An Historic Trek: The Amazing Honeymoon of W.F. Traughber and Nora Petree Traughber in 1905, Part IV

 Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #45 By Tonya McQuade

Caption: My! But this is fun! 

Photo of Nora taken in Seattle’s Washington Park.

In my last several posts, I have explored the adventurous honeymoon my great grandparents Frank and Nora Traughber enjoyed in August and September of 1905. I started with their wedding in San Jose (Petree House Connections), then discussed their adventures in Del Monte, Pacific Grove, and Santa Cruz (Part I); Catalina Island (Part II); and San Francisco (Part III). In Part IV, I will be exploring their journey through Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, including their visit to Portland’s “Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition," similar to a World's Fair.

Photos in their album show Frank and Nora enjoying some of the same sights Mike and I enjoyed this past summer, including snow-covered Mt. Shasta. Earlier in 1905, Mt. Shasta – California’s tallest volcano – had been in the news when it experienced a “spasm” on April 14. Residents of the town of Sisson (now the city of Mt. Shasta) "experienced a curious mudflow that seemed to emanate from ground cracks near a local livery stable. The flow continued to ooze for the better part of a day, and was described in newspaper stories as ‘dark colored oily mud’ or ‘thickened paint’. Some reports also noted ‘distant rumblings’ coming from the mountain, and called the event a ‘spasm’, ‘grumbling’, and a ‘queer mood’.... 

“Shasta never produced any volcanic unrest in 1905, and it is now widely recognized by locals that either snow-and-ice-melt or rainstorms on the volcano can lead to non-eruptive mud and debris flows. These lahars (a term for any mudflow composed of volcanic debris) are currently a subject of ongoing hazard assessment at Mount Shasta” (1).

Another shot at Mt. Shasta from a car window with train at full speed.

Their train also stopped at Shasta Springs, a popular summer resort during the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the Upper Sacramento River in northern California. It was just north of the town of Dunsmuir, where Mike and I spent one night this past summer. There, they were able to see Mossbrae Falls and drink some of the area’s natural mineral water. Those same natural springs were the original sources of the water used in Shasta soft drinks.

I had never heard of Mossbrae Falls, which it turns out is described as “one of the most beautiful water features in California,” but there is now “no legal or safe way to get there” (2). The property was purchased in the early 1950’s by the Saint Germain Foundation, an exclusive religious organization, and is no longer open to the public. The Foundation has so far refused to sell any of their land to allow visitors to enjoy these falls.

Saint Germain Foundation members use the upper part of the old resort as a retreat center, but “the lower part of the resort – the bottling plant, the train station, the incline railway, the kiosk and the fountains – are all gone. The falls that were visible from the railroad tracks and what ruins are left of the lower part of the resort are all overgrown by blackberry bushes” (3). For videos of these beautiful falls and more of their history, check out this link.

Back in 1905, though, “wealthy passengers took Southern Pacific trains to witness Mossbrae in all its glory, and sip water from a natural spring at the top of the falls…. Entrepreneurs soon capitalized on the natural spring, buying 40 acres on the Mossbrae side of the river and building the opulent Shasta Springs Resort, which included a walking trail down to the falls" (4).

One of those tourists was Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell, wife of Alexander Graham Bell. She wrote to her husband about the experience: “The train stopped for five minutes at a little pavilion to allow all who were of thirst to take a drink of the mineral or side water that here gushes from the earth by the riverside at the foot of some pretty idyllic falls” (5). Frank and Nora enjoyed a similar experience, as seen below:

Caption: Shasta Springs. This is where the train waits while we all get a drink.

The 1905 stereoscope image below depicts the Southern Pacific Railroad train they likely rode on, with the scene described as showing the “train at station in wooded valley; stream and small bridge in foreground” (6).

Southern Pacific train at Shasta Springs, Valley of the Sacramento, California, 1905

Southern Pacific train at Shasta Springs, Valley of the Sacramento, California, 1905

The next photos in the album show Frank and Nora visiting the Portland World’s Fair. Officially titled the “Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair,” the fair ran from June 1st through October 15th, 1905, and celebrated the centennial of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s arrival on the Pacific Coast. More than 2.5 million people visited the fair, with almost 1.6 million of them being paying customers. The highest daily attendance record was 85,000 (7).  

 

Poster for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition (8)

Whitewashed exhibition halls were built on a bluff overlooking Guild’s Lake – formerly a marshy slough, which was filled with fresh water from the Willamette River for the fair. On a peninsula across the lake, accessed by the Bridge of Nations, stood the impressive U.S. Government Buildings. The Centennial Exposition boasted exhibits from 16 states and 21 nations, including Italy’s pavilion containing a large collection of marble statues; France’s replica of King Louis XIV’s drawing room; and Japan’s display of cultural artifacts such as porcelains, silks, and lanterns (9).

Portlanders hoped the fair would boost the city’s reputation as well as the regional economy: “Visitors would spend money on train tickets, hotel rooms, food, and drink, and the Northern Pacific Railroad and brewer Henry Weinhard were among the biggest financial backers. They would also learn about the natural resources of the Northwest and recognize how close Portland was to the markets of East Asia, which were attracting attention after the recent U.S. acquisitions of Hawaii and the Philippines….

“The Lewis and Clark Exposition was a showcase for progress and people visited world's fairs to learn about scientific and technological advances. In Portland, they could take in moving picture shows, watch motorized blimps maneuver in the sky, cheer the winner of the first transcontinental auto race, and marvel at the power of electric lighting…. The Oriental Exhibits and Foreign Exhibits pavilions highlighted the possibilities of foreign trade, and Japan's million-dollar exhibit was the largest among the twenty-one participating nations” (10).

Central Vista, Lewis & Clark Centennial Expo, showing the Foreign Exhibits Building on the left and the Agricultural Palace on the right (11)

At the Agricultural Palace, Oregon counties showed off grain, fruit, canned goods, minerals, and myrtle wood furniture. The Forestry Building highlighted the potential of the Northwest lumber industry, while other buildings displayed the latest technical inventions, engineering marvels, scientific discoveries, and panoramas of western tourist sites such as Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Visitors could also enjoy views of nearby Mt. Saint Helens many years before it blew its top (which is the view Mike and I saw this past summer).

The Forestry Building, circa 1905 (12)

The interior of the Forestry Center, constructed from large old-growth timbers weighing up to 32 tons, as shown in this Oregon Historical Society photo (13)

For the price of admission (50¢ for adults/25¢ for children), visitors were able to “marvel at the wonders and technology of the day. They watched flying dirigibles. They saw dials register an unseen force called electricity on the Voltmeter. They heard scratchy, giddy recordings of their own voices created by the Dictaphone” (14). What must Frank and Nora have thought at seeing and hearing such wonders!

They and other visitors were also able to enjoy an amusement park, sideshows, concerts, motion pictures, blimp excursions, a wide variety of vendors, and numerous statues around the grounds. As it turns out, Mike and I saw one of those statues this summer in Portland’s Washington Park: Sacajawea and Jean-Baptiste. Sacajawea, of course, was the perfect person to honor at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition since she played such a huge role in their success.

The Sacajawea statue as it appeared in June 2024.

Photo by Tonya McQuade.

As I learned online, “The Sacajawea and Jean-Baptiste sculpture in Washington Park, Portland was funded by women, sculpted by a woman artist, and conceived to promote women’s suffrage…. The Colorado-based sculptor Alice Cooper constructed the statue with more than 20 tons of Oregon copper. It stood in the center of the Sunken Gardens on the grounds of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland. In April 1906, the statue was moved to Washington Park” (15).

One unique exhibit they may have run into was the "Baby Incubators" exhibit. As odd as it may sound, “babies in incubators were a common sideshow in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Premature infants could be found at world’s fairs and in permanent exhibitions…. But the babies weren’t there to be on display—they were there to fight for their lives with the help of an intrepid German man, Martin Couney. Couney used the most modern technology of his age, incubators, to keep preemies alive. But before his groundbreaking work, the technology was laughed at or dismissed by physicians” (16). 

Couney used the money he gained from these sideshows to pay for the babies’ medical care - keeping some babies on display for up to six months before releasing them to their families. You can read more at this link. I think Frank, as a doctor, would have found this especially interesting. I know that as part of his medical practice many years later in Hollywood, he helped deliver babies. In fact, he delivered my father as well as my aunts Donna and Mary when his daughter Margaret, my grandmother, gave birth! 

There are, unfortunately, no captions in Frank and Nora’s album under their photos from the Centennial Exposition, but it is clear that there were huge crowds at the fair when they attended. It’s likely these photos depict “The Trail,” an 800 foot-long street that featured amusements and carnival attractions. It looks like they were watching some sort of sideshow. I wish I had a clearer idea of what exactly these photos depict, but I’m sure they must have been amazed by all they took in.

From Portland, Frank and Nora journeyed further north into the state of Washington, where photos show them in both Tacoma and Seattle. Prior to being incorporated in 1875, Tacoma was inhabited by the Puyallup tribe and other indigenous peoples for thousands of years. At the time Frank and Nora visited, it had a population of about 37,700 and lacked the wealth of Seattle, which had benefited financially from the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush. Interestingly, the only photo from Tacoma in Frank and Nora’s album shows “Indians from Vancouver in camp,” so I’m not sure what they did while in Tacoma.

Indians from Vancouver in camp at Tacoma, Wash. During hop season.

Nora also mentions that it was “hop season,” which generally begins in early August and continues into early October. I found this especially interesting since Mike and I visited the American Hop Museum in Toppenish, Washington, last June and learned a lot about hop harvesting (something I had known absolutely nothing about before). About 75 percent of the nation's hop crop is grown in Washington. We also explored the murals in Toppenish – here is one that explains how Indians would come to the Yakima Valley from throughout the Northwest to help with the hop harvest.

We saw this mural when we were in Toppenish in late June (17).

The last stop Frank and Nora made in Washington was in Seattle – and the photo at the top of this post captures a huge smile on Nora’s face as they rode horses in Washington Park. Today, the 230-acre Washington Park – which became one of Seattle’s first parks in 1900 and was designed by the Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects firm between 1904 and 1939 – is home to the Arboretum, the Seattle Japanese Garden, a segment of Lake Washington Boulevard, a playfield, and playgrounds.

 

Washington Park, Seattle. Aug. 31, 1905.

When Frank and Nora visited, the park had some gardens, as seen in the photo with Nora above, and was home to a speedway for horse racing. In fact, “in the first decade of the twentieth century, The Meadows Race Track, south of Georgetown along the Duwamish River, was the premier venue in the Northwest for horse racing. The one-mile, dirt track also saw the Northwest's first automobile race in 1905 (as seen in the photo below) and its first demonstration of the airplane in 1910” (18).

Auto race at Meadows Race Track in Seattle

That first auto race, organized by the Seattle Automobile Club, took place on August 12, 1905 – less than three weeks before Frank and Nora were at the park. And, as I saw rather humorously reported, “Contrary to expectations no one was killed and no one injured. One machine caught fire and burned, and two others broke down" (19). I wonder if Frank and Nora saw an auto race while they were there. Wouldn’t that have been an amazing thing for them to watch?

Built in 1902, The Meadows seated 10,000 people in its grandstands; provided stalls for 1,000 horses in its stables; housed jockeys, trainers, and stable hands in their own quarters; featured “an opulent clubhouse catered to the wealthy,” and was “rated as one of the fastest tracks in the country” (20). 

Washington Park - Ready for the race.

We all got around the track.

Captions: Washington Park, Seattle, August 31, 1905

Ready for the race. / We all got around the track. / My! But this is fun!

Hold my steed while I get off. / On our bridal trip (the bridle is on the horse).

Clearly, Frank and Nora had a great time riding horses at Washington Park – and they rode horses again at Yellowstone National Park soon after! Stay tuned for more about Yellowstone in Part V of Frank and Nora’s Historic Honeymoon Trek … if you want to be sure not to miss out, subscribe to my email list by emailing me at tonyagrahammcquade@gmail.com.

Endnotes:

1. “The curious case of Mount Shasta's 1905 "Spasm" | U.S. Geological Survey.” USGS.gov, 24 January 2024, https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/calvo/news/curious-case-mount-shastas-1905-spasm.
2. Harrell, Ashley. “A religious group is strangling access to Calif.'s prettiest waterfall.” SFGATE, 23 September 2022, https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/most-beautiful-waterfall-california-17452293.php.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. “Southern Pacific train at Shasta Springs, Valley of the Sacramento, California.” H.C. White Co., c1905, https://lccn.loc.gov/93508145.
7. “Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Centennial_Exposition.
8. Abbott, Carl. “Lewis and Clark Exposition.” The Oregon Encyclopedia, 16 March 2022, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lewis_clark_exposition/.
9. “Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Centennial_Exposition.
10. Abbott, Carl. “Lewis and Clark Exposition.” The Oregon Encyclopedia, 16 March 2022, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lewis_clark_exposition/.
11. Flores, Trudy, and Sarah Griffith. “Central Vista, Lewis & Clark Centennial Expo.” Oregon History Project, https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/central-vista-lewis-amp-clark-centennial-expo/.
12. “Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Centennial_Exposition#/media/File:Forestry_Building_at_Lewis_and_Clark_Exposition.JPG.
13. Abbott, Carl. “Lewis and Clark Exposition.” The Oregon Encyclopedia, 16 March 2022, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lewis_clark_exposition/.
14. Tucker, Typh. “The world came to Portland.” The Spokesman-Review, 14 August 2005, https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2005/aug/14/the-world-came-to-portland/.
15. “The complicated history of the first monument to Sacajawea, funded by suffragists and designed by a woman.” The Art Newspaper, 26 August 2020, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/08/26/the-complicated-history-of-the-first-monument-to-sacajawea-funded-by-suffragists-and-designed-by-a-woman.

16. Blakemore, Erin. "Baby Incubators: From Boardwalk Sideshow to Medical Marvel." HISTORY, 12 September 2018, https://www.history.com/news/baby-incubators-boardwalk-sideshows-medical-marvels.

17. Ferolito, Phil. “When hops were picked by hand.” Yakima Herald, 19 Sept 2018, https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/lower_valley/when-hops-were-picked-by-hand/article_29e0356a-bc2d-11e8-a39a-efe46527add7.html.
18.  Wilma, David. “Meadows Race Track.” HistoryLink.org, 19 February 2001, https://www.historylink.org/File/2995.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.

An Historic Trek: The Amazing Honeymoon of W.F. Traughber and Nora Petree Traughber in 1905, Part III

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #44

By Tonya McQuade

San Francisco's Cliff House Restaurant and Seal Rocks, ca.1900 [1]

When I started these Wedding and Honeymoon Album posts, I certainly did not expect them to become a five-part endeavor, but it looks like that is what they are becoming. I’ve been having so much fun following in the footsteps of my great-grandparents William Francis “Frank” Traughber and Nora Elma Petree Traughber on their amazingly adventurous 1905 honeymoon and doing the research to learn more about the places they visited! It has been quite a history lesson.

In Part I, I wrote about their first stops on their honeymoon: Del Monte (Monterey), Pacific Grove, and Santa Cruz. In Part II, I described their adventures on Catalina Island and their return to San Jose before heading to San Francisco. In San Francisco, according to their album, they visited the Cliff House, Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers, Strawberry Hill, and Stow Lake to enjoy some views. As I looked into what they might have seen at these sights, though, I learned a lot of San Francisco history I never knew - and I have lived in the Bay Area for more than fifty years! 

One of Frank and Nora’s first San Francisco stops was at the Cliff House, which is a building I have driven past but never actually stopped to see. I had no idea it had such a storied history – or that the building that exists there now is not the one that existed in 1905. The Cliff House sits on the headland above the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach, in the northwest corner of San Francisco. Based on the photos in their honeymoon album, Nora seemed more interested in the scene on the beach than the actual Cliff House.

Captions: Cliff House, San Francisco, Cal. Aug. 26, 1905

A daily scene on the beach.

Here are closer up views of my favorite photos from the bunch.

The Cliff House itself, however, was quite a beautiful, impressive structure. The first Cliff House opened in 1863 and became a popular tourist destination, especially after the opening of the privately built Point Lobos toll road (now Geary Street) made it easy for carriages to get there. Guests visited to enjoy the ocean views, look at the sea lions sunning themselves on Seal Rocks just off the cliffs, and enjoy meals at the restaurant. Some came to race their horses at the two-mile speedway built adjacent to the Cliff House.

The First Cliff House as it appeared, with Sea Lion Rock in the background, c. 1868 [2]

That first Cliff House structure, however, “was severely damaged when the schooner Parallel, abandoned with burning oil lamps and a cargo including dynamite powder, exploded while aground at Lands End early in the morning of January 16, 1887. The blast was heard a hundred miles away and demolished the entire north wing of the tavern. The building was repaired, but was later completely destroyed by fire on Christmas night 1894 due to a defective flue. [Manager James. M.] Wilkins was unable to save the guest register, which included the signatures of three U.S. Presidents and dozens of world-famous visitors.” [3]

The Cliff House Frank and Nora would have seen is the one shown at the top of this post.  As the caption attached to the photo describes it, “The stately six-story Victorian structure is perched on the edge of the palisade overlooking the ocean. An elevated wooden walkway leading to it is visible at right. The seal rocks stick up in a mound out of the ocean in the distance at left. Seven people stand on the beach in the foreground.” [4] Interestingly, this same iteration of the Cliff House appeared on the cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s Imaginos album (not an album I’ve listened to, but a fun bit of trivia).

The cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s 1988 album “Imaginos” featured the 1896 Cliff House. [5]

This structure was built in 1896 by Adolph Sutro, who had made his fortune in silver in Nevada’s Comstock Lode. Called by some "the Gingerbread Palace," the new Cliff House sat below Sutro’s estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. That same year he also built the Sutro Baths in a small cove just north of the restaurant: “The baths included six of the large indoor swimming pools, a museum, a skating rink and other pleasure grounds. Great throngs of San Franciscans arrived on steam trains, bicycles, carts and horse wagons on Sunday excursions.” [6] 

• 

• The Sutro Baths, located north of Ocean Beach, c. 1896. Wikipedia Commons.

Sutro Baths interior, c. 1896. Wikipedia Commons.

• 
  

As described online, “During high tides, water would flow directly into the pools from the nearby ocean, recycling the two million US gallons (7,600 m3) of water in about an hour. During low tides, a powerful turbine water pump, built inside a cave at sea level, could be switched on from a control room and could fill the tanks at a rate of 6,000 US gallons a minute (380 L/s), recycling all the water in five hours.”  [7]

The 1896 Cliff House survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage, but burned to the ground in 1907. A fire also destroyed the Sutro Baths in 1966. While the Cliff House was eventually rebuilt, “all that remains of the [Sutro Baths] site are concrete walls, blocked-off stairs and passageways, and a tunnel with a deep crevice in the middle.” [8]

Sutro’s daughter had the Cliff House rebuilt in a neoclassical style, which is the basis for the structure still seen there today (though it has gone through many changes and additions over the years). The area at various times also featured a Playground-at-the-Beach, a "Sky Tram,” and the Musée Mécanique, which is now located at Fisherman’s Wharf and serves as a museum of 20th-century penny arcade games. Mike and I stumbled upon the Musée Mécanique during one of our visits to San Francisco and had fun checking out its more than 200 coin-operated fortune tellers, love testers, video games, music boxes, player pianos, peep shows, elaborate dioramas, automatons, Mutoscopes, and pinball machines.

In 1977, the Cliff House was taken over by the National Park Service and became part of the Golden Gate Park National Recreation Area. In 2003, during extensive renovations, many of the later additions – including the Musée Mécanique, which had been operating there since Playland closed in 1972 – were removed, and the building was restored to its 1909 appearance. [9]

• 
  

Cliffhouse from Ocean Beach, 2010. [10]

For all the years I have lived in the Bay Area and the many times I have visited San Francisco, including Golden Gate Park, I have never actually stopped at the Cliff House and had never heard of the Sutro Baths. I now have another destination to add to my list. The Cliff House closed in 2020 after 157 years in operation due to a combination of a lease lap and Covid, but it is set to reopen soon with three new restaurants (see this ABC News Report, with both a 2020 report on its closure and news of its reopening).

Another place I had never heard of that Frank and Nora visited is Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park, which occupies an entire island in one of the park's man-made lakes and is connected to the mainland of the park by two bridges. Named for the many wild strawberries that used to grow there, the island is covered with a variety of trees and shrubbery. Several trails and dirt steps encircle the island and lead to the top of the hill. Strawberry Hill’s summit measures more than 400 feet in height and offers great views of the surrounding area, including Mount Tamalpais and the Golden Gate Bridge (though that didn’t exist when Frank and Nora were there). Here is the view Frank and Nora saw when they were there.

A View of San Francisco from Strawberry Hill, Golden Gate Park, Aug. 26, ‘05.

They would have enjoyed this view, however, from Sweeny’s Observatory, a “mini-castle of red-tinted concrete,” dedicated on September 19, 1891, atop Strawberry Hill. The observatory took its name from Thomas U. Sweeny, who donated money for its construction.

 

As described online, “A gravel path wound up the hill to lead carriages between bastion towers into an oval of windows. Visitors had dozens of frames to enjoy the 360˚ view in slices. From a distance, the observatory appeared as a decorative crown on the hill or a half-collapsed fortification from antiquity. A glassed-in second story was added in 1892 to offer visitors a more elevated prospect. A plaque set in the crenelated entry arch read “Park Panorama, Gift of Thos. U. Sweeny, 1891.” [11]

So, why is this something I never saw during any of my visits to Golden Gate Park? Because it was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, which occurred less than eight months after Frank and Nora climbed to its observation deck. It was never rebuilt – though part of its foundation can still be seen today atop Strawberry Hill. I will definitely look for it when Mike and I finally make that climb.

The April 18, 1906 earthquake caused significant damage to Sweeny Observatory. [12]

Frank and Nora also enjoyed this lake view. The lake was originally called Stow Lake after William W. Stow, who was a State Assembly Member between 1854 and 1857 and served on San Francisco’s Park Commission in the 1890s. He also gave $60,000 for its construction. However, in January of 2024 (yes, this year!), San Francisco Recreation and Park commissioners voted to rename it Blue Heron Lake after concerns were raised about Stow’s anti-semitism. 

A lake on Strawberry Hill

According to a January press release, Stow was “an antisemite who openly wished to rid California of its Jewish population and attempted to tax Jews in order to discourage them from opening businesses.” The new name was chosen because “blue Herons nest on Stow Lake’s Strawberry Hill in April and May, and are a symbol of resilience, progress and evolution for the indigenous community.” [13] 

They most likely also enjoyed a view of Huntington Falls, a 110-foot tall artificial waterfall installed in Golden Gate Park that drops into the lake. It was the vision of Park Superintendent John McLaren, who decided to incorporate artificial lakes, waterways, and waterfalls in Golden Gate Park after hiking in the Sierras with famed naturalist John Muir, who is considered Father of the National Parks. 

A view across Stow Lake to Huntington Falls and Sweeny Observatory on 

Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park, 1894. [14]

 

The waterfall was named after railroad baron Collis Potter Huntington, who donated $25,000 to its construction. Yet another sight I have never seen! The falls, which began flowing in 1894, were designed to face the fairgrounds of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 in the Music Concourse. Clearly, the next time I visit Golden Gate Park, I need to go somewhere other than the De Young Museum, Japanese Tea Garden, the California Academy of Sciences, the Steinhart Aquarium, the Music Concourse, or the Conservatory of Flowers. 

Postcard Caption: Huntington Falls, Strawberry Hill, Golden Gate Park,

This waterfall was constructed at cost of over $30,000. Issued in 1905. [15]

Speaking of the Conservatory of Flowers, that was definitely another place that Frank and Nora visited since they included a photo from it in their album. The Conservatory, which opened in 1879, is the oldest building in Golden Gate Park and the oldest public wood-and-glass conservatory in North America. 

Historic view of the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, California, 1879. Wikipedia Commons.

According to what I read online, the Conservatory “houses some 1,700 species of aquatic and tropical plants, many of them rare, including a 100-year-old giant Imperial philodendron, a world-renowned collection of orchids, giant water lilies, and carnivorous plants. Special exhibits have included such popular favorites as the Butterfly Zone and the miniature garden railroad.” [16]

Nora standing in the Conservatory, Golden Gate Park.

They may have also visited the Japanese Tea Garden, which was originally created by George Turner Mash for 1894’s California Midwinter International Exposition. Most of the fair’s attractions surrounded the Grand Court, now the plaza between the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences, also known as the Music Concourse (built between 1896-1900). While most of the exhibits created for the fair were later destroyed, “People loved the tea garden so much that organizers left it when they demolished the rest of the fair. Later, a Japanese landscape architect named Makoto Hagiwara took over care of the garden, building it out and importing plants and animals to make it more authentic.” [17]

The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, circa 1894

I was also surprised to learn that the De Young Museum was built in 1895, so it’s possible they visited the museum. AND, it’s possible they even saw American bison in the park! Who knew? Apparently, “these huge, shaggy Great Plains denizens have been a beloved institution since 1892. Before San Francisco opened its first zoo in the 1930s, a menagerie of creatures were kept in Golden Gate Park, including elk, deer, bear, sheep, and bison. The herd’s first home was in the park’s eastern end, but in 1899 they were moved to the meadow where you see them today, just west of Spreckels Lake along John F. Kennedy Drive.” [18]

Whatever the case, Frank and Nora must have enjoyed their time in San Francisco and enjoyed the many sights along the way. From here, they hopped back on the train and headed through Northern California to Portland, Oregon, to enjoy the “Lewis and Clark Centennial” World’s Fair.

But more on that in Part IV … if you want to be sure not to miss out, subscribe to my email list by emailing me at tonyagrahammcquade@gmail.com.

Endnotes:

1. “Cliff House, San Francisco.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_House,_San_Francisco#/media/File:San_Francisco's_Cliff_House_Restaurant_and_Seal_Rocks,_ca.1900_(CHS-4756)_crop.jpg.
2. “Cliff House, San Francisco.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_House,_San_Francisco#/media/File:Sea_Lion_Rock,_the_Cliff_House,_San_Francisco_LACMA_M.91.359.74.jpg.
3. "Cliff House, San Francisco.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_House,_San_Francisco.
4. “Cliff House, San Francisco.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_House,_San_Francisco#/media/File:San_Francisco's_Cliff_House_Restaurant_and_Seal_Rocks,_ca.1900_(CHS-4756)_crop.jpg.
5. King, Stephen, and Bryce Van Patten. “Imaginos.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginos.
6. “Sutro Baths.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Baths. 
7. Ibid. 
8. Ibid.
9. Cliff House, San Francisco.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_House,_San_Francisco.

10. Inaglory, Brocken. “Cliff House from Ocean Beach.” Wikipedia Commons, 22 Nov 2010, 

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cliff_House_from_Ocean_Beach_crop.jpg.

11. LaBounty, Woody. “Sweeny's Observatory - Golden Gate Park.” San Francisco Story, 13 September 2023, https://www.sanfranciscostory.com/sweenys-observatory/.

12. Ibid.
13. “Golden Gate Park's Stow Lake Renamed Blue Heron Lake.” San Francisco Recreation and Parks, 18 January 2024, https://sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1696.
14. Bourn, Jennifer. “Huntington Falls, Strawberry Hill Island At Stow Lake, Golden Gate Park.” Inspired Imperfection, 30 August 2016, https://inspiredimperfection.com/adventures/huntington-falls-strawberry-hill-stow-lake/.
15. Gardner, Louise. “Huntington Falls, Strawberry Hill, Golden Gate Park | San Diego State University Digital Collections.” SDSU Syllabus Collection, 10 May 2024, https://digitalcollections.sdsu.edu/do/cf751860-6389-49f4-91b6-cceef74bca84#page/1.
16. “Golden Gate Park Points of Interest.” San Francisco Recreation and Parks, https://sfrecpark.org/1116/Golden-Gate-Park-Points-of-Interest.
17. “The Complicated Origins of SF's Beloved Japanese Tea Garden.” KQED, 1 June 2022, https://www.kqed.org/news/11915583/the-japanese-tea-garden-a-beloved-s-f-landmark-with-a-troubling-past.
18. “Parks and Facilities • Bison Paddock.” San Francisco Recreation and Parks, https://sfrecpark.org/facilities/facility/details/Bison-Paddock-224.