Found Remnants / Landscaping

---

Arriving at the Moorish-Gothic stone structure (the present day McLaren Lodge, located at the entrance to Golden Gate Park) which had served as both home and office for John McLaren since its completion in 1896, they were invited inside by Mrs. McLaren. During the course of the convivial evening that followed, Mr. and Mrs. McLaren were presented with a slender, custom made, heavily engraved silver vase in commemoration of McLaren’s outstanding achievements as landscape designer for the PPIE.

McLaren’s beautification efforts on behalf of the Exposition were truly gargantuan though his contribution is seldom given much attention today. Easily the most original and memorable of his designs was the impressive front fence covered in ice-plant which gave the appearance of a vertical lawn. Planted in an earth impregnated mesh stretched over a 30 foot high double-sided wooden framework measuring 5 feet thick, the green translucence of this succulent became even more spectacular when accentuated by the bright metallic luster of its blossoms. This massive fence ran for more than a thousand feet along the city side of the Exposition.

The enormous scale of the planting he envisioned can be gathered by a partial recounting of the orders sent to Japan, England, Holland, and Belgium in June of 1914. The flowers requested included 7,000 rhododendrons, 200,000 daffodil bulbs, 158,000 tulip bulbs, 45,000 anemones, 23,000 buttercups, 15,000 hyacinths, 35,000 iris, 30,000 narcissus, 9,000 lilacs, and 3,000 azaleas. These were in addition to thousands of other plants obtained from every part of America. That the European countries, who’d gone to war at the end of July 1914, were able to fill these orders is truly remarkable even from this distant vantage.

Alternating date and fan palm trees lined both sides of the Avenue of Palms which ran along the south side of the main exhibit compound. On its east side, stretching along either side of the Avenue of Progress, stood 35 foot tall Monterey cypress. These were also planted along the north facade. Opposite this frontice were the so called North Gardens (preserved as today’s Marina Green), a large lawn which served a variety of functions including acting as a landing field for many of the aviation exhibitions.

Administration Avenue, on the west side of the main exhibit complex, was lined with tall eucalyptus trees many of which were found already standing on the site. Here too could be found one of McLaren’s greatest successes, the landscaping around the lagoon and collonade of the Palace of Fine Arts. The plantings here were so artfully arranged that they gave the impression of never having been planted at all, but seemed to have simply grown up naturally through eons of time.

Of course, all the courts were adorned with flowering plants and a variety of trees no more so than the Court of Abundance. A survey of the planting in this court is illustrative of how thoroughly each was decorated. 120 Italian cypress 20 feet tall were arrayed around the cloister which encircled it. Inside these were 240 Irish yews adding their dark green hue to the scene. The side beds held 60 fruit bearing orange trees in planter boxes. These stood 12 to 14 feet high with heads trimmed into spheres 10 feet in diameter. The beds about the Fountain of Earth were carpeted with the violet hue of the viola cornuta complimented by the rose red of hyacinths. After their season, the hyacinths were replaced with red tulips. Planting beds throughout the Exposition were re-planted with seasonal varieties on at least three occasions during the nine month run of the fair.

A sketch such as this can only give a poor sense of the many different impressions McLaren’s landscape design helped to create and accentuate. Unfortunately, color photography had not come into its own by 1915. While there are a few “autochrome” images which picture some of the landscaping, these completely fail to capture the profusion of color and infinite variety contained in the numerous environments of McLaren’s designs.

The silver vase given to McLaren and his wife by the Bohemian Club is now in the collection of the San Francisco History Center of the San Francisco Public Library. It is occasionally exhibited in the showcases located inside their sixth floor premises.