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Conservatory of Flowers

Architect
Lord & Burnham
Style
Italianate
City
San Francisco, CA
Collection
painted victorians
Conservatory of Flowers
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
See it on the map

The Conservatory of Flowers is a greenhouse and botanical garden completed in 1879 in Golden Gate Park, making it the oldest building in the park. It was one of the first municipal conservatories built in the United States and remains the oldest surviving municipal wooden conservatory in the country, a fragile Victorian survivor that has outlasted more than a century of San Francisco's fog and fires.

the building

Dome and wings. The building is organized around a central dome rising nearly 60 feet, with arch-shaped wings extending from it for an overall length of 240 feet. The whole structure sits atop a gentle slope overlooking Conservatory Valley, so the glasshouse is visible well before a visitor reaches it.

the style

The Conservatory is built in the Italianate style, a choice suited to a wooden glasshouse meant to read as elegant and light rather than purely utilitarian. Lord & Burnham, the firm behind it, was a noted greenhouse-building specialist, and the design leans on the style's rhythmic arches and vertical proportions to organize a structure that is, underneath the ornament, mostly glass and wood framing.

More on Italianate

the architect

Lord & Burnham was a noted American firm specializing in greenhouse construction; the Conservatory of Flowers stands as one of its best-documented surviving works.

significance

The Conservatory of Flowers is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a California Historical Landmark. It holds the distinction of being the oldest building in Golden Gate Park and the oldest remaining municipal wooden conservatory in the United States.

nearby

All 99 buildings in San Francisco