Josephine Dows Randall (1885-1968) achieved a long and distinguished career in the field of public recreation. She graduated from Stanford University in 1909 and received a master's degree graduate in zoology from there in 1913. [1] She is credited with organizing one of the first-ever Girl Scout troops in the country in 1915, and for beginning one of the first-ever Camp Fire Girls troops. [2] From 1926 to 1951, she served as the Superintendent of Recreation for the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department. [3] Her work was foundational to the development of children's recreation in the city. [4]
In 1937 she founded the Junior Museum in San Francisco, in the city's old jail on what is now the campus of City College of San Francisco. [2] [5] In 1947 she spearheaded a $12 million bond for some 50 recreation projects across the city, which included buying 16 hilltop acres off Market Street, north of the Castro, for a new museum. [6] The property is now known as Corona Heights Park. [7] In 1951, the museum moved to the new building in the park, which was formally dedicated by Mayor Elmer Robinson as the "Josephine Dows Randall Junior Museum" in her honor, now known as the Randall Museum. [8]
Mrs. Sigmund Stern and Josephine Randall were also the co-founders of the San Francisco Civic Symphony in 1931, which remained a part of San Francisco's Park and Recreation Department until 2002. [9]
She received an honorary doctorate from the University of California in 1951. [10]
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th most populous in the United States, with 815,201 residents as of 2021. It covers a land area of 46.9 square miles, at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City, and the fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 331 U.S. cities proper with more than 100,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income and fifth by aggregate income as of 2019. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include SF, San Fran, The City, Frisco, and Baghdad by the Bay.
Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; and Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City to the west. It is one of the most educated cities in California and the United States; nearly 70% of residents over 25 have earned a bachelor's degree or higher. It had 33,780 residents at the 2020 United States Census. It is home to the corporate headquarters of Meta, and is where Google, Roblox Corporation and Round Table Pizza were founded. Its train station holds the record as the oldest continually operating train station in California.
The Richmond District is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of San Francisco, California, developed initially in the late 19th century. It is sometimes confused with the city of Richmond, which is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of San Francisco.
The Civic Center in San Francisco, California, is an area located a few blocks north of the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue that contains many of the city's largest government and cultural institutions. It has two large plazas and a number of buildings in classical architectural style. The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the United Nations Charter was signed in the Veterans Building's Herbst Theatre in 1945, leading to the creation of the United Nations. It is also where the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco was signed. The San Francisco Civic Center was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1978.
The Randall Museum is a museum in central San Francisco, California, owned and operated by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department with the support of the Randall Friends. The museum focuses on science, nature and the arts. On exhibit are live native and domestic animals and interactive displays about nature. Other facilities include a theater, a wood shop, and art and ceramics studios.
The San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center (SFWMPAC) is located in San Francisco, California. It is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. It covers 7.5 acres in the Civic Center Historic District, and totals 7,500 seats among its venues.
The 49-Mile Scenic Drive is a designated scenic road tour highlighting much of San Francisco, California. It was created in 1938 by the San Francisco Down Town Association to showcase the city's major attractions and natural beauty during the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.
Corona Heights Park is a park in the Castro and Corona Heights neighborhoods of San Francisco, California, United States. It is situated immediately to the south of Buena Vista Park. Corona Heights is bounded in part by Flint Street on the east, Roosevelt Way to the north, and 16th Street to the south. The base of the hill is at approximately 300 feet (91 m), while the peak extends to 520 feet (160 m) above sea level.
Corona Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, just north of Market Street and Eureka Valley. Corona Heights is often considered part of the Castro and Upper Market areas.
The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, California. The Recreation & Parks Department also runs Sharp Park in Pacifica, California and Camp Mather in Tuolumne County, California. Current facilities include 4,113 acres (1,664 ha) of total recreational and open space with 3,400 acres (1,376 ha) of that land within San Francisco. The department runs 179 playgrounds and play areas, 82 recreation centers and clubhouses, nine swimming pools, five golf courses, 151 tennis courts, 72 basketball courts, 59 soccer fields, numerous baseball diamonds, and other sports venues.
Ashurbanipal, also known as the Ashurbanipal Monument or the Statue of Ashurbanipal, is a bronze sculpture by Fred Parhad, an artist of Assyrian descent. It is located in the Civic Center of San Francisco, California, in the United States. The 15-foot (4.6 m) statue depicting the Assyrian king of the same name was commissioned by the Assyrian Foundation for the Arts and presented to the City of San Francisco in 1988 as a gift from the Assyrian people. The sculpture reportedly cost $100,000 and was the first "sizable" bronze statue of Ashurbanipal. It is administered by the City and County of San Francisco and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Caroline Howard Hume (1909–2008) was an American philanthropist and art collector from California. Hume's philanthropy extended to non-profit organizations in the areas of music, the outdoors, and modern art. She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the Museum Services Board and by the Secretary of Interior to serve on the National Parks Foundation. Hume was a significant benefactor of the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Cheryl Barton is an American landscape architect and founding principal of the San Francisco-based Office of Cheryl Barton. A Fellow and Past President of the American Society of Landscape Architects, she has completed a wide range of national and international projects in the US, Europe, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Bolivia. Her work includes national and local public parks, urban open spaces and master plans, cultural landscapes, college and institutional campuses, public art installations, corporate landscapes, and ecological master plans. Barton has received an Individual Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture from the American Academy in Rome. She was featured in the 2012 documentary, Women in the Dirt.
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highest-income neighborhoods in the United States, as well as one of the most desirable and expensive real estate markets in the country.
Civic Center Plaza, also known as Joseph Alioto Piazza, is the 4.53-acre (1.83 ha) plaza immediately east of San Francisco City Hall in Civic Center, San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California. Civic Center Plaza occupies two blocks bounded by McAllister, Larkin, Grove, and Carlton B. Goodlett, divided into a north block and south block by the former alignment of Fulton Street. The block north of Fulton is built over a three-story parking garage ; the block south of Fulton lies over a former exhibition space, Brooks Hall.