A Brief History of McLaren Park McLaren Park is one of the largest and most treasured parks in San Francisco. It was named after John McLaren, the superintendent of Golden Gate Park from 1887-1943. Its 317 acres include natural ares rich in native plants and animals, lawns and planted gardens, as well as transition areas between the two. Before the waves of immigrants of all colors came to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Indians that lived here, collectively known as the Ohlone, coexisted with a wild incredible array of organisms. Plants, fungi, insects, and animals provided for their material and spiritual well being, and in turn, nature was woven into the fabric of their culture. The site of McLaren Park was once part of two ranchos granted by Governor Alvarado in 1840 when California was a part of Mexico. Four homestead associations formed in the 1860s to promote housing developments throughout the southern portion of San Francisco. The current park land and the adjacent Portola neighborhood were designated the University Homestead Association and layed out in the traditional grid iron pattern. Because of the hilly topography and a lack of roads, few lots were sold on what is now McLaren Park; the rest of the land remained farmland, greenhouses and gardens. The highest and most hilly areas remained undeveloped. In 1904 Daniel H. Burnham propsed that the hilly areas in the homesteads be made a city park. Hearkening back to the proposal, in 1926 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors resolved to create a 550 acre park in what awas substantially the University Homestead, even though some of the parcels had been sold to individuals. The city immediately began to buy back some of the sold properties with moneys from the general fund. In need of additional funding, in 1928 the Board attempted to pass a bond issue to buy back properties and improve the park. The bond initiative failed but the board was not deterred. The city continued to buy properties with money from the general fund. Twenty years later (1946), after many revisions of the vision and plan and a major law suit to stop the park project. The Board of Supervisors reduced the size of the plan to 318 acres. The final purchases of private property to create the present McLaren Park were completed in 1958. Even though acquisition of all properties which now make up the park took some 32 years,the process of improving the new public space began shortly after the Board of Supervisors resolved to create a park. By early 1927, the year in which the aprk hosted a celebration dedicating it to John McLaren, the city's Superintendent of Parks, hundreds of new trees had already been planted. The stock market crash of 1929 enabled San Francisco to collaborate with the President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) to make a substantial number of additional improvements. By 1939, the SPA work force completed installation of a long system of foot paths, hiking, fire, and equestrian trails, culverts, roadways and view drive. In addition, they completed the planting of over 10,000 trees of the eucalptus, cyress and pine varietites. Initiatives to improve the park were suspended in the 40's but resumed in the 50's and continued through each decade to the present. HOME | FEATURES | MAP | HISTORY | FUTURE | FRIENDS Website by Jennalex