In Entangled Threads, my latest Victorian San Francisco Mystery, I found myself, as in earlier books in the series, sending characters off to visit Woodward’s Gardens, a local amusement park.
In the late nineteenth century, when my novels are set, Woodward’s Gardens was the most popular place for San Franciscans of all ages to go to recreate–even more popular than Golden Gate Park, which was still primarily consisted of a good deal of sand dunes, newly landscaped carriage drives, and a single Flower Conservatory.
Woodward’s Gardens was built the former mansion and grounds of Robert Woodward, a man who came to San Francisco during the Gold Rush in 1849 and made his fortune running a popular hotel called the What Cheer House (where no alcohol was served!). Woodward loved collecting––(artwork, curios, plants, and animals––during his extensive travels, and in the 1860s he started to turn his home into a park for the city’s inhabitant.
The entrance fee was 25 cents for adults, and 10 cents for children, and the grounds contained museums, art galleries, plant conservatories, an aquarium, a zoo, a performance pavilion, and a restaurant. It had the largest roller-skating rink on the west coast, a circular boat ride, and hot-air balloon events. Pretty much something for everyone, young and old alike. For example, in the third book in my series, Bloody Lessons, a whole group of people from the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse go off to tour the zoo, which included bears, monkeys, wolves, and buffalos, and where you could ride a camel or come face-to-face with ostriches, which were permitted to roam loose along the zoo’s pathways.
Located in walking distance of the working-class neighborhoods south of Market, and reached by frequent horse cars that funneled riders from the business and middle-class residential districts north of Market, Woodward’s Gardens was relatively inexpensive, conveniently located, and because it was alcohol-free, it was considered a prime place for young men and women to go courting. For example, in the second book in the series, Uneasy Spirits, my two main protagonists, Annie, the widowed boardinghouse owner, and Nate, a local lawyer, pursue their budding romance in the dark and secluded marine aquarium, which housed both fresh and salt-water fish.
For many working-class women, Woodward’s Gardens, provided one of the few, respectable places where they could escape the close confines of their crowded tenement homes, show off some of the finery they bought with their hard-earned wages, and meet young men, who might “treat” them to a meal or a show. This is the role Woodward’s Garden played in the life of Biddy O’Malley, a young Irish woman who is one of the main characters in Entangled Threads.
Unfortunately, Biddy also discovered, as many other young women of her era, these men’s intentions were not always honorable. As she confided to her cousin, “I told you about the men who would come by the Silver Strike near quitting time, flirt with us counter-girls, meet us at Woodward’s Gardens on the weekends. You told me to watch my step, and I told you that I wasn’t a fool, just enjoyed having a man spend a little money on me. Said I knew not to take them seriously, that I knew how to draw the line. But I was a fool, wasn’t I?” (Chapter 14, Entangled Threads)
What happened to Biddy O’Malley is just one of the mysteries to be solved in this latest book in the series.
M. Louisa Locke, February 7, 2022,
