The Marina, the Esplanade and the North Gardens

The north side of the walled city was left open to the water on purpose. Early plans called for trees along the Marina, but the idea was dropped; the architects decided the best thing to do with 'the matchless scene would be to leave it open to the sea and sky' (Todd). John Barry's architect-companion approved: 'Ladies and gentlemen, we have done our best. But here's Mother Nature. She can do better.'

Two parallel roads ran along the bay. The Esplanade passed directly in front of the north facades of Mines, Transportation, Agriculture and Food Products; the Marina ran along the seawall, with a low parapet and lamps. Between them lay the North Gardens, broad lawns without trees that formed 'an open campus for sports and aviation.' Here stood hangars for the airplanes of Art Smith, Silvio Pettirossi and Charles Niles, and here the crowds watched automobile races, football, Indian dances, balloon launches and fireworks. The Column of Progress rose from the Esplanade on the main axis.

Faville's north wall was plain and strong, broken only by four identical plateresque portals, one per palace. Newman's Conquistador stood under the central canopy of each, flanked by 'a real old low-browed, bow-legged, walk-the-plank pirate' with a noosed rope, all glowering at the sea from 50 ft up. Offshore lay the view the fair was built for: Alcatraz, Angel Island, Tamalpais, the Marin headlands, and warships at anchor all season. The battleship Oregon was the last to leave, on December 6, 1915.

The Fadgl trains ran along the Esplanade and the exposition railroad's main line followed it west from the ferry slip to the race track.

The Marina. Impossible to describe or to photograph, and not for anybody to paint except Turner, who is dead.

Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2 (1921), ch. L

At a glance

• The Marina bounded the North Gardens on the north and the Esplanade on the south; the Marina ran from the Exposition Ferry Building westward (Todd vol. 1, ch. XXXII).
• The north fronts of the four bay-side palaces were banked with Monterey cypress, with daffodils and marigolds; the lawns toward the bay were left treeless (Todd vol. 2, ch. LXII).
• Newman's figures were 13 ft tall on pedestals 50 ft up; there were four Captains and eight Pirates (Todd vol. 2).
• The exposition built the riprap seawall running east from the Yacht Harbor past Webster Street to the bulkhead protecting the ferry slip (Todd vol. 5).
• To save the Marina, the exposition bought nine blocks on either side of it from the Yacht Harbor east to Webster Street for $443,812; the Board of Supervisors appropriated $30,000 to begin the roadway (Todd vol. 5).
• Todd notes the new Marina road gave Fort Mason and the Presidio their first direct connection, of great value in wartime.

Afterward

One of the four features chosen for preservation (Todd vol. 5). The exposition bought the Marina lands and conveyed them for a public boulevard, today's Marina Boulevard. The North Gardens became the Marina Green, which served as an airfield from 1920 and as the first western terminus of the transcontinental air mail (Wikipedia). The Column of Progress stood here until about 1924.

Sources

• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, chs. L, LIII, LXII
• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 1, chs. XXXII, LXI, LXIX
• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 5, chs. XXXV, XXXVIII (preservation, purchase)
• Barry, The City of Domes (1915), ch. VI (On the Marina)
• Official Guide of the PPIE (1915), Courts and Gardens; Main Boulevards
• Wikipedia: Marina Green, later use