Golden Gate Park celebrates 150 years

Illustration by Skystar

To celebrate its 150th anniversary, Golden Gate Park will add a Ferris wheel, among other features and events, this year.

Sebastian Elsner '23, Staff Reporter
March 4, 2020

UPDATE! San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department will celebrate Golden Gate Park’s  150th birthday with a virtual party. 


UPDATE! The Ferris wheel has been installed in the park, but due to coronavirus shelter in place, no one can ride it.

For 150 years this park has seen this city rise and fall, and now Golden Gate Park is being honored on its 150th anniversary.

San Francisco will celebrate this milestone in many ways, including a limited time Ferris wheel in the Music Concourse section of the park.

The biggest park in the United States—stretching 1,017 acres— Golden Gate Park officially opened April 4, 1870. In 1894, they opened the first Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park for the Midwinter International Exposition. This first wheel stood (or spun) about 120 feet in the air and carried 10 people per carriage.

The new wheel will be as tall as the deYoung Museum’s observation deck. Each ride will last about 12 minutes and cost $18 for a ride to see the entire park from the air, provided fog does not deter the view. The Ferris wheel will open to the public on April 2 with free admission, but on the April 4 anniversary celebration day, the ride will cost $18. The Ferris wheel will remain for a year, with many other year long events coming soon.

The Ferris wheel is not the only highlight of the 150th anniversary. On April 4, there will be musical groups performing in the Music Concourse in the bandshell twice a month, a kids’ carnival in the Polo Fields with rides, bouncy houses and educational activities. There will also be free programs and activities at the park’s museums, gardens, and recreational clubs. There will be a display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and a picnic in Hellman Hollow with entertainment, food, and more. In addition, Kaiser Permanente will provide yoga in the park, and free movies will be shown. During this period, most of the park will be closed, so no cars will be allowed in the those areas.

The park has survived many events, from the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes to BlueGrass festivals. The Conservatory of Flowers, the first building in Golden Gate Park, will be decorated in different colors.

James McCormick is a park supervisor at Golden Gate Park and a Riordan grad, Class of 2000. He is the maintenance supervisor of section 2 of the park, which includes, Music Concourse, de Young Museum, Japanese Tea Garden, Shakespeare Garden, John McLaren Rhododendron Dell, and Tree Fern Dell, which is about 100 acres of the park.

On a daily basis, he maintains events at the park from weddings to mowing the lawn. One interesting thing he sees every day is the hummingbirds. He said, “Frequently hummingbirds will stop to check out what you are doing. They will just sit on a branch a comfortable distance away from you and watch. Sometimes they buzz your head and you can almost feel the percussion from their wing beats. Other times, they stop to either critique your work, or serenade you – I have no idea which, but whatever they are saying sounds like an angry cat over performing techno karaoke. It’s a unique noise you learn to love.”

Living in San Francisco, people see weird stuff every day, and working in Golden Gate Park, one can probably see twice as much weird stuff. For McCormick, he has a “cursed gardener.” He explained, “I have seen a gardener think he was being cursed because he would come in and find raw cuts of pork (feet, knuckles, ribs, etc), uncooked beans, expired noodles, and rotting fruit on his shack door. Anytime something was vandalized or something bad happened, he thought it was someone haunting/taunting him.”

“The final straw came when an entire section of lawn was rolled up like fruit roll-ups. Years later, we watched a grandma drop off groceries and she said she did not have much, but she wanted to thank him for doing such a good job. Shortly after, we watched raccoons roll up the lawns as they peeled back the turf looking for grubs and worms.”