Tag: San Francisco

Postcards from Around the World

Established in 1776, the Presidio of San Francisco has existed as a military fortification under Spanish, Mexican, and American rule. It became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1994 when it was transferred to the National Park Service from the Army.

Barracks (Bldgs. 86–87, 1862, 2nd storey 1885) Graham Street

The Main Post is the heart of the Presidio where the  oldest existing buildings are found.

Guardhouse (Bldg. 210, 1900) is now the Presidio Visitor Centre (2017)
Fire Station (Bldg. 218, 1917)

In the 1890s, the Army built substantial brick barracks to house troops. They had heating, indoor plumbing, kitchens, rec rooms, and even space for tailors and barbers. The Main Parade Ground (now lawn) was constructed alongside so the soldiers could conduct drills and exercises. Today, the barracks have been reimagined as workplaces for a variety of organisations including the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Enlisted Men’s Barracks (Bldg. 104, 1895–97)

Since 1997 the Presidio Trust has been busy renovating historic buildings in the park and a lot has changed since my visit there in 2010. It is an interesting place to visit and there is a shuttle bus that can take you all around the park.

Postcards from Around the World

Sausalito is a city in Marin County, California, across the Golden Gate Strait from San Francisco. Whilst in San Francisco it is fun to take a ferry over to Sausalito or Tiburon where you can get great views back  across the bay and enjoy brunch overlooking the water.

As in the previous post this photo also refers back to that famous 1915 Expo. Close to the ferry port in downtown Sausalito is Viña del Mar Park, a small triangle-shaped park offering benches & grassy areas, and known for its elephant statues & fountain that were commissioned by William B. Faville for his ‘Court of the Universe’ complex in the 1915 Expo. He couldn’t bear to see them destroyed after the expo so had two of the elephants and a fountain shipped over to his Sausalito home. Obviously since they were made of  Papier-mâché the ones you see now are replicas.

Sausalito is a good place from which to rent bikes (including electric) to ride over the Golden Gate bridge and on to the ferry terminal to return.

Postcards from Around the World

Leaving Europe behind for now let’s go to San Francisco. A city I have visited on several occasions, but there are still bits and pieces that haven’t been on the blog.

When I visited the iconic Palace of Fine Arts back in 2010 it was about to undergo a renovation. With its Greco-Roman rotunda and colonnades it is an impressive building and I am glad that it is now used for corporate events, private parties and weddings. With improved landscaped gardens and the pretty lagoon, it is a perfect place for a celebration.

The Romanesque structure was designed by architect Bernard R. Maybeck for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a world’s fair that celebrated the Panama Canal’s opening—and gave San Francisco a chance to shine after its devastating 1906 earthquake.

Today’s Palace duplicates the original, with a soaring colonnade and bas-relief urns, domed ceiling with allegorical paintings, and Corinthian columns topped with female figures draped in togas, their weeping faces turned away to symbolize “the melancholy of life without art.”

If you want to know more about San Francisco then please visit my older (and much longer) post about the city here.