Buena Vista Park is one of the most beautiful parks in San Francisco. It rises steeply upward 589ft from the middle of Haight street, offering breathtaking views of the city. Established in 1867, it is a true Victorian era park. It's spiraling paths ascend through towering century old trees. This stark contrast against the city scape evokes a sense of other worldliness and days gone by.
For a centrally located park, it is surprisingly uncrowded. Local dog walkers have taken advantage of the lack of people, making the parks population more dog than human.
Walking the paths of Buena Vista, one can so easily be taken away by the surrounding beauty that they can miss something quite odd almost directly beneath their feet. The path is black top, and the retaining walls are of stone. Then why are most of the rain gutters made of marble? Follow the paths far enough and before long the reason becomes obvious...it is written right in the stone.
The rain gutters of Buena Vista Park are made from old tombstones. During the great depression the Works Progress Administration constructed gutters using slabs of broken marble recycled from Lone Mountain cemeteries. In some places, inscriptions from the headstones can still be read.
Evidence of this can be found in other places. A piece of an old monument serves as an end post where two paths meet. The reality of the material used probably overlooked daily.
The city's oldest park created from used cemetary materials can't be too creepy of a concept. After all, the headstones may now live in Buena Vista Park, but the graves used to be where the residential houses of the Richmond district now stand.
The next time you go for a stroll in Buena Vista Park, remember to look down and ponder the rain gutters. Take time to remember the people all but forgotten by the progress of a city, for who's memory would seem no more important than paving stones.
