Larsen Park
| Carl Larsen Park | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Municipal (San Francisco) |
| Coordinates | 37°44′21″N 122°28′33″W / 37.7392978°N 122.4759660°WCoordinates: 37°44′21″N 122°28′33″W / 37.7392978°N 122.4759660°W |
| Area | 6.58 acres (2.66 ha) |
| Created | 1927 |
| Open | daily, 5am – midnight |
| Public transit access |
  ; Line 28 |
| Website | sfrecpark |
Carl Larsen Park is a 6.6-acre (2.7 ha) neighborhood park in the Parkside District of San Francisco. It lies just west of 19th Street, at the intersection with Vicente, and just north of Stern Grove. The park is named for Carl Larsen, a chicken rancher, who donated the land for the park to the City in 1926. Larsen Park features a baseball diamond, tennis court, basketball court, playground and indoor pool; the pool, formerly named Larsen Pool, is now named for local swimming instructor Charlie Sava.
Larsen Park earned the nickname Jet Plane Park by featuring three retired Navy jets from 1959 to 1993, used as play structures by local children, making the park a local landmark clearly visible from busy 19th Street. A jet-inspired sculpture and climbing structure were added to the playground in November 2015 after petitions and fundraising efforts by local residents.
Carl Larsen was a carpenter, restaurant owner, chicken rancher and landowner in the Sunset District; he donated the land that would become Larsen Park to the City in 1926. The park was built under the supervision of John McLaren and opened in 1927. Larsen's gift to the City is memorialized with a plaque attached to a rock at the corner of 19th and Ulloa, in the northeastern corner of the park; the plaque was sculpted by prominent sculptor M. Earl Cummings.
Larsen was born in Odense, Denmark in 1844 and emigrated to the United States in his twenties. He moved to San Francisco in 1869 and was credited as one of the builders who worked on the since-demolished North Hall at UC-Berkeley. Larsen started the Tivoli Cafe at 18 Eddy Street in 1879; although it was subsequently destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, Larsen rebuilt it along with the Hotel Larsen. During the donation ceremony, Larsen said, "It has been the fondest hope of my life to see a beautiful park on those rocks and hills."
Larsen Park opened with outdoor card rooms, one each for men and women; a baseball diamond; tennis courts; and a soccer field. The card rooms and soccer field are now gone.
Work on the playground renovation began in July 2014.
In 1959, the first retired Navy jet was installed, a Grumman F-9 Cougar which was transported by road from Moffett Field with the help of the California Highway Patrol. The tail number was 127490, within the block assigned to the F9F-6P reconnaissance variant with a camera in lieu of a nose gun; the F-9 also bore markings assigning it to Composite Squadron 61 (VC-61) with "PP" prominently displayed on the tail, which confirms it was a former reconnaissance plane. The F-9 was replaced by a North American FJ-2/-3 Fury in 1967, which was in turn replaced by a Vought F-8 Crusader in 1975. The Crusader was delivered by helicopter from Alameda Naval Air Station; it took a roundabout over-water course under both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge before setting the plane down at the San Francisco Zoo for safety reasons. At the playground the Crusader was set almost flush with the ground, the cockpit was filled with concrete, the engine was replaced with a corrugated-metal crawl space, and a slide was attached to the side of the plane.
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