Although the current baseball season isn’t its normal self, you can go to Golden Gate Park and visit the monument that celebrates baseball to conjure up some feelings of baseball nostalgia.
Looking Back: Baseball Player
Looking Back – Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant’s bust was seen as underwhelmingly smallish when first revealed in December 1896. A San Francisco Planning Commission report from 2005 on Golden Gate Park for the National Register of Historic Places said that patriots seeing the Grant monument would “feel their breasts swell with pride.” How could attitudes change so strongly that the bust was angrily pulled down in 2020?
Looking Back – Starr King
When America faced healthcare challenges during the Civil War, Starr King rallied Californians to pitch in. In 1862, King made fundraising speeches and raised more than $1 million on behalf of the United States Sanitary Commission canvassing California and the whole Northwestern coast up to Vancouver Island …
Looking Back – Ludwig van Beethoven
Kinen Carvala looks back at the history of the Beethoven statue in Golden Gate Park.
Looking Back – Pioneer Mother
Kinen Carvala helps give the women pioneers of the west some of the credit they deserve.
Looking Back – Link to a List of Stories Exploring the History of San Francisco’s West Side
Link to “Looking Back,” a column by Kinen Carvel exploring stories about the history of San Francisco’s west side.
Looking Back – Robert Emmet
A statue near the Academy of Sciences celebrates Robert Emmet who is described on the statue’s base as “Irish patriot executed in Dublin.”
Looking Back – James Garfield
By Kinen Carvala Entering Golden Gate Park from Stanyan Street heading west, visitors might notice a huge monument that sits atop a large stone pedestal on the right side of JFK Drive, […]
Looking Back – Cervantes
The memorial has two life-size bronze statues of characters from Cervantes’ most famous novel, “Don Quixote.” The titular protagonist and his sidekick Sancho Panza are both kneeling and looking up at a larger-than-life bust of the author.
Looking Back – Roald Amundsen
Amundsen’s goals were to survey the Magnetic North Pole (which compasses point to) and sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, which required passing north of Canada through the dangerous Northwest Passage, a task which had never been successfully done.
Looking Back – Heroes Grove
On Aug. 25, 2018, a solemn ceremony was held in the discreet Heroes Grove in Golden Gate Park, where the 18-ton granite Gold Star Mothers’ Rock stands more than eight feet tall, honoring San Franciscans who gave their lives in World War I. The ceremony highlighted the newly installed additional stones referenced Nov. 11, 1918, the date of the armistice, which was the inspiration for Veterans’ Day.
Looking Back – The Story of Junipero Serra
Three thousand people attended the unveiling of the 30-foot-tall bronze statue of Junipero Serra in Golden Gate Park on Nov. 17, 1907, reported The San Francisco Call newspaper.
Looking Back – GG Park’s Hidden History Treasure Quietly Turns 125
The Prayerbook Cross in Golden Gate Park is quietly celebrating its 125th birthday this year. The mostly hidden concrete cross is located in the heart of the park surrounded by trees, above Rainbow Falls alongside John F. Kennedy Drive, just east of the Crossover Drive overpass.
Looking Back – Francis Scott Key Monument in GG Park
One of the grandest statues in Golden Gate Park has been a part of its history over the last 131 years.
