REPORT OF PARK COMMISSIONERS 13 



that one may get from Strawberry Hill, Lincoln Park or 

 Buena Vista summit Golden Gate Park is matchless. It is 

 the best park site in the United States, but will not be the 

 best park in 1915, if other cities keep up the pace of progress 

 now perceptible and San Francisco continues to be content 

 with natural scenery and exhilarating climate. 



GOLDEN GATE PARK 



The problem now presented to the Commission is whether 

 Golden Gate Park shall be maintained in the manner which 

 has done so much to give it renown in the world of alluring 

 parks, or to divert funds which are needed for the main reser- 

 vation in order to improve and adorn Lincoln Park, Balboa 

 Park, and perform the work needed to preserve Buena Vista 

 Park and the smaller squares, plazas and school lots. There 

 is not sufficient money available to improve and keep up the 

 smaller reservations, without neglecting some of the features 

 which are essential to the eminence of Golden Gate Park. 



Civic patriotism, exemplified in individual gifts, may supply 

 in a measure some of the features which render parks attrac- 

 tive. The gifts of James Lick, Claus Spreckels, Charles 

 Crocker, C. P. Huntington, William Sharon, Samuel G. 

 Murphy and others are appreciated today by all who visit the 

 Music Concourse, Huntington Falls, Conservatory Valley, the 

 Children's Playground and the Wind Mills on the Ocean 

 Beach. Since 1906 our leading men of wealth have been so 

 actively engaged in rebuilding the city and providing for the 

 Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, that Golden 

 Gate Park has not received the attention in the line of contri- 

 bution to permanent features that was so marked in the ten 

 years immediately preceding the fire. The fortieth annual 

 report of the Park Commission, for the year ended June 30, 

 1910, gave a history of Golden Gate Park from its original 

 reservation of 1013 acres in 1866 until that time. The lands 

 reserved for public use under Ordinance No. 800 of the 

 Board of Supervisors were appraised at a value of $1,297,027. 



