The National AIDS Memorial Grove, often referred to simply as The Grove, located in Golden Gate Park, has been in progress since 1988. The dedicated public space is set aside for those touched directly or indirectly by AIDS can gather to heal, hope, and remember. In 1996, it was designated a national memorial by an act of Congress, becoming an affiliated area of the National Park System.
Golden Gate Park was carved out of sand and shore dunes known as the "outside lands" in an unincorporated area west of then-San Francisco's borders in the 1870's. Running 3 miles east to west and about a half mile north to south, it covers a rectangular plot of 1,017 acres--20% larger than New York's Central Park. With 13 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the third most visited city park in the United States after Central Park and Lincoln Park in Chicago.
Tags: National AIDS Memorial Grove AIDS Memorial Grove Golden Gate Park park SF San Francisco sfist San Francisco-Bay Area Bay Area California
Ocean Beach, running along the west coast of San Francisco, is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and administered by the National Park Service. Noteworthy for its strong current and waves, Ocean Beach is popular with surfers and parasailers. During the late spring and summer, the beach is frequently covered with San Francisco's characteristic fog, limiting temperatures to 50 - 55 °F. Typical beach weather is more likely in the late fall or early spring.
Tags: beach ocean beach coast SF San Francisco sfist San Francisco-Bay Area Bay Area California Golden Gate National Recreation Area GGNRA NPS National Park Service Sutro District
The Sutro Baths were a large, privately owned swimming pool complex built on the western side of San Francisco by wealthy entrepreneur and former San Francisco mayor Adolph Sutro in the late 19th century. Following a fire in 1966, all that remains of the site are concrete walls, blocked off stairs and passageways, and a tunnel with a deep crevice in the middle. The ruins are still open to the public and are now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and operated by the National Park Service.
When Sutro Baths originally opened to the public on March 14, 1896, they were the world's largest indoor swimming pool establishment. The vast structure filled a small beach inlet below the Cliff House, also owned by Adolph Sutro at the time. The baths offered seven different swimming pools--one fresh water and six salt water, ranging in termperatures. During high tides, water would flow directly into the pools from the nearby ocean, recycling the two million US gallons of water in about an hour. During low tides, a powerful turbine water pump, built inside a cave at sea level, could fill the tanks at a rate of 6,000 US gallons a minute, recycling all the water in five hours. The facility also housed a museum displaying Sutro's large and varied personal collection of artifacts from his travels, an 8,000-seat concert hall, and an ice skating rink. The baths struggled for years, resulting from high operating and maintenance costs. Shortly after closing, a fire destroyed the building while it was in the process of being demolished.
The Cliff House is a restaurant perched on the headlands on the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach at 1090 Point Lobos Avenue. Its current and fifth incarnation features two restaurants, the casual dining Bistro Restaurant and the more formal Sutro's; and its Terrace Room serves a Sunday Brunch buffet. Now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service, the Cliff House features a gift shop and the Camera Obscura on a deck overlooking the ocean. During its most recent renovation, the Musée Mécanique was moved to Fisherman's Wharf.
The first Cliff House was built in 1858 by Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, using lumber salvaged from a shop that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. The second Cliff house, built for Captain Junius G. Foster, catered mostly to horseback riders and day trippers until the opening of the Point Lobos toll road and eventually Golden Gate Park opened it up. In 1883, the Cliff House was bought by Adolph Sutro, who rebuilt it after it was first damaged by an explosion from an abandoned schooner loaded with dynamite in 1883 and then completely destroyed by a chimney fire in 1894. The replacement, a seven-story Victorian Cheateau opened the same year as his Sutro Baths, pulling in throngs of visitors.
The Cliff House survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage but burned to the ground in 1907. Dr. Emma Merritt, Sutro's daughter, commissioned a new neo-classical style building which was completed by 1909. In 1937, George and Leo Whitney purchased the Cliff House, complementing their Playland-at-the-Beach, and extensively remodeled it into an American roadhouse. When the NPS acquired the building in 1977, many of Whitney's additions were removed and it was restored to its 1909 appearance. In 2003, an extensive further renovation added a new two-story wing overlooking the Sutro Bath ruins.
Seal Rocks is a rock formation island found offshore at the north end of the Ocean Beach. Its name is derived from the population of Steller's sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) and California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) who used to haul out on the rock. This formation, once part of a coastline that extended between eight and twenty miles westward of its current position, but filled in following the last ice age, were formed over the years by waves, wind, and the movement of sand.
Tags: Seal Rocks Cliff House Sutro Baths Golden Gate National Recreation Area GGNRA NPS National Park Service SF San Francisco sfist San Francisco-Bay Area Bay Area California ruins pacific ocean ocean coast Sutro Bath Ruins Sutro District
Pax Jerusalemme, a painted steel sculpture located in Lincoln Park, was designed by sculptor Mark di Suvero in 1999.
Lincoln Park, covering about 100 acres of the northwestern corner of the San Francisco Peninsula, was dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln in 1909. The park is the Western Terminus of Lincoln Highway, which was conceived and mapped in 1913 as the first coast-to-coast road across America, traversing 14 states. It stands on land that was a cemetery during the late 1860s. After local enthusiasts laid out a three-hole golf course in 1902, the land was turned over to the parks commission in 1909 and the graves were relocated. The course was expanded to 14 holes by 1914 and to a full 18 by 1917. In 1923, the park was chosen as the site of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor and the San Francisco Holocaust Memorial, designed by George Segal, was dedicated in the park in 1984.
Tags: Mark di Suvero Pax Jerusalemme sculpture Lincoln Park Golden Gate National Recreation Area GGNRA NPS National Park Service SF San Francisco sfist San Francisco-Bay Area Bay Area California California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Verdi, a heroic bronze sculptural bust of Guiseppe Verdi, located south of the band shell in Golden State Park, was designed by Orazio Grossoni in 1914.
The Music Concourse is a sunken, oval-shaped open-air plaza originally excavated for the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894.
Golden Gate Park was carved out of sand and shore dunes known as the "outside lands" in an unincorporated area west of then-San Francisco's borders in the 1870's. Running 3 miles east to west and about a half mile north to south, it covers a rectangular plot of 1,017 acres--20% larger than New York's Central Park. With 13 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the third most visited city park in the United States after Central Park and Lincoln Park in Chicago.
Tags: Verdi Guiseppe Verdi Orazio Grossoni sculpture statue band shell Golden Gate Park park SF San Francisco sfist San Francisco-Bay Area Bay Area California Music Concourse