Forty-Second Annual Report 



GOLDEN GATE PARK of San Francisco still holds 

 its world-wide fame in the field of Park creations, 

 and continues to engage the admiring attention of 

 tourists of this country and other lands. Apart from the sense 

 of delight that views of foliage, meadow, woodland, lake, ocean 

 and mountain range confer, the fact is still obvious and sig- 

 nificant in this age of progress materially, that the investment 

 is the best that San Francisco ever made. All that the city 

 appropriates annually for the maintenance of the Park is but 

 a small proportion of the taxes laid on lots and tracts of land 

 that have become immensely valuable by reason of the Park 

 development. Moreover, the value of adjacent property will 

 continue to increase until the ocean frontage near Golden Gate 

 Park will really be the front door of San Francisco. 



The increase in value of land is not limited to the terri- 

 tory which may be designated as the Park zone, but extends 

 to all sections of San Francisco and the Bay region. Golden 

 Gate Park is a field of recreation, and a source of delight for 

 all Californians, and every dollar expended to enhance the 

 beauty of the reservation is more than a dollar added to the 

 wealth of the city. 



As early as 1888, Frederick Law Olmsted, whose 

 worth as a landscape architect and park builder was appre- 

 ciated in every leading city of the United States, predicted 

 that "Golden Gate Park was to have a unique and incom- 

 parable character." He counseled the Commissioners to re- 

 member that the Park is not today but for all time. He re- 

 garded its development as an interesting problem to be studied 

 in a careful and sustained manner. It is the judgment of the 

 Park Commissioners, and of John McLaren, Superintendent, 

 that the time has now arrived for a serious study of the prob- 

 lem. Since 1906, much of the money allowed by the Super- 

 visors for the parks has been expended to restore Golden Gate 



