John McLaren (park superintendent)

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For other persons named John McLaren, see John McLaren (disambiguation).

Statue of John McLaren, Golden Gate Park

Dr John Hays McLaren (1846 – 1943) served as superintendent of the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA for 53 years.

Born at Bannockburn, near Stirling in Scotland,^[1] and worked as a dairyman before studying horticulture at the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens where he worked as an apprentice gardener's helper. He planted grasses anchoring the beach dunes along the Firth of Forth then emigrated to the United States in 1870 and worked on the George Howard estate in the San Mateo foothills, then on the Leland Stanford estate in Palo Alto and planted trees on the Coyote Point on the shore of the Bay.

He was friends with John Muir, and dedicated his life to vigorous advocacy and development of the 100,000 acre Golden Gate Park, one of the largest public parks in the world, using considerable political skill in addition to his remarkable gardening skill. Appointed Park Superintendent in 1887, he requested thirty thousand dollars a year for park building. One of John McLaren's stipulations before taking the superintendent job was, "There will be no 'Keep off the Grass" signs." His horticultural philosophy was to achieve a natural look, typified in his dislike for statuary, calling them "stookies" and planting trees and shrubs to hide them. He built two windmills to pump water to his park and had the sweepings from San Francisco streets delivered as fertilizer. When ocean waves and wind piled sand on the west end of the park, he began a forty year effort to pile branches, clippings and laths on the shore to capture sand and build the great berm that now holds the Great Highway.

He had a shrewd and aggressive style of management but was so highly respected that, at the age of 70, he was given lifetime tenure over the park and his salary doubled. An avenue in the Seacliff District of San Francisco was named after him during his lifetime, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of California at Berkeley. He is credited with planting two million trees during his lifetime. The McLaren Park in the southern part of San Francisco is named after John McLaren, as is McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park, where he lived until his death. East Bay's Tilden Park also has a meadow named after him. A small statue of McLaren was erected in the park which he had hidden away only to be discovered after his death.

After his death at the age of 96, McLaren's body lay in state in the San Francisco City Hall Rotunda. Afterwards, the funeral cortege drove his casket through Golden Gate Park as a special honor.