The Music Concourse

The general arrangement of the Music Concourse follows Michael O'Shaughnessy's design of the Grand Court for the California Midwinter Exposition of 1894. Remnants of the exposition remain in the dome-topped bollards along the upper promenade, some original, and in the concourse stairways, rails, tunnels, and plantings that have been rehabilitated over time since the Midwinter Fair. Wooden benches beneath a bosque of pollarded sycamore and elm trees continue to provide a sheltering summer canopy as they have since the Temple of Music's construction. The first structure built on the Music Concourse after the fair was the Spreckels Temple of Music, also known as the bandstand, completed in 1900 with funds donated by sugar magnate Claus Spreckels. The Music Concourse was planned with perimeter seating terraces for an anticipated capacity of 20,000, and its depressed elevation was intended to protect audiences from summer winds. The Spreckels Temple of Music and the M.H. de Young Museum, which remained from the 1894 fair, were originally the only structures in the area, with later additions including the California Academy of Sciences in 1916 and the central Rideout Fountain in 1924. Since nearly Golden Gate Park's inception in 1871, the Music Concourse has served as the park's cultural center. The current bandstand stands at the third location used in the park, after sites at Conservatory Valley in 1882 and at the present-day tennis courts in 1888, and it has long hosted free concerts along with the Golden Gate Park band, which has played regularly on Sundays since September 1882.

San Francisco, California · United States