Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition
Processing Information
System of Arrangement
Administrative History
Scope and Contents
Indexing Terms
Indexing Terms
Title: Stern Grove Festival Association records
Date: 1931-1984
Collection Identifier: MS 2063
Creator:
Stern Grove Festival
Association (San Francisco, Calif.)
Extent:
26 boxes, 17 oversize boxes (16 linear feet)
Repository:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite. Photographs
are shelved separately under the call number MSP 2063.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in
English.
Abstract: Consists of correspondence; financial records and
reports; planing committee minutes; San Francisco Recreation Commission records;
concert records, programs, and posters; scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings
and ephemera; and photographs, all of which were created or collected by the Stern
Grove Festival Association (SGFA) between the years 1931 and 1984. Collection
materials document the inception, administration, and activities of the SGFA, and
the history of the open-air concerts produced by the organization in San Francisco
since 1932. Significant figures represented include past SGFA presidents Rosalie
Meyer Stern, Elise S. Haas, and Rhoda H. Goldman; San Francisco Superintendent of
Recreation Josephine D. Randall; and conductor Arthur Fielder. The collection also
contains professional photographs of performances by groups such as the San
Francisco Ballet and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, some of which were taken
by Gabriel Moulin Studios.
Access
Publication Rights
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials
must be submitted in writing to the Director of Library and Archives, North Baker
Research Library, California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco,
CA 94105. Consent is given on behalf of the California Historical Society as the
owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from
the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of
digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Stern Grove Festival Association records, MS 2063,
California Historical Society.
Acquisition
The records of the Stern Grove Festival Association were placed on permanent loan
with the California Historical Society beginning in 1955, with additions made every
five years. The last deposit was made in 1984.
Processing Information
The collection was reprocessed and additions incorporated by Megan Hickey Nespeco in
2012.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged in seven series: 1) Correspondence; 2) Financial records
and reports; 3) Planning committee minutes; 4) San Francisco Recreation Commission;
5) Concerts; 6) Scrapbooks; and 7) Photographs. Some correspondence related to
specific financial records is filed with Financial records and reports (Series 2);
and some programs documenting specific concerts can be found in Scrapbooks (Series
6). Within each series, materials are arranged in chronological order.
Administrative History
In 1931 Rosalie Meyer Stern purchased a historic parcel of land situated at the
intersection of Sloat Boulevard and 19th Avenue in the southwestern portion of San
Francisco. This twelve-acre tract was the only undeveloped area left on the former
160-acre Greene family ranch, homesteaded in 1849. Located on the property was the
Trocadero Inn, built in 1892. The inn enjoyed a reputation during the 1890s as a
fashionable recreation and picnic spot for prominent San Franciscans. The Trocadero,
as it was then called, offered such diversions as fishing and boating on a
spring-fed lake, as well as food and lodging. By 1906, however, the inn began to
lose its appeal and gradually acquired an unsavory reputation. The inn finally
closed in 1916 and it was not until Rosalie Stern purchased the ranch that the inn
regained its original splendor.
Because of her long involvement in the city's recreational program, Mrs. Stern
established the Sigmund Stern Recreational Fund in memory of her husband. Under the
auspices of this organization, she offered her newly acquired property to the City
of San Francisco as a recreational facility. The donation, however, was contingent
upon acceptance of several conditions by the City concerning the future use of the
park. These stipulations were: (1) that the land be used solely and exclusively for
recreational purposes; (2) that the land be under the jurisdiction and control of
the Playground Commission of San Francisco (Mrs. Stern was president of this
commission for many years); and (3) that, if the land ever ceased to be used for
recreational activities, the property would revert back to the Sigmund Stern
Recreational Fund.
Mrs. Stern and the five trustees of the Sigmund Stern Recreation Fund also made two
requests of the City: that the recreational activities to be conducted on the land
should include music, dramatics, and pageantry; and that the Playground Commission
(later the Recreation Department) consult with the Trustees of the Fund concerning
the general scope and character of the recreational activities to be conducted on
the property. The City of San Francisco, under direction of Mayor Angelo Rossi,
agreed to accept both the land and the criteria under which it was offered. The
result was a city-owned and operated park in which music, dramatic productions, and
dance were staged under the sponsorship of the Stern Grove Recreational Fund. Under
Rosalie Stern's guidance, the Fund underwrote the cost of these productions at the
Grove's outdoor stage. The stage itself, situated in a natural amphitheatre-like
valley on the property, had been designed at Mrs. Stern's request by architect
William Merchant, Bernard Maybeck's partner.
June 4, 1932 marked the inauguration of Stern Grove and the first formal concert was
given fifteen days later. By the summer of 1938, the popularity of concerts in the
Grove led Rosalie Stern and the Board of Trustees of the Fund to sponsor a concert
series called the Midsummer Musicals. The series, consisting of twelve programs
given every Sunday between July and September, ranged from orchestral music to jazz.
This first summer concert series was highly successful with over 4,000 in attendance
per concert. The Midsummer series has been produced by the Stern Grove Festival
Association every summer since 1938.
In 1940, Rosalie Stern organized the Allied Relief Benefit Concert to help raise
funds for Great Britain's war effort. Famed conductor Bruno Walter and singer
Kerstin Thorborg performed. The concert was highly successful and prominent San
Franciscans donated over $6,000. During the difficult years of the Depression, a
concerned Mrs. Stern utilized the services of numerous unemployed musicians. She
also encouraged the use of WPA workers to help with the initial landscaping of Stern
Grove.
By 1942, the Sigmund Stern Recreation Fund was incorporated as a nonprofit California
corporation under the name of the Sigmund Stern Grove Musical Festival Committee.
The organization's name was changed to the Sigmund Stern Grove Music Festival
Association in August of 1944, and to its present form, the Stern Grove Music
Festival Association, on March 18, 1959.
The summer concert series has attracted a number of prominent artists, including
Bruno Walter, Isaac Stern, Arthur Fiedler, Pete Seeger, and the Preservation Jazz
Band. Until her death in 1956, Rosalie Stern not only coordinated and arranged these
concerts, but, as President of the Trustees of the Fund, either personally financed
or raised the money to fund every concert series since 1938. Following her death,
her daughter Elise Haas (whose name often appears in the collection as Mrs. Walter
A. Haas) assumed this responsibility. By 1963, the complexity of scheduling,
finances, and publicity resulted in the hiring of Lucy Eastlund as Executive
Secretary. Elise Haas and her secretary, along with the Board of Trustees, ran the
organization until the early 1970s, at which time the presidency was transferred to
Mrs. Haas' daughter Rhoda Goldman (Rhoda F. Haas).
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of correspondence; financial records and reports; planing
committee minutes; San Francisco Recreation Commission records; concert records,
programs, and posters; scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings and ephemera; and
photographs, all of which were created or collected by the Stern Grove Festival
Association (SGFA) between the years 1931 and 1984. Collection materials document
the inception, administration, and activities of the SGFA, and the history of the
open-air concerts produced by the organization in San Francisco since 1932.
Significant figures represented include past SGFA presidents Rosalie Meyer Stern,
Elise S. Haas, and Rhoda H. Goldman; San Francisco Superintendent of Recreation
Josephine D. Randall; and conductor Arthur Fielder.
Correspondence (Series 1, 1932-1984) includes letters between festival organizers and
musicians, conductors, performers, agents, dance and theatre companies, and the San
Francisco Musicians Union, Local 6; as well as letters documenting fundraising
activities and support from individuals and corporations. Significant correspondents
include photographer Ansel Adams and festival performers such as conductor Arthur
Fiedler.
Financial records and reports (Series 2, 1932-1984) comprise SGFA season reports and
weekly records, records of disbursement of funds and concert revenues, and donation
information. This series also contains correspondence about finances. Planning
Committee minutes (Series 3, 1938-1984) contain the minutes of the SGFA board and
provide detailed information about festival policy and planning issues, finances,
and performances.
The Concerts series (Series 5, 1932-1984) includes broadsides, posters, and other
material created to promote specific concerts, along with programs, reports, and
newspaper clippings documenting the events. Significant performers represented in
this series include conductors Pierre Monteux and Arthur Fiedler; founder of the San
Francisco Opera, Gaetano Merola; and founder of the San Francisco Municipal Chorus,
Hans Lescke. Sixteen scrapbooks (Series 6, 1932-1972) contain newspaper clippings
from the
San Francisco Chronicle and
San Francisco Examiner about the summer concert series,
in addition to some concert programs.
The collection also includes records of the San Francisco Recreation Commission
(Series 4, 1932-1941), which were not produced directly by the Stern Grove Festival
Association, but relate to the SGFA through Rosalie Stern's work as President of the
Commission (Mrs. Stern presided over both organizations concurrently). These records
consist of correspondence with various city officials, including letters by
Josephine D. Randall, who was a significant figure in the development of the San
Francisco park system. Minutes of the Recreation Commission are also included and
outline Mrs. Stern's efforts to expand the San Francisco parks and recreation
program.
Photographs (Series 7, 1946-1983) mostly consist of professional photographs of Stern
Grove performances. Some of these pictures were published in the
San Francisco Chronicle and
San
Francisco Examiner
; others were taken by Gabriel Moulin Studios.
Snapshots of concerts and a Stern family studio portrait are also included.
In addition to the records of the SGFA, the collection contains a folder of secondary
material documenting the history of the Association, including an article about
Rosalie Meyer Stern (photocopied from the
California
Historical Society Quarterly
, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 184-187); several
papers describing the growth and development of Stern Grove and the summer concert
series; and an essay titled, "The History Apertaining to Trocodero."
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog:
Fielder, Arthur, 1894-1979.
Gabriel Moulin Studios.
Goldman, Rhoda H., d. 1996.
Haas, Elise S. , 1893-1990.
Randall, Josephine D.
San Francisco (Calif.). Recreation
Commission.
San Francisco Ballet.
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Stern, Rosalie Meyer, 1869-1956.
Concerts--California--San Francisco.
Parks--California--San Francisco.
Financial records.
Programs.
Scrapbooks.
Indexing Terms
This index is derived from a list of added entries in the legacy finding aid for the
Stern Grove Festival Association records. Names and subject headings are
unauthorized.
- Alder, Kurt Herbert
- Albert, Alexander
- Allen, William Duncan
- Arrieta, Marti
- Bender, Albert M.
- Bissinger, Paul S.
- Boone, Philip S.
- Brakebill, Harry
- Bruce, Starr
- Caverly, Joseph M.
- Chamberlain, Selah
- Concerts
- Cox, Mary Elenor
- Donnell, Mrs. Dewey
- Glenn Dr.
- Eastlund, Elizabeth F. (Lisa)
- Elkus, Albert I, Professor
- Escabosa, Hector
- Friedman, James
- Funke, Max G.
- Garcia, Alfred B.
- Ghirardelli, D. Lyle
- Goldman, Rhoda H.
- Haas, Elise F.
- Haas, Peter E.
- Haas, Walter A.
- Haas, Walter A. Jr.
- Hare, Nathan
- Harris, Thomas
- Heller, Elizabeth
- Johns, Roy C.
- Jorda, Enrique
- Joseph, Sydney Mrs.
- Kendrick, Charles
- Koshland, Marcus S.
- Koshland, Daniel E.
- Kimbell, Raymond
- Knuth, William Dr.
- Lilienthal, Philip N. Jr.
- Lilienthal, Ruth Haas
- Lewis, David E.
- Lyckfors, Erik K.
- McDevitt, Edward
- McKanna, J Fenton Dr.
- McKinnon, Katherine Duer Stoney
- Meade, William
- Merchant, William Gladstone
- Merola, Gaetano
- Meyer, Otto E.
- Middione, Lisa Eastlund
- Mid-Summer Music Festival
- Miller, Robert Watt
- Molnar, Ferenc
- Moore, Joseph A. Jr.
- Mosgrove, Alicia
- Mulcrevy, Dorothy
- Murry, Earl Bernard
- Music festivals
- Musicians Union, Local No. 6
- Nathe, Al H.
- Operas
- Oppenheimer, Selby C. Mrs.
- Orrick, William H., Jr.
- Parks-San Francisco
- Ozawa, Seiji
- Parr, Fred D.
- Pilcher, Will
- Plant, David N.
- Powell, Stanley
- Randall, Josephine D.
- Rossi, Angelo J.
- Roth, William M.
- Russell, Mrs. Hass
- Salkind, Milton
- San Francisco Ballet
- San Francisco Recreation Commission
- San Francisco Recreation Department
- San Francisco Youth Symphony Association
- Sanguinetti, Alfred
- Scafidi, Joseph
- Schwabacher, James H., Jr.
- Simon, Louis F.
- Skinner, Howard K.
- Sorenson, Kurt D.
- Stern, Rosalie Meyer
- Theater, Open Air-San Francisco
- Thompson, Jean
- Trefethen, E. E., Jr.
- Trocadero Inn-San Francisco
- Watt, Mrs. Robert
- Weil, Michel D.
- White, Albert
- Wollenberg, Lucile