Land’s End – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Sutro Heights Park

Posted by Cindy on March 19, 2013

Mar 192013

Point Lobos Avenue
Land’s End

Copy of the original lion that stood at the Sutro Heights entry gate.

(Photo credit: UC Bancroft Library)

Adolph Sutro (1830-1898) was one of San Francisco’s most beloved mayors and esteemed citizens. Originally from Prussia, he amassed millions in the Comstock Lode (Nevada Silver Rush of 1859) by designing and constructing ventilated mining shafts. By cashing out just before the silver ran out, he was able to purchase fully one-twelfth of San Francisco, including all the western dunes and a section of the sea shore called the Outside Lands. Sutro’s name is commonly associated with the baths he built in the Outside Lands. He did, however, leave another legacy. The site of his home, now Sutro Heights Park.

Sutro first encountered the future site of his Sutro Heights home in March of 1881 while visiting ”¨the home of Samuel Tetlow, the owner of the Bella Union Music Hall. Tetlow had purchased the dwelling in 1860 from James Butler, the first developer of the Cliff House. It is said that Sutro fell instantly in love with the house and made a deposit of $1,000 (on a total sale price of $15,000) for the cottage and an adjoining 1.65 acres that very afternoon.

Carpet Bed designs including flowers, carefully trimmed grasses, hedges and moss were a standard feature in Victorian gardens. (Photo credit: GGNRA)

After purchasing the home, Sutro focused first on the grounds. He spent millions trying to recreate a European garden, dotted with statues, planters, and fountains. During an 1883 tour of Europe, Sutro arranged for the casting of more than 200 pieces of sculpture in Belgium. These were shipped to San Francisco in 1884. The sculptures (made of plaster, rather than marble, required an annual coat of white paint to keep the plaster from dissolving). In 1885, Sutro opened his gardens to the public for an entry fee of one dime. He hoped that the statuary would provide accessible examples of European culture to these visitors. The money he collected helped to pay the 15 gardeners employed to maintain the grounds. While many people brought picnic baskets for their visit, they were confiscated by the gate keeper and returned when the visitors departed. Litter, which often included peanut shells-hot peanuts were a popular snack of the era-were apparently too much for Sutro to bear.

Photo credit: UC Bancroft Library

In 1895, following a modest remodeling of the house, Sutro built a rock-and-sandstone parapet. Sited on the highest point of the estate, the parapet provides breathtaking views of the surrounding sea shore. Since its completion, the parapet has been a major focal point of visitors to the property.

As built, the parapet was a curved sandstone wall that extended in a semicircle for 280 feet. Thirty stone crenellations (notches), linked with iron railings and topped with statues or urns, defined the top edge of the parapet. Initially, the parapet also held freestanding chairs and two large Parrott-model cannons (each with a stack of cannon balls).

This small wood-frame structure originally featured carved wooden posts, iron grillwork doors, decorative shingles, and finials capping each roof end.

The well house, built around 1885, is the last surviving building from the Sutro era. Although it is not clear whether the structure ever actually housed a well, it did contain the plumbing for the pair of drinking fountains mounted on opposite sides of the structure.

Sutro died in 1898, prompting a call for the City to purchase the property. In 1902, Charles Bundschu wrote in The Merchant’s Association Review: “He immortalized his name in our local history, not alone by planting of miles of forests near the ocean line, by the building of the monumental bathing establishment bearing his name, by the inauguration of a competitive electric [streetcar] line introducing the five-cent fare, but he showed his admiration of nature’s greatest gifts in the creation of Sutro Heights, a beautiful park elevation, overlooking the Cliff House point, affording an unbounded view of the vast expanse of the great Pacific Ocean.”

In 1920, Emma Sutro Merritt, Sutro’s daughter, transferred the ownership of Sutro Heights to the City of San Francisco under the condition that it be “forever held and maintained as a free public resort or park under the name of Sutro Heights.” The Merritts retained a lifetime residence on the property. Between 1920 and 1933 the Merritts continued to allow visitors access to Sutro Heights, which by this time was starting to show its age and lack of maintenance.

The Conservatory was built to house Sutro’s exotic plants collected from all over the world. (Photo credit: GGNRA)

In 1933, at the request of Emma Sutro Merritt, the City of San Francisco agreed to assume maintenance of Sutro Heights. There were, however, no major improvements made or any rehabilitation of the grounds.

In 1937, the city submitted a proposal to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for the rehabilitation of the grounds at Sutro Heights. Some repairs were undertaken, and staircases were constructed at both ends of the wall to provide access to the parapet terrace. In total, WPA “improvements” to Sutro Heights cost $90,994. When Emma Sutro Merritt died in residence at Sutro Heights in 1938, the City directed the WPA to demolish the aged home that had fallen into severe disrepair.

In 1976, the City of San Francisco transferred ownership of Sutro Heights to the National Park Service, to be managed as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The National Park Service is charged with identifying and preserving the historic features remaining on the site. Under Park Service direction, the grounds have improved significantly.

Today, Sutro Heights provides a large, green open space for visitors. The parapet still wraps around the hill allowing anyone to sit and gaze out onto the magnificent view. And now, at least, you can have your picnic on the grounds.

San Francisco’s Holocaust Memorial

Posted by Cindy on July 24, 2012

Jul 242012

Land’s End

Legion of Honor

Holocaust Memorial by George Segal

Time has taken its’ toll on this memorial. The hand on the man above was not to touch the wire as they were electrified.

This memorial shows ten figures sprawled, recalling post-war photographs of the camps. Placement of this work was controversial. The choice to look over such a truly beautiful landscape recalling death in a rather graphic way was not acceptable to many. The artist however, insisted that the viewer might consider death while facing towards the monument and life while facing towards the Golden Gate.

Segal’s work is executed in bronze and painted white. It has been the subject of grafitti, but Segal mentioned, at a 1998 conference at Notre Dame University, that he did not find this a problem since grafitti was a reminder that problems of prejudice have not been solved.

Segal’s ensemble of bodies is not random. One can find a “Christ-like” figure in the assemblage, reflecting on the Jewishness of Jesus, as well as a woman holding an apple, a reflection on the idea of original sin and the biblical connection between Jews and Christians, and raising the question of this relationship during the Holocaust.

The essential figure of the man standing at the fence is probably derived from Margaret Bourke-White’s famous Life Magazine 1945 photograph of the liberation of Buchenwald.

Another plaster version of Segal’s “The Holocaust” can be found at The Jewish Museum in New York.

George Segal (November 26, 1924 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter and sculptor associated with the Pop Art movement. He was presented with a National Medal of Arts in 1999.

Although Segal started his art career as a painter, his best known works are cast lifesize figures and the tableaux the figures inhabited. In place of traditional casting techniques, Segal pioneered the use of plaster bandages (plaster-impregnated gauze strips designed for making orthopedic casts) as a sculptural medium. In this process, he first wrapped a model with bandages in sections, then removed the hardened forms and put them back together with more plaster to form a hollow shell. These forms were not used as molds; the shell itself became the final sculpture, including the rough texture of the bandages. Initially, Segal kept the sculptures stark white, but a few years later he began painting them, usually in bright monochrome colors. Eventually he started having the final forms cast in bronze, sometimes patinated white to resemble the original plaster.

I am a very big fan of Segal’s work being moved to tears while standing in front of his “Bread Line” sculpture at the FDR Memorial in Washington D.C..

While these are at the Johnson Atelier. Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ so the background is different they are the same figures as the FDR Memorial.

Roald Amundsen at the Beach Chalet

Posted by Cindy on July 7, 2012

Jul 072012

Land’s End

Beach Chalet

1000 The Great Highway

This memorial sits in the parking lot of the Beach Chalet, it has been there since 1930. It marks where Amundsen’s ship, the Gjoa (pronounced “Joe”) was in dry-dock. It had been pulled ashore here in 1909, and placed on dry-dock display. Amundsen donated the ship and the Norweigan community took up a collection to display the ship in the park. Unfortunately, the ship had a rough time and had fallen into disrepair by the 1930s due to vandalism and the elements. The Gjoa Foundation was formed in 1940 to restore her but was thwarted by the outbreak of WWII. A restoration took place in 1949, but a sever gale in 1960 toppled the uppermost part of the mast, and by 1970, years of neglect had taken their toll. In 1972 she was hauled to Pier 48, loaded on a freighter and sent to Oslo, Norway, where she was lovingly resorted and draws thousands of visitors a year.

Roald Amundsen was one of the world’s most important explorers. Between 1903 and 1906 his crew were the first to navigate successfully the Northwest passage, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Along the way Amundsen’s expedition had determined the position of the Magnetic North Pole. And the epic adventure was completed when his 69-foot sailing ship entered San Francisco in 1906. Its arrival was greeted with great celebration and acclaim.

Amundsen later became the first to reach the South Pole, in a larger ship, the Fram, and he was quite a successful lecturer and writer. His scientific contributions and adventures are graphically recounted in such books as the North West Passage (1908), The South Pole (1912), The North East Passage (1918 -1920), Our Polar Flight (1925), First Crossing of the Polar Sea (1927), and My Life As An Explorer (1927) It’s the Northwest Passage journey of the Gjoa, however, that connects Amundsen to San Francisco.

The sculptor was Hans Jauchen, born in Hamburg, Germany of Danish parents who were famous artists themselves. He immigrated to the US in 1910 and began teaching at Stanford, UC Berkeley and other institutions. His studio – Ye Olde Copper Shop – on Sutter street, provided sculpture services, and ornamental bronze and iron works. One of his most notable works is an altar depicting scenes in the life of Christ, commissioned by financier J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr. for his London home.

Beach Chalet Murals Part III

Posted by Cindy on July 6, 2012

Jul 062012

Land’s End

The Beach Chalet – Part III

1000 The Great Highway

Lucien Labaudt’s Beach Chalet murals: John McLaren (G.G. Park Superintendent) in left foreground on bench, with Jack Spring (later General Manager of Parks and Rec Dept.) holding redwood tree’s root ball, while behind on horseback (upper right corner) sit sculptor Benny Bufano and Joseph Danysh, then head of California Federal Art Project.

Labaudt, following the precedent set by many of his era’s fellow artists to include other artists, depicts here Gottardo Piazzoni, a Swiss-Italian muralist who worked in San Francisco during the first two decades of the 20th century.

There are a few monochrome murals under the stairway they are also by Labaudt.

Beach Chalet Murals

Posted by Cindy on July 4, 2012

Jul 042012

Land’s End

The Beach Chalet – Part I

1000 Great Highway

The Beach Chalet has its own fascinating history. This is however, about the WPA work found at the Beach Chalet.

Port Scene by Lucien Labaut -Beach Chalet Murals

Fisherman’s Wharf

A peaceful beach scene that incorporates some of Labaudt’s friends and family.

All the murals in the Beach Chalet were done by one artist, Lucien Labaudt. Born in France, he came to the United States in the early 1900s. He was an accomplished dress designer to the rich and famous of San Francisco High Society. He is responsible for decorating the curved walls in Coit Tower with frescoes (these frescoes are not available for public viewing). In 1936 he painted Advancement of Learning throughout the Printing Press, a fresco at George Washington High School. When asked about the limitations WPA art often came under he wrote “limitation forces one to think and therefore to create…Far from destroying the artist’s individuality, these limitations give him something to fight for. He must solve a problem. ” Labaudt died in a plane crash over Burma in 1943, on assignment to do war sketches for Life Magazine.

“San Francisco Life” is the title of the frescoes covering three walls of the first floor of the Beach Chalet. The mural depicts four San Francisco tourist locales: the beach, Golden Gate Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Marina. Recognizable figures of the time from the arts and politics are shown in the mural scenes, engaging in leisure activities. Since Labaudt painted the mural in 1936-37, during the Great Depression, such leisure would have actually been out of reach for most people. Showing high-profile figures, including WPA administrators, enjoying their leisure time, was most probably a political comment on the inequalities of the times.

Lands End – Kanrin Maru Monument

Posted by Cindy on June 27, 2012

Jun 272012

Land’s End

Legion of Honor

The plaque at this reads: This monument is erected to commemorate the arrival of the first Japanese Naval Ship Kanrin Maru in San Francisco on 17 March, 1860. The Kanrin Maru crossed the Pacific at the same time as the U.S.S. Powhatan which brought the first Japanese Embassy to the United States. Presented to the City of San Francisco by its sister city Osaka as a token of sincere desire to further friendship and goodwill between the United States and Japan and as part of the program to mark the centennial celebration of the opening of their diplomatic relations. 17 May 1960

The monument was a gift from Osaka, Japan Mayor Nakai.

“Maru” means “circle,” the word is frequently added to names of Japanese ships “as a way of blessing the vessel, wishing it safe travels and a safe return to port, thus closing the circle.

There are two sculptors listed for this monument. Mitsui Nakai and Ishi Katsu.

I am sharing with Sundays in My City

Land’s End – Great Nature

Posted by Cindy on June 26, 2012

Jun 262012

Land’s End

Legion of Honor

The stone reads: We are grateful, as we stand facing this monument, for the infinite gifts of heaven and earth. We recognize once again the true fundamental of the human should that pursues the truth, implements the good, creates beauty, and renews his will to step forward. This way brings about peace in mind and on earth by mutual understanding, encouragement and help. It was in this spirit that this monument was built.

April 1, 1984

In recognition of the continued quest for world peace by all people.

Great Nature by

Bundo Shunkai

This piece is owned by the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department. According to a Japanese Encyclopedia, Bundo Shunkai (1878-1970) was a Calligrapher and Buddhist monk, Sojo (bishop) of the Tendai sect. He was a student of Nishikawa Shundo. His style was flexible yet firm.

Lands End – USS San Francisco Memorial

Posted by Cindy on May 28, 2012

May 282012

Lands End

48th Avenue Parking Lot

In 1942 the cruiser USS San Francisco attacked a vastly superior Japanese force off the coast of Guadalcanal. It was the most brutal close-quarters naval engagement of World War II. The San Francisco took some 45 direct hits and sustained heavy damage while sinking one Japanese ship and seriously damaging two others (including a battleship). One hundred and six sailors, including Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan, were killed and 131 more wounded. Despite it all, the San Francisco safely made it back to port. This savage battle is commemorated by an unusual memorial in Land’s End. The USS San Francisco Memorial is oriented toward Guadalcanal, and it eschews the usual symbolic folderol in favor of something far more visceral: a shell-ridden section of the San Francisco ‘s bridge. The site of heavygauge steel perforated like paper captures the fury and horror of that night better than any sculpture ever could.

On 12 & 13 November 1942

In the most savage naval engagement

at close quarters in history

The United States Navy decisively

turned back the enemy at Guadalcanal

In memory of

Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan

and the men of the U.S.S. San Francisco

who there gave their lives

for their country and for freedom

13 November 1992

IN SALUTE

TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN LIVING AND DEAD ON THE

U.S.S. “SAN FRANCISCO”

A WARSHIP NAMED FOR THE CITY, WHICH, THOUGH SORELY WOUNDED, EMERGED TRIUMPHANTLY FROM THE BATTLE OF GUADALCANAL, NOVEMBER 12-13 1942,AFTER INFLICTING HEAVY LOSSES ON THE ENEMY.

“A very powerful Japanese force was moving at night toward our positions in the Solomon Islands. The spearhead of the force that we sent to intercept the enemy was under the command of Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan. He was aboard the leading ship, the cruiser SAN FRANCISCO + + The San Francisco sailed right into the enemy fleet— right through the whole enemy fleet—her guns blazing. She engaged and hit three enemy vessels, sinking one of them. At point blank range she engaged an enemy battleship–heavily her superior in size and firepower. She silenced this battleship’s big guns and so disabled her that she could be sunk by torpedoes from our destroyers and aircraft ++ The SAN FRANCISCO herself was hit many times. Admiral Callaghan, my close personal friend, and many of the gallant officers and men gave their lives in this battle. But the SAN FRANCISCO was brought safely back to port by a Lieutenant Commander (*), and she will fight again for our country ++ The Commander of the Task Force of which the SAN FRANCISCO was a part, has recommended that she be the first of our Navy’s vessels to be decorated for outstanding service. But there are no citations, no medals, which carry with them such high honor as that accorded to fighting men by the respect of their Comrades-in-Arms. The Commanding General of the Marines on Guadalcanal, General Vandergrift, yesterday sent a message to the Commander of the Fleet, Admiral Halsey, saying “We lift our battered helmets in admiration for those who fought magnificently against overwhelming odds and drove the enemy back to crushing defeat”++ Let us thank God for such men as these. May our Nation continue to be worthy of them, throughout this war, and Forever.

The Honored Dead

Death of a Sailor

Reinhardt J. Keppler

Died serving his country

fighting raging flames to save

ourship, USS San Francisco

at midnight, Nov. 12,13, 1942

Honored by surviving crew members

May 29, 2000

The children of many of the men on the USS San Francisco have commemorated the men and their deeds on a website. It covers the history of the ship, as well as the Battle of Guadalcanal. It is well worth the time to go through its many pages.

Land’s End – El Cid

Posted by Cindy on April 20, 2012

Apr 202012

Land’s End

Palace of the Legion of Honor

El Cid by Anna Huntington

This piece is part of the Collection of the Fine Arts Museum. It sits on the lawn in front of the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – July 10, 1099), known as El Cid Campeador (“The lord-master of military arts”), was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat. Exiled from the court of the Spanish Emperor Alfonso VI of León and Castile, El Cid went on to command a Moorish force consisting of Muladis, Berbers, Arabs and Malians, under Yusuf al-Mu’taman ibn Hud, Moorish king of the northeast Al-Andalus city of Zaragoza, and his successor, Al-Mustain II.

The name El Cid comes from the article el (which means “the” in both Spanish and Arabic), and the dialectal Arabic word سيد sîdi or sayyid, which means “Lord” or “The Master”. The title Campeador means “champion” or “challenger” in Spanish.

Anna Hyatt Huntington, (b. 1876 Cambridge, MA – d. Redding, CT 1973) became one of the best-known and most prolific sculptors of the 20th century. Her father, a paleontologist, interested her in animals. She began to make sculptures of animals that she observed on farms and at the New York City Zoo. She trained as a sculptor, first in Boston, then at the Art Students League in New York, and was taught by Hermon Atkins MacNeil and George Barnard. She also worked for the sculptor Gutzon Borglum.

In the early 1900s, she shared an apartment with the figure sculptor Abastenia St. Leger Eberle. They collaborated on sculptures; Anna Hyatt made the animal figures and Abastenia the human figures. She also studied and worked in France and Italy. One of her earliest public works was the equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, exhibited at the Salon of 1910 in Paris. Several replicas were made, and the statue won Anna the Legion of Honor from the French government. In 1927, she made her first sculpture of ‘El Cid Campeador’ for the city of Seville, Spain.

In 1923, she married the wealthy philanthropist/poet/Spanish scholar Archer M. Huntington (Archer was the adopted son of Collis P. Huntington, the railroad magnate). The couple later (1929) bought 10,000 acres of land near the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina, named it Brookgreen Gardens and made it a showplace for Anna’s work and for the work of dozens of American figurative sculptors. It was also a sanctuary for plant and animal life of the region. The couple gave the estate, with an endowment, to the state of South Carolina in 1935. It is still a major tourist attraction.

Lands End – Labyrinth

Posted by Cindy on April 3, 2012

Apr 032012

Land’s End

This labyrinth is at Land’s End in San Francisco, on the Coastal Trail. Created by Eduardo Aguilera in 2004, it is a hike to get to but well worth the trek. The easiest hike is to park at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and walk towards the ocean. You can also park at the 48th and Point Lobos parking lot above the Cliff House and walk towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

Once you start walking you are heading towards Mile Rock Beach. There is a small sign at the top of the hill that says Mile Rock Beach but no sign to the labyrinth. At this point you start walking down towards the ocean. It is a very steep climb down, but the stairs are very well constructed. Take your time and enjoy.

Eduardo grew up in Baja California, Mexico and came to the US in 1966. Living in southern California until 1983 he moved to San Francisco, operating his own auto detailing business. After watching a show on PBS about labyrinths and making a visit to Grace Cathedral he went from enjoying labyrinths as a visitor, to wanting to create them. Tying a core theme of “peace, love and enlightenment” to his creations, he began building labyrinths in December of 2003 and having them prepared in time for Equinoxes and Solstices. This labyrinth was built on the Spring Equinox in 2004. For the 2004 Winter Solstice Eduardo lit the Lands End Labyrinth with luminaries. For the 2005 Spring Equinox the Lands End Labyrinth was set ablaze. If you go to Eduardo Aguilera’s website you will see photos of the labyrinth on the Equinox and also that it has changed quite a bit since its original creation.