A Walk through the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
The San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers is a perfect slice of Victorian-era elegance in a corner of the busy, urban Golden Gate Park. Don’t get me wrong, it was still busy once you got under its whitewashed glass enclosure (and there were plenty of “Instagram Husbands” being put to work with the colorful florals serving as backdrop to plenty of #content) but the architectural refinement of the building itself is pretty extraordinary given its context.
The Conservatory was completed in 1879 and remains the oldest municipal wooden conservatory in the country. As is the narrative for many glasshouses of this era, the Conservatory caught fire just four years after opening and even after being repaired had to withstand numerous other structural damage over the subsequent decades. During the late-90s it received a comprehensive restoration offers visitors a modest, yet lovely collection of rare and exotic plants from around the world. (the zebra print bromeliad is a personal favorite)
