| Statue of John McLaren | |
|---|---|
 The statue in 2015 | |
| Subject | John McLaren |
| Location | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
A statue of horticulturist John McLaren is installed in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in the U.S. state of California.
| Statue of John McLaren | |
|---|---|
| The statue in 2015 | |
| Subject | John McLaren |
| Location | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
A statue of horticulturist John McLaren is installed in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in the U.S. state of California.
In 1911 Alma de Bretteville Spreckels and her husband Adolph B. Spreckels, park commissioner and namesake of Spreckels Lake, wanted M. Earl Cummings to capture McLaren's likeness. The San Francisco Examiner reported in 1911 that McLaren had modeled for Cummings, and the statue was to be shown at a Bohemian Club art exhibition (Carvala). The Examiner also reported In 1921 the Examiner reported, park commissioners wanted the statue erected in Golden Gate Park “soon.” But in 1922 according to The Oakland Tribune, McLaren hid it in a box in the park stables as " McLaren did not want to see it " (Carvala, Peterson).
It was found after McLaren's death and erected in John McLaren Memorial Rhododendron Dell in 1945. It is a bronze 5'7 likeness (Carvala). It does not sit on a pedestal and has no identification, as Cummings thought everybody would know who McLaren was. Over time the statue has turned green, so it is unassuming and blends into its surroundings. In one hand he is holding a pinecone. Saw marks are on McLaren's right leg from an attempt to steal the statue on December 17, 1953. Two attempts were made, the first of which the thieves tried to “crowbar the statue off its base. Three days later on what would have been McLaren's birthday a hack saw was used to try to cut the statue down. (San Francisco Chronicle).
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres (412 ha) of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development of Golden Gate Park. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape to but 20 percent larger than Central Park in New York City, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles (4.8 km) long east to west, and about half a mile (0.8 km) north to south. With 24 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the third most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park and the Lincoln Memorial.
Adolph Claus J. Spreckels, , was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history. He also involved himself in several California enterprises, most notably the company that bears his name, Spreckels Sugar Company.
KALW (91.7 MHz) is an educational FM public radio station, licensed to the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which serves the San Francisco Bay Area. Its studios are located at Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School off Mansell Avenue in San Francisco, and its transmitter tower is on Twin Peaks.
John McLaren Park is a park in southeastern San Francisco. At 312.54 acres (126.48 ha), McLaren Park is the third largest park in San Francisco by area, after Golden Gate Park and Presidio. The park is surrounded mostly by the Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, Visitacion Valley, Portola and University Mound neighborhoods.
John Diedrich Spreckels, the son of German-American industrialist Claus Spreckels, founded a transportation and real estate empire in San Diego, California, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The entrepreneur's many business ventures included the Hotel del Coronado and the San Diego and Arizona Railway, both of which are credited with helping San Diego develop into a major commercial center.
Sutro Heights Park is an historic public park in the Outer Richmond District of western San Francisco, California. It is within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Sutro Historic District.
The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, California, is a popular feature of Golden Gate Park, originally built as part of a sprawling World's Fair, the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. Though many of its attractions are still a part of the garden today, there have been changes throughout the history of the garden that have shaped it into what it is today.
Dr John Hays McLaren (1846–1943) served as superintendent of the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA for 56 years.
The California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, commonly referred to as the "Midwinter Exposition" or the "Midwinter Fair", was a World's Fair that officially operated from January 27 to July 5 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
Michael Henry de Young was an American journalist and businessman.
The McLaren M4B was a Formula One racing car constructed by Trojan for Bruce McLaren Motor Racing and raced five times by New Zealander Bruce McLaren at the start of 1967.
Adolph Bernard Spreckels was a California businessman who ran Spreckels Sugar Company and who donated the California Palace of the Legion of Honor art museum to the city of San Francisco in 1924. His wife Alma was called the "great grandmother of San Francisco". His 1912 mansion is in Pacific Heights and is San Francisco Landmark #197.
Alma de Bretteville Spreckels was a wealthy socialite and philanthropist in San Francisco, California. She was known both as "Big Alma" and "The Great Grandmother of San Francisco". Among her many accomplishments, she persuaded her first husband, sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels, to donate the California Palace of the Legion of Honor to the city of San Francisco.
The Music Concourse is an open-air plaza within Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Flanking the oval-shaped concourse are the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum and the California Academy of Sciences.
San Francisco Parks Trust was a U.S. non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of parks in San Francisco, California. In 2011 the San Francisco Parks Council and San Francisco Parks Trust merged to form the new San Francisco Parks Alliance.
The Spreckels Lake Model Yacht Facility, commonly referred to as "Spreckels Lake", is an artificial reservoir behind an earthen dam and adjoining clubhouse situated on the northern side of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Completed in mid-March 1904, the reservoir was built for the use of model boaters of all ages, interests, and skill levels, designed specifically for racing model sail and power boats and to propagate the skills and crafts necessary to build and sail competitive model boats of all types. The Spreckels Lake Model Yacht Facility is considered one of the finest examples and one of the most beautiful of the naturalistically styled, man-made model boating facilities in the world and is always open to anyone wishing to sail its waters with few restrictions. The facility is also the permanent home to the San Francisco Model Yacht Club (SFMYC), the organization at whose request Spreckels Lake and the adjoining clubhouses were built and whose history is and always will be irrevocably intertwined with the history of the facility.
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.
Melvin Earl Cummings, also known as M. Earl Cummings, was an American sculptor active in San Francisco, California.
The Jerry Garcia Amphitheater is an outdoor concert venue located in McLaren Park in San Francisco, California. The amphitheater's maximum capacity is 3,200 people. It is named after Grateful Dead band member Jerry Garcia, who once lived in the nearby Excelsior District neighborhood. It is the site of the annual Jerry Day event, at which various musical groups perform.
A 30-foot tall statue of Junípero Serra was installed in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in the U.S. state of California. It had first been erected in 1907 and sculpted by Douglas Tilden. The memorial was toppled on June 19th, 2020 during the George Floyd protests, as a Juneteenth commemoration. Following the toppling of the statue in San Francisco, the next day another memorial for Serra was torn down in Los Angeles at Father Serra Park by about five dozen indigenous activists. Other statues of Junípero Serra were involved as the protests expanded to include monuments of individuals associated with the controversy over the genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas. Demonstrators also toppled or otherwise vandalized the statues of Francis Scott Key, Ulysses S. Grant, and a group consisting of Don Quixote and his companion, Sancho Panza kneeling to honor their creator, Cervantes. Serra, as a major part of the California mission development by Spain in the 18th century, attempted to convert Native Californians to Catholicism through force and confinement to cramped missions. His goal was to baptize them, as that would prevent them from leaving. Any Native American that tried to leave was beaten. More Natives were dying at these missions than being born. The narrative written was that Serra was a hero and a Catholic missionary founding father. Although this belief relied on the belief that the white Euro-American christening and “ civilizing” missions are a hero.
Media related to John McLaren by Melvin Earl Cummings at Wikimedia Commons [2]