Central Park

Location: 8th Street from Market to Mission.

Central Park was a baseball park seating about 15,000 built in 1884 at Market/8th, directly across Market from City Hall. Williams Jennings Bryan addressed a crowd of about 6,000 at Central Park on 7/07/1897, reported in the San Francsico Chronicle on 7/08/1897 and shown in stereogram Keystone 5061 below (click here for crosseyed viewing; note the two men sitting on a beam at center top). The S.F. Seals played at Central Park from their inception in 1903 through 1906. The wooden stadium was destroyed by the fire that followed the earthquake on 4/18/1906.

Central Park was sometimes called Recreation Park, not to be confused with Recreation Grounds (Harrison/26th/Folsom/25th, 1886-1884), Haight Street Recreation Grounds (Stanyan/Waller/Cole/Frederic, 1886-1895), Recreation Park (14th/Valencia/15th/Guerrero, 1907-1930), or the present Big Rec (9th/Lincoln in Golden Gate Park).

Images:

g0410.png centralpark4.png centralpark2.png centralpark3.png

Stereoviews:

keystone_5061.png

See also:

Back to San Francisco Buildings page