Golden Gate Park's Lawn Bowling Club Turns 125, and Lessons Are Still Free
One of Golden Gate Park's quieter traditions just turned 125. The San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, on the greens since 1901, marked the anniversary with a free open house on Sunday, Oct. 25. Its lessons are free year-round.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 3 min read
The Golden Gate Bridge at sunset under a pink and purple sky. Photo: Umer Sayyam / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
Walk past the Koret Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park and you may spot people in flat shoes rolling bowls across the green. That is the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, which calls itself a living legacy in the park and has played there since 1901.
125 years on the green
The club marked its 125th year with a free community celebration on Sunday, Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors could try lawn bowling, tour the historic clubhouse and its museum, and play games. A youth clinic was offered for ages 12 and up.
How to try it
The club is at 320 Bowling Green Drive. It says lessons are free and are the gateway to membership. Members get weekly social bowls, monthly socials with prizes and food, plus game days, barbecues and tournaments. The one rule for beginners: wear flat-soled shoes. The club was recently featured on SFGovTV's Get Out and Play series. For another hidden corner of the city, see our guide to Mount Sutro's forest.
Sources
This article is an original summary based on the following reporting. We encourage readers to visit the original sources for full coverage.
The day's Bay Area housing, business and neighborhood news, plus the world headlines that matter, in one short email. Free, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
We use your email only to send the Brief. Details in our privacy policy.
Two big Bay Area Thanksgiving runs are open for registration: the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot in downtown San Jose and the SF Turkey Trot in Golden Gate Park. San Jose's early price ends Friday.
The Bay Bridge turns 90 on Nov. 12. Here's how it went from a Gold Rush-era idea to a $77 million 1930s bridge to today's 8.4-mile crossing with a $6.4 billion East Span.
It began as Chutes at the Beach in 1921, became Playland under the Whitney brothers, and closed in 1972. Its carousel still turns at Yerba Buena Gardens.
The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no admission charge. Free drop-in science and art workshops for families run on Saturdays.
Before it was a jingle, Rice-A-Roni was a pilaf that Armenian genocide survivor Pailadzo Captanian taught Lois DeDomenico in San Francisco after World War II. Her husband's family's Mission District pasta company boxed it.
