San Francisco Tour Guide Guild – 2005 Programs

San Francisco Tour Guide Guild – 2005 Programs

Marin Treasures (Visiting Marin Civic Center, Muir Woods and Sausalito)
March 4, 2005
What started out as an overcast day with menacing clouds and predictions of rain, turned into blue skies and sunshine by early afternoon. It was a perfect day in Muir Woods, where we had the whole place almost to ourselves.
Our adventure started with one pick-up in San Francisco and one in Marin City and continued to San Rafael, to visit the famous Frank Lloyd Wright Marin Civic Center. Our guide for the day was Liz Burton whose knowledge about the area was boundless and made the day most exciting. Liz explained that Marin County is sparsely developed in many areas. Two-thirds of the land is open space. It has the highest per capita income in any county, not just in California, but in the entire nation.
Liz explained the existence of Marin city. It was originally created to house the workers who came to this area to work in the Sausalito shipyards, building Liberty Ships during World War II.
At the San Rafael civic Center we enjoyed a tour given by a delightful docent Jean. She took us through the Hall of Justice, Administration Building both of which are four stories tall. We probably all knew that the structure was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but many of us had never been inside before.
Marin County had a budget of five million dollars for the project. Wright enthusiastically accepted the offer. Needless to say the building did go considerably over budget in the end. Wright was taken to a hilly spot to overlook the sight where he stood alone for several minutes before proclaiming that he now had a vision for his building. It would undulate like a caterpillar over the graceful hills of Marin.
Wright designed the building in 1957 at the age of 90. He died three years later, the same year that ground was broken on the project. Erin Green, Wright’s assistant and Wesley Peters, his son-in-law, oversaw the completion of his plans. Wright planned for an open rooftop. He did not understand California rainy seasons. It was decided at the time of construction to cover it with a clear dome. His plan for having plants growing down the center of the building was carried out. They have grown to quite a prominent size. Wright pictured the 172-foot dome or spire so easy to see from the highway, as punctuation point or ship’s prow. It actually was designed to serve as a smoke stack. He used circles and half spheres in much of his inside architectural details. His favorite colors, gold and Cherokee red are visible throughout.
The Civic Center has its own prison, to house those awaiting trial, built into the hills our in back.
If you wish to visit this fabulous building on your own, docent led tours are given every Wednesday, departing from the Civic Center gift shop at 10:30 AM. No reservations are required. You may telephone 415-499-3237 for further information.
We continued on to visit Muir Woods, which was saved from development due to the generosity and caring of William Kent, a State Senator who lived in Marin. He was concerned that many of the beautiful Redwood trees of northern California had already been cut down to build the Victorian homes in San Francisco, and so he had purchased 295 acres of the area that is now Muir Woods for $45,000. To assure its preservation, he offered the area to his friend, President Teddy Roosevelt, as a National Monument. Kent knew that to offer the Woods as a National Park would require an act of congress to accept it. However, a president could act on his own in accepting the gift as a National Monument, which Roosevelt did in 1908. Instead of naming it after himself, the generous Mr. Kent decided to name it after another friend, the great conservationist and found of the Sierra Club, John Muir.
Liz told us many interesting things about Mt. Tamalpais was we drover over the curvy mountain road. She talked of the old Mt. Tam Railroad with its harrowing 281 curves plunging down the mountainside. She also showed us part of the course of the Dipsea run, with some 700 steps along the 7-mile route between Mill Valley and Stinson Beach. She gave us a briefing of the flora and fauna we would see in Muir Woods. She walked along the path with us and shared her knowledge.
A short drive brought us to the Pelican Inn. In their charming English Pub, with its walk-in Inglenook fireplace, Katrinka McKay, General Manager and Innkeeper, treated us to a delightful snack. It was surely more than a snack, consisting of cheeses, bread, chutney, cookies and tea and coffee. Katrinka then took us on a tour of the guest rooms, furnished in English antiques and Oriental rugs, reminiscent of 16th century England. Everyone decided they would be very happy to spend the night.
We continued on to Sausalito for our last stop. Liz talked about the famous houseboats, and pointed out the various shops and restaurants where our tour groups might wish to stop on their visits. She explained the development of Sausalito from the time William Richardson received it as a land grant, given as a wedding present, up the present day. She told stories of some of the famous people, such as Sally Stanford, who had lived there.
We are grateful to Liz Burton and Joan Wollenberger for a most educational, interesting and delightful day, as well as to Coach 21 and our driver Duncan. We all learned a lot and had a great time.

MONEY MONEY MONEY Tour Federal Reserve Bank and Historic Market St.
March 17, 2005
The Federal Reserve, or Where Does All The Money Go?
Andrea Davis, our lovely and attractive tour guide, explained to us what exactly the Fed does, which is to count, store, and print up money. They also sure we don’t have a problem with either inflation or deflation, and basically take the hard edges off of our sometimes harsh capitalist economic system.
Every day thousands of old dollars are taken out of circulation. When I offered to personally take a few out of circulation myself, Andrea gave me a patient smile and explained that while the President is responsible for fiscal policy, the Fed, and most notably Alan Greenspan, are responsible for our monetary policy.
As we made our tour through the vault, it was impossible not to notice that there were so many dollar bills around us that the place literally smelled of money. In fact, the smell is so strong that air-filtering systems have been installed so that no one gets sick. The police officer who escorted us through (and made sure we didn’t pocket any bills along the way — and I’m not kidding) told us that it even smelled like money outside the building. The vault is lined with huge glass containers, each containing forty-six million dollars. They are designed to be made slightly larger than the doors so that they can’t be stolen.
The Fed on many occasions has tried to make a one dollar coin, but everyone hated them for the same reason that most people hate coins — who wants all that change clinking in your pocket? The latest attempt failed because the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was plated gold, and became a collector’s item. So it’s not just the Fed that takes currency and coinage out of the system — it’s sometimes the collectors!
I was surprised to learn that until we had one national currency, as opposed to each state having it’s own currency, up to half of all bills were counterfeited. It’s one of the main reasons we have one national system of currency, and the prime reason for the creation of the Federal Reserve.
We moved on to the check processing room. I learned that while even legal tender can seem antiquated in our age of the credit card and the electronic payment, the same can be said for our check system. Most countries do not even have a check system, and the Fed is trying to phase it out in the US as well. In the meantime, all those checks still have to be counted. The current system is almost completely automated. Forty-thousand checks an hour are counted by automated machines.
Next, Andrea led us to the currency museum, where we viewed the old bills that had been taken out of circulation. We also heard the delightful story of Spencer Clark. Long ago, President Abraham Lincoln had the idea to create a bill honoring Lewis and Clark. A man by the name of Spencer Clark got wind of it, and decided that since his name was also Clark, and moreover, he was a working employee at the Federal Reserve, he was clearly more deserving of the honor.
Clark proceeded to print up a five cent bill with his face on it. Before anybody could stop him, he had succeeded in pumping out 250,000 bills into immediate circulation. If he were alive to today, I’m sure he would be thrilled to know that these rare bills are now worth considerably more than their original worth of five cents.
by Mike Crowe

San Francisco Tree Tour
July 6, 2005
On July 6 Andy Hartman led 20 Guild members on a tour of the trees of the Alamo Square neighborhood. Many of the attendees admitted that natural history can be a weak point in their tours, so they were looking forward to this training to increase their knowledge and confidence. True to a tour for tour guides, there was a multitude of excellent questions, and Andy demonstrated excellent skill in keeping the group moving along.
We learned that San Francisco has about 115 species of trees, almost none of which is native to northern California! The trees that grow best here are those from other Mediterranean climates, and San Francisco boasts many species imported from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In fact, more of our trees came here from other countries than from other parts of the United States! About 700,000 trees can be found in the city today, roughly one for each resident.
Despite the large number of species in the city overall, San Francisco’s parks contain a much less diverse collection. In fact, 75% of the trees in our parks consist of only three species—Monterey Pine and Monterey Cypress (both native), and Blue Gum Eucalyptus!
We learned that different species have been popular in the city at different times, but since trees live a long time there is a lasting legacy of the tastes of earlier decades. For example, mature Ficus trees abound in the city, but today they are only the tenth most popular tree to plant. The most popular today is the purple-leaf plum. Another example is the Monterey Pine, which was planted heavily in the past but virtually not at all anymore as it is susceptible to disease and insects. Interestingly, this California native now makes up 90% of the commercial forest in New Zealand, and its lumber is imported to the U.S.
We learned that a difficulty in tree identification is that many trees’ common names are inaccurate. For example, the distinctive Norfolk Island Pine is not really a pine at all. Andy also showed a map so we could see where Norfolk Island is located (between Australia and New Zealand), and he described the island’s role both in the explorations of Captain Cook and the famous mutiny on the Bounty, plus San Francisco’s role in the filming of the Bounty movie. Obviously, trees were just a starting point from which many other facts branched out!
The tour included ancient trees such as the 270 million year old Ginkgo (older than the dinosaurs) and the Southern Magnolia, which pre-dates bees and is therefore pollinated by beetles.
Andy did a superb job in developing and leading this tour. In one example of his research, he catalogued every tree within one block of Alamo Square (a total of 16 blocks), finding a total of 621 trees! There were at least 46 different species, with the most common being Ficus, Monterey Cypress, Victorian Box, Brisbane Box, and New Zealand Christmas Tree. During the tour itself we saw five different members of the eucalyptus family, four types of palm, two acacias, and, contrary to the Christmas song, two pear trees. By the end of the day most of the attendees could identify these species and many others.
Much of the source material came from research by the Friends of the Urban Forest (www.fuf.net), which has planted 40,000 trees in San Francisco since 1981 (since the city government has no budget for tree planting). Andy also especially recommended the book Trees of San Francisco (Mike Sullivan, 2004) and the author’s website, www.sftrees.com.
By Jason Cohen

Coastside Sports Day
July 18, 2005
On July 18, eight hearty souls (six more to meet in Half Moon Bay) gathered early at the Marriott for what turned out to be a most wonderful day—-sea kayaking and hiking! Joan Wollenberger organized this event and gave us commentary on the way down to Half Moon Bay. As more DMC’s are using the Ritz Carlton and organizing “soft adventures” it was an opportunity to experience it firsthand. As we headed down Hwy 1, we could see the start of the tunnel being built at Devil’s Slide. I don’t think any of us realized it would be so close to the road. Joan gave us some of the history of the Ocean Shore RR, Portola’s expedition, along with what is happening now along the coast. Many of the communities along the ocean are cleaning the beaches and reclaiming their land. In Pacifica alone, over 100 tons of debris has already been cleared.
Duncan, our very knowledable driver, took us through Pillar Point on the way to the Half Moon Bay Kayaks. Chris, Doug and Allison of HMB Kayak Company were most thorough in outfitting us with jackets, personal flotation devices (life jackets to us) -and our spray skirts. Then we had lessons on getting in the kayak -not easy for some of us– and paddling. Most of us were in 2 person kayaks and for several it was the first time! In case you were wondering, the person in the rear has charge of the turning pedals and it really helps to coordinate your paddling movements if you expect to made any headway.
On top of the sea walls were hundreds of pelicans along with a great white egret and a great blue heron which were thrilling to see. After about 45 minutes we beached across the harbor where Chris gave us some fasinating information about Mavericks surf area and reef, called the Boneyard- the largest and most dangerous waves on the continent for surfers–over two treacherous miles out. The most experienced, daredevil class of surfers gather, usually in the stroms of February & March, to try out their skills.
Pillar Point along with Princeton has a large harbor and the fishing catch is mostly albacore tuna, salmon, halibut, crab,shrimp and ling cod.
We found that we were all very hungry after so much exertion and we had time on our own for lunch, many of us enjoying fish and chips al fresco. Back on the mini bus to the Purisima Creek Redwoods regional open space south on Hwy 1. Duncan took us up a beautiful canyon road while Joan explained about many wealthy people buying up property. Some family estates donating parcels of land as grants to POST. This has it’s good and bad points, as they preserve the land, but then it’s often off limits to the public. We were fortunate that the trail was shady as the sun had broken through and it was quite warm. We had a debate about the redwoods we saw–were they first or second growth–the consensus is that most of them had been logged in the 1800’s, so even though they were maybe 100 ft. tall, they were 2nd growth and further reading confirmed that there had been seven mill sites along the creek. The open space has over 21 miles of trails, but we hiked a 5 mile loop which seemed just right after our morning on the water.
Several of us remarked that this was like a mini vacation in one day. Thanks so much Joan for organizing it.
Submitted by Linda Lipson

Portola Valley Ranch, Portola Valley
August 5, 2005
Conducted by Joan Wollenberger
Leaving foggy and cool San Francisco, I was looking forward to another interesting tour led in a warm, sunny area, south of The City.
As the bus continued down the highway, passing Filoli and Crystal Springs Reservoir, we came upon a peaceful valley, covered with forests of fir, Oak, and redwood, and sprinkled with California poppies.
Astride the San Andreas Fault, with views extending from across the bay to San Francisco, Portola Valley started as a farming, stock ranching, and logging town (Searsville) in the middle 1800’s.
Like the rest of Santa Clara Valley, Development came after World War II, and it was incorporated in 1964 as a peaceful, low stress, low density town celebrated for it’s preservation of the beauty of the valley and balance between it’s rural history and suburban development.
Originally occupied almost entirely by the Martinez Family Ranch, an early Mexican land grant known as El Corte Madera, the area spawned two famous San Franciscans: Andrew Hallidie and Herbert Law.
Hallidie, like his father, a Scottish inventor, built a “little red school house” on his farm in 1872; created a funicular tramway along Portola Road and tested his most famous invention, the cable car, along Skyline Drive.
Herbert Law, who had traded for the earthquake and fire ravaged Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill with Tessie Fair for real estate The Law Brothers owned on Market St in old SF, then restored it along with Julie Morgan, and traded it back to Tessie in 1911, built a lavish Roman Villa (the Lauriston Estate) along Alpine Road; which just happens to lie directly over a portion of the San Andreas Fault. He, also, owned property that would establish water rights for future farming operations and create many disputes and political ramifications.
The San Andreas Fault runs through Portola Valley, although not in a straight line. It consists of two “traces”: the Trancas, which is geologially significant, and the Woodside, which is active and considered to be the potential cause of “sheer” damage (no, not sheep), in mostly the local area. Local effects will be most damaging where the Fault crosses the water pipeline.
Shaking damage is the most dangerous and will cause most of the damaging effects in all areas for tens of miles around.
The waves produced by an earthquake produce compression and rarefaction due to a Primary (P) Wave and Secondary (S) Wave, which travel at different speeds, and can be used to determine where the epicenter (surface) and hypocenter (actual below ground point of origin) are located.
Three kinds of faults exist: Strike/slip (here in California primarily) Thrust (island chains, mostly in the Pacific Ocean) Gravity (mountain, valley areas like Colorado) Eighty percent of all earthquakes have occurred in the “Ring of Fire” an area encompassing the Pacific Ocean.
The San Andreas Fault is a strike/slip fault and exists between two plates: The Pacific Plate, mostly west of the coastline, and the North American Plate, running through much of Northern California.
A fault is the joint between two rock masses that generally moves 2 inches a year and produces a “right lateral displacement”.
Interestingly, San Francisco is located just east of the fault, and Los Angeles is just west of the fault, meaning that a northeasterly migration of 2 inches a year could result in LA eventually being located (and passing north) in the Bay Area! Do we root for the Giants or the Dodgers?
To put things in a different perpective, most fingernails grow about 2 inches a year, and the Moon is moving away from the Earth about 2 inches a year. Also,vegetation grows diffently on either side of a fault, probably due to differences in soil quality and rock solidity. These facts have nothing to do with predicting future earthquakes.
Another interesting fact is that all three Bay Area faultlines (San Andreas, Hayward and Caliveras) converge at the little town of Hollister, just east of San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz. Wanna buy a house there?
Seriously, the 1906 Earthquake started on the ocean floor off the Golden Gate and ruptured to the north and south, building to a magnitude of 7.8 or 7.9. It is now thought that the epicenter was closer to Daly City than Point Reyes, as previously thought. The ground within 6 miles of the fault shook only half as violently as expected, seeming to have focused it’s energy on towns much further away, such as Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, and Tomales.
There is some evidence that in a really big quake, a fault may rupture at unexpectedly high speeds of more than 11,000 mph; fastrer than the most damaging seismic waves can travel. This may spread the shaking out over a much wider band, rather than concentrating so much along the fault itself.
Dr. Sheldon Breiner, a noted geologist, geophysicist, and inventor, with Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Stanford (and long-time resident of Portola Valley), presented this information to us in a friendly, relaxed, mostly unscientific manner. He has predicted and mapped earthquakes, invented uses for a “magnetometer” and built his own seismograph. He doesn’t worry about earthquakes, he chases them! He can predict the Earth’s movement miles away, not relying on mere mechanical equipment in his predictions. He’s been called “the human seismograph”,. since just after high school days, at Stanford. He tested the theory that once you feel the first jolt of the P wave, you can time the interval between P and S waves to estimate the distance from the epicenter of the quake. For every second of difference, you can multiply by 5 to get the distance.
He led us on a walk along Alpine Road, showing us where a 6 foot displacement took place in 1906. and he has photographic evidence to prove it.
As an inventor, Dr. Breiner develped the first gun detector, which is now standard for security systems at airports.
As an explorer, he has searched for and found sunken treasures, black boxes from crashed airplanes, and submarines lost at sea; and he wrote the book on how to use the magnetometer for searching.
His latest invention is a system which causes a car’s brake lights to blink if a driver is on a cell phone!
He lives in the Portola Valley Ranch development, is a neighbor of Joan Wollenberger, our tour guide, and provider of much of the facts that I have summerized here. He also was kind enough to join us for lunch, answer questions, and enjoy the famous Alpine Inn; “a basic burger joint and beer garden”, in the same location for over 150 years.
The Alpine Inn was founded as a gambling house for Mexican Californios in 1852 by Felix Buelna, a former mayor of San Jose. It was than owned by Mary Ann Stanton. who then leased it to various bartenders of different ethnicities.
Considered a “true joint”, it was nicknamed Zott’s for the Risotti family who owned it in the 1940’s.
The Alpine Inn has been frequented by Stanford students for decades, and is said to be “The Place” for the consummation of many Silicon Valley deals in recent years. Lunch at this old roadhouse and beer garden was a real treat!
We completed our tour of Portola Valley with a guided tour of the beautiful Woodside area, including a “drive by” of the Larry Ellison Estate (CEO of Oracle) and the future site of Steve Jobs home (Apple entepreneur).
On the trip back home, we survived a potential bus breakdown, laughing and taking it in stride on the way back to San Francisco and the Marriott Hotel.
With renewed appreciation for the beauty of rural California, and a newly gained knowledge allowing us to respect and calmly assess the power of “mother nature” , we returned to our City by the Bay.
Respectfully submitted, and with thanks to Joan, & Shelly.
Thanks also go to Mary McCloy who greeted our drive in guests at the Ranch and Bea Mitchell who escorted the bus to and from the Marriott.
Sincerely,
Dr. Stephen P. Levin

Sculptures & Fountains
November 30, 2005
On November 30th, our sage guide, Craig Smith, welcomed 30 curious and inquisitive “students” at Lotta’s Fountain on Market Street. This intersection; Market, Kearny and Geary Streets, was once the busiest intersection in San Francisco.
Lotta’s Fountain was erected in 1875. It was a gift to the city from Lotta Crabtree, who as a child, in the Gold Country danced for the ’49ers. She went on to be hailed as “the beloved Queen of America”, and was at the time the highest paid actress in the country.
Luisa Tetrazzini, a famous Italian Opera singer, visited San Francisco in 1905 before the earthquake, and returned in 1910, to sing ‘in the streets’ for a crowd of 250,000 here at the fountain, on Christmas Eve. This was just 4 years after the disaster and devastation and was one of the great moments of our great city. A plaque on the fountain, sculpted by Haig Patigian, marks the occasion. (He also did the statue of Abraham Lincoln in front of the City Hall).
Just a few yards along Market Street, in front of the Asian Art center, stands a cast bronze winged figure; “Angel”, sculpted by Stephen DeStaebler, a California artist who has taught at SF State.
We paid a quick visit inside the Flood Building, built and named after James C. Flood, son of “Silver Baron” James L. Flood, who built the edifice which is now the Pacific Union Club, on Nob Hill, opposite the Fairmont Hotel. His bronze bust is prominently displayed in the lobby, next to a showcase of impressive memorabilia, featuring a replica of the Maltese Falcon, sculpted by Craig’s brother; Glenn Smith, who gave it to John’s Grill some time ago.
We then went to Union Square, visiting Macy’s first floor, where Craig surprised us, by showing us a fiber glass replica of the 1902 sculpture by Robert Aitkin of “Big Alma”, the imposing figure of Alma de Brettville Spreckles, the very same, who graces the top of the Dewey monument on Union Square.
Next, we stood in the front courtyard of the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Stockton Street, admiring the intricate work of Ruth Asawa’s, famous fountain, created in 1972 by some 250 city residents, ranging in age from 3 to 90. They were asked by Ruth Asawa to sculpt city landmarks out of baker’s dough. There are 41 separate plaques which Azawa had cast in metal and arranged them around the fountain’s cylindrical base in map-like fashion.
We walked up the stairs of the Stockton Tunnel, which was, fortunately, being cleaned up at present. Craig informed us that the tunnel was built in 1914 to facilitate quick access to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition from downtown.
Once we caught our breath, we walked to the Ritz Carlton Hotel, to admire this Creek-revival style building, which once housed the Metropolitan Insurance Co.. This “Temple of Commerce” was built in 1909 by the architect Napoleon Le Brun, at a time when nearby Pine Street was considered “Insurance Row”.
Above the Porte cochere, in the pediment, are impressive sculptures also done by Haig Patigian. As foolish as it might seem; we could see the central figure representing the ‘goddess of Insurance’ and beside her; ‘salesmen with life insurance policies for the families members dipcited.
Mercifully we could walk downhill at a leisurely pace, to visit St. Mary’s Square, just behind Old Mary’s Cathedral. The impressive statue of Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen got our full attention, as Craig explained that the famous sculptor Beniamino Buffano created this rose-granite and stainless steel statue in 1938. Sun-Yat-Sen lived from 1866 ‘till 1925, during which time he visited San Francisco several times to raise money to support the overthrow of China’s Manchu Dynasty and establish the Republic of China.
As we walked down California Street, we stopped at numbers 550-600 to visit some statues most of us had never seen, in fact didn’t know they were there.
We saw a statue called “The Guardian” created by Bruce Beasley in 1992, a four corner column, about 20 feet tall and right across the lobby we admired the “Three Bridges”, sculpted by Kent Roberts, also erected in 1992.
Next door, at the lobby entrance hung a relief by Lee Lawree of 1931, depicting eight different arts; namely, Exploration, Literature, Architecture, Drama, Religion, Labor, Sculpture and Music. In the center of the lobby stood a very unusual stainless steel fountain, featuring water running gently over several steps, created by Bella Feldman, a teacher at a California School of Arts & Crafts in Oakland.
We went across California Street to the A.R. Giannini Plaza, by the black granite sculpture, which is called “Transcendence”, but better known as “the Banker’s Heart” by Masayuyki Nagare . We gazed up to the very top of the building across, at the corner of California and Kearny Street, number 580. The mysterious 12 statues (three on each side of the building) intrigued us, and many visitors who happen to spot them. Like sentinels they look down on the passers-by, often shrouded in fog. They are called the “Goddesses of Commerce”, created by Muriel Custanus in 1969.
We continued our walk down California Street and at the suggestion of Ulla Kaprilian to visit an interesting building nearby, Craig very graciously changed his plans and willingly agreed to follow Ulla to the Merchants Exchange Building, where we all piled into elevators to the 15th. Floor. Willis Polk was the architect of this beautiful building and Julia Morgan created some of the interior, and in fact maintained an office here.
We walked into a gorgeous ballroom, which most of us didn’t know existed and admired the fabulous wood work and a huge fire place with some most impressive bas-relief above; depicting various city scenes such as, symbol of aviation, Mercury, the God of Commerce, the Ferry Building, and Neptune, the God of the Sea, among others.
Once back on California Street, we went to Leidesdorff Alley to look at a plaque honoring William Leidesdorff, whose mother was from the West Indies and a father from Denmark. He was the first Black American to here from New Orleans and served as the first Vice Consul. He became the town’s largest landowner and was instrumental in building the first school in California at Portsmouth Square in 1848. He died at age 36 of brain tumor.
Our next stop was the often overlooked Redwood Park, tucked away at the foot of the Transamerica Building.
Here we saw two whimsical, statues; one next to the small frog pond, called simply “the Frogs”, by Richard Clopton, a Dentist who took up sculpture later in life. The other one is called “The Puddle Jumpers”; Six children, holding hands, a few suspended a foot above ground, poised to jump a puddle; a delightful creation by Glenda Goodacre, created in 1989.
There is also a plaque in memory of San Francisco’s most famous dogs; Bummer and Lazarus. Contrary to common belief, they were not “Emperor Norton’s” dogs, although he has been seen with them on occasion.
This ended our very informative tour. No doubt Craig could have gone on to show us more. Maybe this article, the very positive response and the great turn-out might encourage him to offer another tour in the not too distant future.
We are blessed in this city to have so much varied art work and in closing I use a quote which I gleaned from Craig’s notes from Andre’ Malraux the great French Statesman who said: “ A culture will be remembered and judged by its statues and sculptures. What we choose to remember in stone or bronze tells us who we are, or what to be. We externalize our feelings of commitment just as we pledge in marriage with a metal ring; it says this person mattered.”
Thank you Craig for an excellent, worthwhile tour.
Sincerely,
Otto Lissfeld