Winter 2020 Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society Volume 23, Number 1 JOURNAL OF THE CALIFORNIA GARDEN & LANDSCAPE HISTORY SOCIETY EDEN EDITORIAL BOARD Editor: Steven Keylon Editorial Board: Keith Park (Chair), Kate Nowell, Ann Scheid, Susan Schenk, Libby Simon, Jennifer Trotoux, Noel Vernon Consulting Editors: Marlea Graham, Barbara Marinacci Regional Correspondent, San Diego: Vonn Marie May Graphic Design: designSimple.com Submissions: Send scholarly papers, articles, and book reviews to the editor: [email protected] Memberships/Subscriptions: Join the CGLHS and receive a subscription to Eden. Individual $50 • Family $75 Sustaining $150 and above Student $20 Nonprofit/Library $50 Visit www.cglhs.org to join or renew your membership. Or mail check to California Garden & Landscape History Society, PO Box 220237, Newhall, CA 91322-0237. Questions or Address Changes: [email protected] Contents CGLHS BOARD OF DIRECTORS President: Christine E. O’Hara Sand into Gold: One Hundred and Fifty Years Vice President: David Laws of Golden Gate Park Recording Secretary: Nancy Carol Carter Christopher Pollock ................................................................................................................................4 Membership Officer: Antonia Adezio Treasurer: Judy Horton Sometimes Leadership Is Planting Trees Under Whose Directors at large: Kelly Comras, Keith Park, Ann Scheid, Shade You Will Never Sit Libby Simon, Jennifer Trotoux, Janet Gracyk Pamela Young Lee ..............................................................................................................................14 Past President: Steven Keylon HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS 2019 Conference Recap VLT Gardner Thea Gurns ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Marlea Graham, Editor emerita William A. Grant (Founder) Book Review: Cape Cod National Seashore and Point Reyes Barbara Marinacci National Seashore David Streatfield Joan Hockaday .................................................................................................................................. 24 The California Garden & Landscape History Society (CGLHS) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization devoted to celebrating the beauty and TCLF Excursion To Rancho Mirage diversity of California’s historic gardens and landscapes; promoting wider Melissa Riche ..................................................................................................................................... knowledge, preservation, and restoration of California’s historic gardens and 30 landscapes; organizing study visits to historic gardens and landscapes as well as to relevant archives and libraries; and offering opportunities for a lively 2019 Annual Report interchange among members at meetings, garden visits, and other events. Eden: Christine O’Hara ................................................................................................................................34 Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society (ISBN 1524-8062) is published quarterly. Subscription is a benefit of CGLHS membership. © 2020 California Garden & Landscape History Society California Garden & Landscape History Society Above: Pamela Seager, South Garden, 2016. P.O. Box 220237, Newhall, CA 91322-0237 A stereoscopic slide of the newly-built Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park, ca. 1880. Photo by Cristina Klenz. www.cglhs.org Photo by George D. Gardner, Courtesy California State Library, California History Section Picture Catalog. 2 Eden: Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society Winter 2020 • Vol. 23, No. 1 3 Sand into Gold One Hundred and Fifty Years of Golden Gate Park CHRISTOPHER POLLOCK A tinted photograph representing the state of the Outside Lands District as it looked before reclamation began in 1870. Source: Twenty- Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Park Commissioners of San Francisco for the year ending June 30, 1899. San Francisco: Brunt Press: 1899. 4 Eden: Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society Winter 2020 • Vol. 23, No. 1 5 from Aquatic Park to the vicinity of Duboce signed into being Order 800, “an act to pro- Park. He chose sites—especially along Van vide for the improvement of Public Parks Ness Avenue—that were sheltered, which he in the City of San Francisco,” marking the felt was intrinsic to the success of landscap- commencement of the park’s creation. With ing with native drought-tolerant materials, a this instrument signed, the boundaries of the visionary idea at that time. The long-range 1,013-acre park were circumscribed, and a concept could be extended into a series of state-administered commission was created small parks over time. But the city rejected to oversee the park’s construction. The gov- his proposal, despite it being intelligently ernor appointed a Park Commission board of tuned to California’s unique arid landscape. three local men to oversee the park’s creation: While appropriate to the region, the concept Samuel F. Butterworth, David W. Connely, did not fit with the city’s vision of a green and Charles F. MacDermott, with Andrew J. pastoral landscape like Olmsted and Vaux Moulder as secretary, the only compensated had created in New York City. position. This board not to be confused with In the meantime, the city was still trying those who ran the city department known as to sort out land claims within the San Fran- the Department of Public Streets, Highways, cisco Peninsula and got assistance from the and Squares, managed locally by the Board Early city chronicler Frank Soulé On April 4, 2020, the City and federal government who administrated the of Supervisors, whose Park Commission and recounted in his 1855 book, The Annals of County of San Francisco’s Rec- land. This land acquisition process made superintendent oversaw the rest of the city’s San Francisco, that “over all these square available a roughly 1000-acre tract for use as few existing parks. reation and Park Department miles of contemplated thoroughfares, there a city park. It was sited in what was ominously The Park Commission’s first task was to will launch a year-long cel- seems no provision made by the projectors called the Outside Lands, a vast landscape of finance the venture by selling bonds. While ebration commemorating the for a public park—the true ‘lungs’ of a large mostly sand dunes on the west side of the many residents were on board with the con- city.” This would become a clarion call to a sesquicentennial of the city’s pre- peninsula’s northern tip—a long way from cept of the park, there were detractors, too. rapidly growing town for breathing space. By mier playground: Golden Gate downtown proper. The following statement, published by the the 1860s, the new port city of San Francisco Park. A major step occurred on April 4, 1870, Sonoma Democrat in 1873—often misquoted yearned to be the West Coast’s cosmopoli- This is the first installment of a two- when California Governor Henry H. Haight and elaborated upon—sums up some of the Above: Map published as part tan star. (San Francisco ballooned from a part essay, which will discuss the park’s of Order 800, which codified the population of 34,776 in 1852 to 149,473 creation and early days. It will explore how disposition of the area known as residents in 1870.) One of the elements nec- Top: Bird’s eye view looking southwest over the Outside Lands, which were an unknown surveyor, William Hammond San Francisco in 1868 just before construction essary to fulfill that aspiration was a large without clear land titles. What Hall, thoughtfully shepherded what was commenced on Golden Gate Park. The park public park like some other cities had cre- would become Golden Gate thought an impossible task: the creation would be built in the unoccupied area just Park is the long rectangle with ated. In 1865, San Francisco Mayor Henry beyond the hill surmounted by a cross, known of one of America’s best urban parks from panhandle form, just labeled Perrin Coon contacted Frederick Law Olm- as Lone Mountain. Source: Snow and Roos/ “Park,” consisting of 1013 acres. sand dunes. The essay’s second part, which sted, New York Central Park’s co-designer, Britton and Rey, Publisher; David Rumsey Source: Map of the Outside Lands will appear in the subsequent issue of Eden, Historical Map Collection, #13234000, David about preparing a similar plan for his city, but of the City and County of San will focus on Hall, who is responsible for Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University Francisco, Order No. 800. San Olmsted did not believe that such an oasis Library. the park’s initial topographical survey, its Francisco: San Francisco Board could be created on the arid Outside Lands, design, and was its first superintendent. of Supervisors, Britton & Rey, as this undeveloped portion of the city was Left: Map of east end of park showing 1868; David Rumsey Historical early proposed elements. Source: Second Map Collection, #5851000, David known. Instead, he proposed a greenbelt (an Biennial Report of the San Francisco Park Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Olmsted trademark used in several other U.S. Commissioners, 1872-73. San Francisco: B. F. University Library cities) that would stretch through the city Sterett, 1874. 6 Eden: Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society Winter 2020 • Vol. 23, No. 1 7 was awarded the project. The 24-year-old Hall completed the task, including a preliminary plan,