McLaren Lodge sits at the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park, at Fell and Stanyan, a short walk north from the Haight Street park entrance. The sandstone building was completed in 1896 in a Moorish-Gothic style as the park superintendent’s office and residence.
It is named for John McLaren, the Scottish gardener who ran Golden Gate Park for more than fifty years, from 1890 until his death in 1943 at age 96. McLaren lived in the lodge for most of that time. He turned a system of windswept sand dunes into the forested park you are standing beside, planting hundreds of thousands of trees and fighting the city to keep statues and buildings out of his landscape.
The lodge is still the headquarters of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. The large Monterey cypress in front, planted by McLaren, is lit every December as the city’s official tribute tree. The building is open to the public during office hours.