OVERLAND Founded 1868 MONTHLY BRET HARTE VOL. LXXVI San Francisco, October, 1919 Finest of All Parks No. 4 San Francisco's Magnificent Public Playground, where Nature and Art Have Found Delightful Expression By Henrietta Sevilla Christiansen T HERE is no question that in many respects, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco is incomparable, and in all respects admirable, both in its many picturesque features and efficient management. It is almost impossible to realize that forty years ago the area of Golden Gate Park was a monotonous waste of sand dunes. What the landscape artist who transformed the dunes saw in his mind's eye, was not visible to the ordinary observer, and hardly in the range of the enthusiast's imagination. Men to whom the management of famous parks is confided, dwell with especial force on their triumphs in this regard, but it is doubtful whether in the annals of achievement anything can be found to match the measure of success attained by the founders and builders of Golden Gate Park. The land lying between Stanyan street on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west was selected as a park site because such selection tended to make easier the adjustment of Outside Land titles. The eastern boundary of the Park would have extended to Divisadero street had it not been for greedy land owners who resisted the extension by their influence on the Common Council and the Legislature. Public sentiment in favor of a popular pleasure ground in San Francisco im pressed many of the large holders of Outside Lands, and as early as 1864 the agitation for Golden Gate Park begun. It appears that the squatters and claimants all along the line from the ocean beach to Divisadero street were asked to designate what they would give for a park reservation. Under this arrangement about $800,000 was raised and 1013 acres of land purchased for Golden Gate Park. As the Park grows in beauty and enchantment the men and women who are lured by its woodland charms and vistas of verdure, insistently ask the question: "To whom shall we accord the credit for this noble creation?" The question is often asked by visitors to San Francisco, and also by many of its citizens of the present generation. Undoubtedly it was an outgrowth of a public sentiment, but the person who of all others had most to do in the crystallization of the idea was Frank McCoppin. He served in several positions of prominence including that of Mayor of San Francisco, State Senator and United States postmaster at San Francisco. He also served as United States Commissioner to Australia when that country held its great world's exposition. As Mr McCoppin was a man of broad vision and foresaw the greatness of San Francisco as the metropolis of the |