Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove, locally called Stern Grove, is a 33acre recreational site in the Sunset District, San Francisco, California. It is administered by the city's Recreation and Parks Department, and is the concert setting for the 75-year-old (as of 2012) Stern Grove Festival.The site, along Sloat Boulevard between 19th and 34th Avenues about two miles (3 km) south of the Golden Gate Park, was donated to the city in 1931 by Rosalie Meyer Stern, who named the park for her late husband Sigmund Stern, a philanthropist and a nephew of Levi Strauss. The original Stern Grove landscaping and facilities were built by the Works Progress Administration. It consists of several park sections including the Concert Meadow, the West Meadow, and Pine Lake Park. The grove's Pine Lake is one of three natural lakes in the city of San Francisco. In 2005, Stern Grove underwent a $15 million renovation, designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. New features included drainage improvements and erosion control, an expanded outdoor stage and performance facilities, and terraces and additional bleacher-style seating, built of stone walls, along the slope opposite the stage.Since 1938, there have been weekly concerts and performances in the outdoor amphitheater during the summer months. Supported entirely by contributions, the concerts have always been free to the public. Crowds have often exceeded 20,000 persons.
Edgehill Mountain is one of the 46 hills of the City and County of San Francisco, California, located in the United States of America. This hill is part of a western greenbelt that connects Mount Davidson, Hawk Hill, Twin Peaks, and the area around Laguna Honda Reservoir, which all run on the crest of a ridge of hill tops through the center of the city. The neighborhood surrounding the hill boasts a small park by the same name.HistoryThe area of land comprising the hill top was once part of Adolph Sutro's San Miguel Ranch. This property was sold after Sutro's death in 1898. This area of land then became one of the city's first subdivisions, known as Claremont Court, after which houses were built on the mountain's western and southern slopes. Major problems with building on this land began in 1952 and 1953 when winter rains caused part of Edgehill Way, and one home on it, to slide down the mountain side. Edgehill Mountain Park was established in 1985 when the city purchased 1acre of the mountain's undeveloped, western slope and designated the area an Open Space Park. One of the hill's slopes located above some newly constructed homes collapsed during a rainstorm in 1997, causing mud and rock to cascade onto the houses below.