first incarnation of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. Sometime between 1905 and 1912, the granite sphinxes were removed. New concrete sphinxes based on Putnam’s initial plaster maquettes were placed at the site. The building was demolished in 1929, but the sphinxes remained. During the construction of the new de Young, the museum’s conservators repositioned the statues on new bases and restored them to their original appearance based on documentary photographs.

As far as the originals, they disappeared sometime after the 1906 earthquake. Stories abound about the fate of the originals, and even the original material. Some say they were granite, and others say they were bronze and melted down. Another memory is that one was stolen and the other destroyed. In any event, the current concrete pieces, similar in concept to the original ones, were created in 1903 and installed in 1928.

Original Sphinx and Dore Vase at the Egyptian revival Fine Arts Building for the California Midwinter International Exhibition

Arthur Putnam (September 6, 1873–1930) was an American sculptor from the turn of the 20th century who is recognized for his bronzes of wild animals and public monuments. He was a well-known Californian and enjoyed a national reputation as well. Putnam was regarded as an artistic genius in San Francisco and his life was chronicled in the San Francisco and East Bay newspapers.

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