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World Honored Park’s Gardener (Last part)
Thursday, January 28, 1943 The Call-Bulletin today presents the final chapter of the late J Lawrence Tool’e intimate biography of Uncle John McLaren, veteran park superintendent and “father” of Golden Gate Park. By J. Lawrence Toole With a fervor of affection and gratitude, San Francisco for decades celebrated the natal day of John McLaren, “father” of its public parks. Underlying each succeeding civic observance of the day was the sentiment expressed many years ago by the late James Rolph Jr. As mayor and spokesman for the city: “Life in San Francisco has been better and more beautiful since the coming of John McLaren.” The sentence expressed in a few words…
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S.F. Regarded “Unlovely City” Until — McLaren Put Beauty in Parks and Streets (Part 12)
Wednesday, January 27, 1943 The Call-Bulletin presents, herewith, the twelfth of a series of articles describing the life and work of Uncle John McLaren, “father” of Golden Gate Park. The articles were written by the late J. Lawrence Toole, noted San Francisco newspaperman. By J. Lawrence Toole The San Francisco John McLaren saw in the early ’80s when he drove up from one or other of his tree-planting jobs in San Mateo, was a rather unlovely city. Around it, of course, just as they had been, possibly, since time began, were the bay and the mountains and the ocean, but within its incomparable setting the young city itself seems to…
