Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Woodward's Gardens collection
- Dates:
- 1872-1877, Date acquired: 01/01/1917
- Language:
- English Latin
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item] Woodward's Gardens collection, 1872-1877, M000020, Sutro Library, California State Library, San Francisco, Calif.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of three series:
Series 1 contains correspondence to Robert B. Woodward (although some are addressed to others at Woodward's Gardens) about possible donations or sale of items and animals to the Woodward's Gardens' collections. Many of the letters have Woodward's draft replies penciled on them.
Series 2 contains handwritten file cards with biblographic information on books acquired by Adolph Sutro from Woodward's Gardens.
Series 3 consists of one oversize drawing of the Garden's rotunda.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Robert B. Woodward was born in Rhode Island in 1824, came to California in 1849, and four years later opened a hotel called the What Cheer House on Sacramento Street in San Francisco. The success of this hotel enabled Woodward to buy a plot of land on Mission Street for his estate, on which he built a house and filled the property with plants, animals and art. He eventually opened his estate to the public, which he named "Woodward's Gardens" and moved his family to Napa. Woodward opened his four-acre former country estate in 1865 or 1866, and San Franciscans flocked to this botanical gardens/amusement park.
Woodward's Gardens contained a museum, a zoo, an aquarium, a "rotary boat," and a 5000-seat pavilion. It became the site for such events as balloon ascensions, and was popular with San Franciscans because of it's relaxed country setting, its family-oriented entertainment, and its accessibility via the horsecars of R. B. Woodward's City Railroad Company along with the Sutter Street Railroad's fabled "balloon cars." Following Robert B. Woodward's death in 1879, the Woodward's Gardens property passed to his heirs, who did not maintain it to its previous standards. After his children reached adulthood, Woodward's estate was contested in court, resulting in an even distribution among his heirs meaning that the Gardens would not remain open. By then such locations as Golden Gate Park and the Cliff House had replaced Woodward's as San Franciscans' favored weekend destinations. Woodward's Gardens closed late in 1891. In April 1893 its collections were auctioned, a large percentage of which went to Adolph Sutro. The following year the remaining buildings, except the pavilion, were razed, the land was subdivided, and residences were built on the property. Woodward's Pavilion, however, remained a popular venue for boxing matches and other events until the 1906 disaster.
- Acquisition information:
- Adolph Sutro bought these papers and many books from the Woodward's Gardens at Auction.
- Arrangement:
-
The original order was not known at the time of the collection's processing in 2019. Aged glue stains appear on the backs of the letters implying that they could have been bound together and glued into a book but it is unknown if the order was by date, subject or alphabetical. Currently, the collection is arranged by alphabetical order.
- Physical description:
- 5 manuscript boxes and one map folder
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research. Please page materials three business days in advance of your visit by email: sutro@library.ca.gov .
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights reside with the repository. Any applicable literary rights would reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please email sutro@library.ca.gov .
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item] Woodward's Gardens collection, 1872-1877, M000020, Sutro Library, California State Library, San Francisco, Calif.
- Location of this collection:
-
SFSU - J. Paul Leonard Library1630 Holloway Ave, Room 610San Francisco, CA 94132-4030, US
- Contact:
- (415) 469-6100