John McLaren (park superintendent)

John McLaren (park superintendent)

Dr John Hays McLaren (1846 – 1943) served as superintendent of the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA for 53 years.

Born at Bannockburn, near Stirling in Scotland, [ [http://www.tartanday.org/greatscots.htm "The creator of the garden of the Golden Gate, San Francisco, John McLaren was born in Bannockburn, Stirlingshire"] , Great Scots in America, tartanday.org] and worked as a dairyman before studying horticulture at the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens where he worked as an apprentice gardener's helper. He planted grasses anchoring the beach dunes along the Firth of Forth then emigrated to the United States in 1870 and worked on the George Howard estate in the San Mateo foothills, then on the Leland Stanford estate in Palo Alto and planted trees on the Coyote Point on the shore of the Bay.

He was friends with John Muir, and dedicated his life to vigorous advocacy and development of the 100,000 acre Golden Gate Park, one of the largest public parks in the world, using considerable political skill in addition to his remarkable gardening skill. Appointed Park Superintendent in 1887, he requested thirty thousand dollars a year for park building. One of John McLaren's stipulations before taking the superintendent job was, "There will be no 'Keep off the Grass" signs." His horticultural philosophy was to achieve a natural look, typified in his dislike for statuary, calling them "stookies" and planting trees and shrubs to hide them. He built two windmills to pump water to his park and had the sweepings from San Francisco streets delivered as fertilizer. When ocean waves and wind piled sand on the west end of the park, he began a forty year effort to pile branches, clippings and laths on the shore to capture sand and build the great berm that now holds the Great Highway.

He had a shrewd and aggressive style of management but was so highly respected that, at the age of 70, he was given lifetime tenure over the park and his salary doubled. An avenue in the Seacliff District of San Francisco was named after him during his lifetime, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of California at Berkeley. He is credited with planting two million trees during his lifetime. The McLaren Park in the southern part of San Francisco is named after John McLaren, as is McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park, where he lived until his death. East Bay's Tilden Park also has a meadow named after him. A small statue of McLaren was erected in the park which he had hidden away only to be discovered after his death.

After his death at the age of 96, McLaren's body lay in state in the San Francisco City Hall Rotunda. Afterwards, the funeral cortege drove his casket through Golden Gate Park as a special honor.

ources

Dickson, Samuel "Tales of San Francisco" Stanford Uiversity Press 1947 LC # 57-9306

External links

* [http://www.rpts.tamu.edu/Pugsley/McLaren.htm Pugsley Silver Medal Biography]

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • John McLaren — is the name of several people:*John McLaren (park superintendent) (1846 ndash;1943), built Golden Gate Park *John McLaren (politician) (1831 ndash;1910), Scottish Liberal MP and judge *John McLaren (cricketer) (1886 ndash;1921), Australian… …   Wikipedia

  • Golden Gate Park — Infobox park park=Golden Gate Park image size=400px caption=An aerial view (facing south) of Golden Gate Park from The Panhandle (at far left edge of picture) to the Pacific Ocean type=Municipal (San Francisco) location=San Francisco size=1017… …   Wikipedia

  • Lithia Park — Infobox nrhp name = Lithia Park nrhp type = caption = Lithia Park green location = Ashland, Jackson County, Oregon nearest city = lat degrees = 42 lat minutes = 11 lat seconds = 24.1 lat direction = N long degrees = 122 long minutes = 43 long… …   Wikipedia

  • San Francisco Unified School District — Type and location Type Public Established 1851 Country United States …   Wikipedia

  • Conservatory of Flowers — Golden Gate Park Conservatory U.S. National Register of Historic Places …   Wikipedia

  • William Hammond Hall — (1846 in Hagerstown, Maryland, United States of America 1934) was a civil engineer who was the first State Engineer of California, and designed Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA.After serving with the U.S. army engineers in the Civil War,… …   Wikipedia

  • 2000 New Year Honours — The insignia of the Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George: Andrew Wood was awarded the Grand Cross in this Honours list. The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year… …   Wikipedia

  • 1990 New Year Honours — Contents 1 United Kingdom 1.1 Life Peers 1.2 Privy Counsellors 1.3 Knights Bachelor 1.4 Order of the …   Wikipedia

  • Church of the Nazarene — Not to be confused with Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarene). Church of the Nazarene Seal of the Church of the Nazarene Classification Protestant Orientation Evangel …   Wikipedia

  • Plymouth Brethren — The Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s.[1][2] Although the group is notable for not taking any official church name to itself, and not having an… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”