288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915
Gazetteer › States & Nations
Grounds · States & Nations

Race Track, Aviation Field, Drill Grounds, Polo Field and Stadium

The fair's western sports ground on Presidio land, a mile horse track enclosing polo, drill and athletic fields, whose infield became the Army's Crissy Field.

Overhead view of the racetrack with the athletic and polo fields
Overhead view of the racetrack with the athletic and polo fieldsUnknown photographer, 1915, public domain

At the far west end, beyond the state and foreign pavilions, the exposition laid out a mile racetrack on Presidio land. Inside it were a polo field, a military drill ground and an athletic field. The ground had been soft, swampy flat at the foot of the hills, and it was filled and raised to grade by dredging, part of 114 acres of Presidio land the exposition reclaimed. Serpentine rock quarried in the Presidio surfaced the track and drill ground.

Three grandstands for more than 25,000 people lined the straightaway. Under one of them was a cooling shed for polo ponies, and there were more sheds for race horses and quarters for athletes. The exposition 'Stadium' was a portion of the drill ground in the west half of the track, fitted with jumping pits, a running track of three laps to the mile and, once the polo was over, a quarter-mile straightaway across part of the polo field. It opened on April 9, 1915, with the Pacific Coast Interscholastic meet, which Lowell High School won.

The season's program filled it. There was a polo tournament from March 15 to May 1, two harness meetings (June 5–19 and October 30–November 13) with four $20,000 stakes, cavalry and mounted military contests, dog field trials in the polo field, and in August the national A.A.U. championships, which drew stars like Ted Meredith, Hannes Kolehmainen and Norman Taber. The field was also used for flying, and the Overfair Railway and the exposition's main rail line both ran out to it.

At a glance

  • The mile track including the drill grounds, polo field and athletic field cost $101,281 (Todd vol. 4).
  • Grandstand No. 1 was built by Neil A. McLean, Nos. 2 and 3 by McSheehy Bros. (Todd vol. 2).
  • The Junior and Senior A.A.U. championships of August 6–7, 1915 were both won by San Francisco's Olympic Club (Todd).
  • The exposition's main railway line ran from the ferry slip west along the Esplanade to the race track (Todd vol. 1, ch. LXIX).
  • The 1915 American Grand Prize and Vanderbilt Cup auto races were run on a separate 3.84-mile circuit laid out around the exposition grounds (Wikipedia).

Afterward

The race track structures stood on government land and were kept by the Army (Todd vol. 5). In 1919 an Army board chose the site for an air coast defense station, partly because the racetrack infield was already in use as an aviation field. Crissy Field, a kidney-shaped landing ground in the outline of the old track, was accepted by the Army on June 24, 1921. It is now the restored Crissy Field park, reopened in 2001 (Wikipedia).

The site today

Present-day photographs and video of this spot are being made for the film; each frame below is a slot for one of them.

Today · photograph to comeThe racetrack oval, the Crissy Field airfield lawn

The middle of the grass airfield at Crissy Field (walk in from the promenade)

Have a photo of this spot? Email it to hello@288days.com with code S25 and up to 50 characters of credit. It appears here and in the film.

Sources