Remember the “earthquake-resistant” observatory in the Golden Gate Park that fell in 15 years

Thomas U. Sweeny might be the first person to have a Golden Gate Park landmark named after him, and he was definitely the first to make an offer.

Sweeney, who amassed a fortune from gold prospecting and real estate purchases at Inner Sunset in San Francisco, presented himself as a humble man of the people at a party devoted 130 years ago to his newly built panoramic view atop Strawberry Hill: Sweeney Observatory.

With a band playing that day in September 1891, Sweeney told the crowd that he had come to the California mines 40 years ago “dead bankrupt”, where he paid tribute to himself and the observatory’s engineers and builders in the shape of a horseshoe.

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A tree grows from the base of the remnants of the Sweeney Observatory atop Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 8, 2021. The observatory was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATES Show moreShow less 2of3

After the Sweeney Observatory collapsed in an earthquake in 1906, people came to take pictures in the rubble for years afterward. Such a pair was pictured around 1910.

Courtesy of John Freeman

The Park Commission chair, WW Stowe, was there to attribute to Sweeney the “greatness” of the gift he gave to the people, and former Mayor Frank McCobin gave a fake letter about the benefactor to them.

“I hope this remains undisturbed, long after the deaths of those who look at it now,” McCobin said. “ From now on, throughout the ages, it will attract the attention of people who enter the Golden Gate, and upon inquiry they will learn that in this vicinity lives a man who loves to look at the beauty of nature, especially the mountains and the ocean, and he finds that he can best satisfy this desire when standing On this hill, he was determined to adapt it as you see it now, for the benefit of his countrymen. “

Sweeney, which was said to be “completely earthquake proof,” only lasted 15 years. Devastated by an earthquake in 1906, its most enduring legacy becomes a photograph for visitors to the park to climb on and smile as they stand on the rubble for decades to come.

According to San Francisco Chronicle legend Herb Cain, it was also a popular makeup spot for a while.

In this 1895 photo, we can see the small pond in front of the entrance to the Sweeney Observatory. The name Thomas Yu Sweeney is on the board above. (Image: OpenSFHistory / wnp27.7746.jpg)

OpenSFHistory / wnp27.7746.jpg

John Freeman, a San Francisco native and local historian, told SFGATE that the Sweeney Observatory was never built to last, describing it as “a terrible monument to Thomas Sweeney’s vanity.”

Today, some visitors walk through the ruins of Strawberry Hill without being recognized. It’s hard to spot, but a single piece of concrete with exposed rebar serves as a seat, while a large tree grows from some reddish-stone remnants. Other pieces are used near the retaining wall.

The 75 by 100-foot observatory, surrounded by glass and resembling a European amphitheater, was remarkable for its time. A recently uploaded photo of her to OpenSFHistory, dated around 1900, shocked this writer as something outside the Death Hall of the Ancient Justice League cartoons.

From another angle, you can see two 35-foot Disney-esque towers with stairs that people can climb to get a higher view.

In the event that no one knew who paid for all of this, he wrote on a large plaque above the vaulted entrance, “Park Panorama Gift of Thos. U. Sweeny.”

As fictional as it might now seem, the observatory had a functional purpose when it was built.

By 1890, the Golden Gate Park was only established for 20 years, and Strawberry Hill was essentially a 409-foot-high sand dune with great panoramic ocean views but no trees or protection from the westerly winds. Of course, people defy the winds unhindered to enjoy all kinds of ocean views today, but at that time the park wanted more visitors there.

A gravel road leads to the Sweeney Observatory at the top of Strawberry Hill in this circa 1900 photo (Photo: OpenSFHistory / wnp24.502a.jpg)

OpenSFHistory / wnp24.502a.jpg

Stow and park leaders began a drastic transformation of the park, planting 40,000 trees and shrubs on its west side, according to the 1892 San Francisco Chronicle Report.

Stow sought to make the western portion of the park woodland, with improved water features, trails and bike paths. “It would cost a great deal of money to implement this plan,” he wrote in a report of the San Francisco Park Commissioners from 1892-1893.

Sweeney – Sweeney also spells depending on where you look – may just step in with his own controversial contribution. His concrete mansion would provide people with cover when they walk over a bridge or ride their horse-drawn carriages on a gravel road and around it to enjoy a windless sunset.

According to the San Francisco Call story at the Appropriation Ceremony, Sweeny paid $ 10,000 to build the initial observatory – that’s more than $ 280,000 in today’s money. He paid another $ 5,000 in 1892 for the second level. The only catch, according to Raymond Clary’s book on the early years of Golden Gate Park, was that Sweeney wanted to associate his name with him.

None of this went well for William Hammond Hall, who was ending his tenure as the first park steward in San Francisco. According to Clary’s book, Hall wanted to keep the park as natural as possible and free of antiquities built in men’s names.

“No way, the park commissioner said. Freeman said,” We don’t call anything after anyone’s name. ” [Sweeny] He said take it or leave it, that’s why he chose that spot. “

Some remnants of the Sweeney Observatory atop Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 8, 2021. The observatory was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Douglas Zimmerman / Svgat

The naming rights appeared soon after, including the reservoir surrounding Strawberry Hill that became Lake Stowe.

At a party in 1891, Sweeney told an inspiring, self-catering story about leaving New York for the California gold mines “with only $ 1.50 in my pocket.” He added: “I mention this to show that even the poorest young man here today is as rich as I was at the time, and I did not know anyone, so you see that some of you have a chance to make the city or some other place a good gift as I have today.”

Sweeney ruled out the part about amassing much of his fortune by purchasing property at Inner Sunset and profiting from a legal settlement when San Francisco annexed the land. He managed to see the observatory from his home until his death in 1900.

At the dedication ceremony, Macobain praised Sweeney’s gifts to San Francisco as being greater than the gifts that Julius Caesar gave to Rome (yes, really), and he praised this “humble citizen, a crowd” for returning something of his positive judgment.

McCobin described it as “the first and only so far to show a tangible, direct appreciation of the benefits a generous society bestows on him.”

In his 1892-1893 report, Stowe credited the observatory with increasing foot traffic: “Three years ago, Strawberry Hill attracted very few visitors – there was almost nothing on foot,” he wrote. The observatory witnessed a brief moment in the sun in 1894 while being part of the Midwinter Exposition in Golden Gate Park.

There is nothing else to document the observatory’s short peak period until large parts of it were shattered on April 18, 1906, just an iota in the greater devastation caused by earthquake and fire in 1906. According to Clary’s book, the former superintendent found horror at the end of his opponent when he said of the observatory’s ruins, Apparently, a great power took matters into his own hands. “

Some remnants of the Sweeney Observatory atop Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 8, 2021. The observatory was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Douglas Zimmerman / Svgat

Freeman says it had nothing to do with God but had more to do with poor engineering before the earthquake struck.

He said, “There is one type of seat still standing that faces north with a piece of rebar. It’s like a single strand of rebar.” It was done very poorly. A huge block was in the front and all that flour concrete poured around the rest of the building.

“You don’t have to take a course to understand, it’s not how you build something.”

This was not what everyone thought at the time the observatory was created. According to Christopher Bullock’s book, Golden Gate Garden in San Francisco, “a contemporary newspaper boasted that construction technology – from iron rod and cable reinforcements – made the observatory“ completely earthquake-proof ”.

Freeman, 80, says he remembers the ruins that looked the same as they were all his life. But there is plenty of photographic evidence to show that the destroyed observatory remained in place for at least 30 years after the earthquake, including aerial photos in 1938.

To prove that devastating pornography is nothing new, people also climbed the observatory’s cracked towers and stood behind its shattered windows to take pictures in the years following the earthquake. In a photo dating from around 1910, we can see a couple standing together, one of them standing on each floor of the rubble.

In 1913 and 1914, groups appeared in their cars for price differences in the Auto Chronicle. And there is a 1934 Chronicle of a man initiated by 24 other people in the fraternal order of natives in the Golden West within what remains of the observatory.

Some remnants of the Sweeney Observatory atop Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 8, 2021. The observatory was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Douglas Zimmerman / Svgat

A 1941 column by the Cain Chronicle showed that the observatory may have disappeared, but it has not yet been forgotten – particularly as a site of history.

While marking a long list of “remember when” sentences about San Francisco’s past, he wrote: “When the Kuwait Tower or Twin Peaks weren’t my favorite sightseeing places and landmarks – no, the Strawberry Hill Observatory in Golden Gate Park was the place.” Appropriate to nourish your eyes. “

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