Sutro Heights Park (main entrance)

Two reclining stone lions flank the entrance to these grounds, guarding a site that once functioned as the private estate of the silver baron Adolph Sutro. In eighteen eighty-one, Sutro purchased this high coastal promontory to build a sprawling residence, eventually transforming twenty-two acres of undeveloped land into a public garden. He filled the space with hedge mazes, parterres, and over two hundred concrete replicas of Greek and Roman statues meant to bring European culture to his fellow citizens.