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The two articles below are from June of 1893, prior to any racing taking place at the track. Again, they describe aspects of the construction process but also mention upcoming race possibilities.

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The Referee, June 10, 1893 article indicates opening day for racing with be July 4th. In the last paragraph it describes and interesting construction detail. The distance markings on the track (probably for handicapping) are made of brass and inlaid in the surface. There is also a strip at each marking of black cement. 

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The Wheel, June 20, 1893 article publishes some of the early, unofficial training times registered at the Central Park Track. 

The article below from The Bearings, June 10, 1893 provides very detailed information about the construction process of the Central Park Track. It appears the track is open for riding at this time. The track is located between Market and Mission streets, at Eighth street. Across Market Street is San Francisco City Hall. The profiles of the buildings in each turn make the track easily identifiable in illustrations and photographs. 

These two items pertain to the opening races at the Central Park Track. The first is an advertisement from The Morning Call, July 3, 1893 about the races to be held later that day (Monday) and the next. It appears there may have also been races on Saturday, July 1st. 

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The Sacramento Daily Union, July 5, 1893 article summarizes the previous day's racing at the Central Park Track, citing 5000 spectators in attendance. 

Last for 1893, the The Referee, October 6, 1893 pays tribute to Frank Elwell, the designer of the Central Park Track. It states the track "is undoubtedly the fastest five-lap track in the world" and Elwell is "the best man in racing California has produced, and who is an expert engineer, and a member of the Bay City club."

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Note, there is mention of a "Haight  street ball ground track". This track appears to be mostly used for training purposes. 

The next big event on the Central Park Track calendar is an "electric-light tournament of wheels" scheduled to "begin on Tuesday evening, August 27, with special performances on Thursday and Saturday evenings." This is specified in the San Francisco Call, July 31, 1893 article which publicizes the event. 

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Note, "Tuesday evening, August 27" is a typo since August 27, 1893 fell on a Sunday. Based on the following articles it appears the "electric-light tournament" kicked off on Tuesday, August 22.  The subsequent race nights of the tournament will be Thursday and Saturday. 

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The San Jose Herald, August 23, 1893 article summarizes the previous evening's "contests by electric lights under the auspices of the Bay City Wheelmen" at the Central Park Track.

In addition to the San Jose Herald article above, the local paper has a very good description of the first night of racing under the lights at the Central Park Track. See the San Francisco Call, August 23, 1893 article. 

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The San Francisco Call, August 27, 1893 article summarizes the "closing meeting" of the "electric-light race meet" at the Central Park Track. The last night of racing was on Saturday. The article makes a reference to races held on Thursday evening as well. 

In The Cycling West, September 15, 1893, Clevelands bicycles ran a half-page advertisement to tout the results and number of racers using their bicycles for the "Bay City Electric Light Meet" at the Central Park Track. 

1894

These two newspaper advertisements show that Central Park was used for more than bicycle racing.

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The San Francisco Call, February 9, 1894 advertisement is for a horse race. While the San Francisco Call, May 22, 1894 article publicizes a "Society Circus."

Location

The location of the Central Park Track is no mystery, it was located on the NE side of Eighth Street between Market and Missions Streets. 

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The aerial photograph below shows Central Park, looking down Eighth Street, in 1896. The picture is from the Casey at the Bat story on FoundSF.  It looks like there might be a baseball game in progress. There was an earlier article, The Bearings, October 28, 1895, which indicated the five-lap track was removed in the end of 1895 "to make room for baseball." So the photograph below may be from early 1896, before the "new" six-lap track was constructed. If it were the end of 1896, one would expect to see the circus. 

The big event for the Central Park Track in 1894 was to be the race on Decoration Day. However, there was contention between the Bay City Wheelmen and the Reliance Club of Oakland which resulted in a scheduling conflict with dueling Decoration Day races at each club's home track. 

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The San Francisco Call, May 28, 1894 article is primarily publicizing the Reliance Club's upcoming Decoration Day race at the Alameda Track but it also mentions the simultaneous race to be held at the Central Park Track. 

The San Francisco Call, May 31, 1894 article lauds Decoration Day race, held the day before, as "a great success, financially and from a sportsman's point of view." The races are described in good detail and supplemented with an illustration. 

Additionally, The Bearings, May 30, 1894 has an article summarizing the Decoration Day races. There is mention of the contention between the two promoting clubs, "The Bay City's meet was sanctioned before that of the Reliance Club, and no little ill feeling has arisen between the rival clubs."

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Apparently the Bay City Wheelmen have a reputation of staying on schedule for their events, "The B. C. W.'s races were conducted with that vim and snap which has always characterized the doings of this club."

The articles below show how widely and promptly the news of the races is distributed. The first two articles appear to be from the same source. Although, the San Diego Union, May 31, 1894 article writer got a little over enthusiastic and appears to have added an extra 0 to the attendance number. 

1895

The year starts publicizing that an association of the San Francisco bicycle clubs needs to be created to manage the maintenance of the Central Park Track. The association is called the San Francisco Bicycle Track Association  and it consists of representation from the Olympic Club Wheelmen, California Cycling Club, Imperial Cycling Club  and the Bay City Wheelmen. 

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San Francisco Call, January 31, 1895

The big event for the Central Park Track in 1895 would again be the Decoration Day Race, just as the year before. 

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The Bearings, May 21, 1895 is a snippet of an article about the Decoration Day races at the Central Park Track and the San Jose Agricultural Park track, as well an upcoming race in mid June in Santa Cruz. 

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The San Francisco Call, May 29, 1895 article lists some of the favorites for both "class A" and "class B" along with "Burke and Castleman are here from Los Angeles and are riding very fast."

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The San Francisco Call, May 30, 1895 article describes the uniqueness of the promotion of the Decoration Day Race as "It will be the first bicycle race meet ever given in the City where the advance sale of seats assured success the day before the races were run."

The San Francisco Call, May 31, 1895 article describes the Decoration Day Race in great detail and has a few illustrations as well. 

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There are some interesting tidbits in just the first few paragraphs such as "5000 spectators... cheered themselves hoarse" and "a jolly crowd made up in large part of ladies". It also points out one of the issues of the Central Park Track in that "the strong wind yesterday retarded the riders on the backstretch, and the time made in the various event was consequently somewhat slow."

The Bearings, May 30, 1895 also has a very good summary of the Decoration Day Race at the Central Park Track, with its own batch of race details, again mentioning the wind as a factor. 

This batch of articles from the San Francisco Call depicts there is active use of the Central Park Track by local clubs in the summer of 1895. The clubs listed in the articles are the Imperial Club, Golden Gate Cycling Club, Y. M. C. A., Lowell High School Cyclers and the Olympic Club Wheelmen.

 

It appears there were no other big events in 1895 after the Decoration Day Race. 

What follows are four photographs of the 1895 Decoration Day action from the Bay City Wheelmen's scrapbook of the period. The BCW scrapbook: 1894-1903 is provided courtesy of Joel Metz and the Marin Museum of Bicycling.

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Note the San Francisco City Hall dome in the background is under construction. The tower on the right is the city's Hall of Records.  

This is another start line photograph. The banking on the last turn is more visible in this photo. 

This photograph shows the grandstand adjacent to the start/finish line. In this photo, the banking entering the first turn and exiting the last turn is even more visible.  

This photograph shows a race in progress. The people standing on or near the track are likely the race officials. 

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This photo has the most clarity of the San Francisco City Hall dome. The City Hall building was part of a complex of buildings on a triangular area, see the maps in the Location section below. Construction started on City Hall in 1871 and was not completed until 1897, two years after this photo was taken. Nine years later the City Hall building would be destroyed in the earthquake. 

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San Francisco Call, May 5, 1895

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San Francisco Call, May 20, 1895

The articles below describe a dire and seemingly abrupt end to the Central Park Track.

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The San Francisco Call, August 8, 1895 article indicates the track "has been broken up many times, and it will to be further broken up to accommodate the circuses."

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The San Francisco Call, August 13, 1895 article mentions "it is already in process of demolition" and that "the Syndicate Circus is much larger than any that has heretofore visited California."

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The Bearings, October 28, 1895 item indicates a slightly different reason for removal "recently torn out to make room for baseball."

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Despite all the gloomy news about the Central Park Track, The Bearings piece is mainly about a new indoor track "an eight-lap track in the Mechanics' Pavilion."!

1896

The Referee, March 8, 1896 has a very comprehensive article titled "Race Tracks of California" written by Charles Fuller Gates. The article compares the nuances of all the California tracks, as well as the towns and clubs associated with each track.

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The article is very long. The piece included below is a snippet of the article that addresses the Central Park Track. If you want to read the full article click on any of the links. Note, when reading the full article, the two pages are separated by a full-page advertisement. 

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It's written that the Central Park Track "was the first modern cement track on earth. It was the first cement track in America and the only prior cement tracks were in Paris at the time of the velocipede craze of thirty years ago."

While all the dealings with the circus were going on, or perhaps before they started, the Bay City Wheelmen had plans for a big late-season event. The Wheel, September 27, 1895 shows three new race sanctions acquired by Northern California clubs. The Santa Rosa Wheelmen possessed their race sanction for most of the summer. The new sanctions as of this issue of the The Wheel are for San Francisco, San Jose and Petaluma. 

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Of course, with everything going on with the circus displacing the track, the article in The Wheel, November 22, 1895 of the cancellation of the San Francisco national circuit race event is not a surprise. 

As dismal as the future of the Central Park Track sounded in the end of 1895 it is just the opposite in the spring of 1896.

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The Referee, March 25, 1896 article sums it up quite simply "A six-lap board track will be constructed in Central Park, where the old five-lap Bay City track was located." 

The San Francisco Call, April 30, 1896 article announces the completion of "The new six-lap board track" at Central Park. It also has some more refined dates for the upcoming National racing circuit, with races to be held at the "new" Central Park Track on May 16. 

In addition to the announcement of the "new" Central Park Track, the two articles below also announce that it will be hosting a stop over on the National Circuit. 

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The two articles demonstrate how the dates of the National Circuit race schedule stop overs are changing. 

The San Francisco Examiner, April 30, 1896 also has a detailed article about the grand opening of the track, "Next Saturday, at the big Coast championship games the track will have its grand official opening."

 

The Coast Championships are a combination of bicycle races and track and field events, "The programme embraces every sport from the spectacular bicycle racing to hammer-throwing."

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There are also interesting details about the finishing touches of the construction, "The painters followed closely the work of the carpenters" and "the paint will be allowed to dry thoroughly - a necessary precaution owing to the fact that finely powdered pumice stone has been sprinkled on it, to provide a non-slipping surface for the racing tires."

In May of 1896 the national circuit races are rotating through the Northern California tracks. The Referee, May 7, 1896 article summarizes the first two races of the series held in Oakland and Santa Rosa.

 

The Central Park Track is open for training, "The new six-lap track at Central park, this city, was completed las week and has been used extensively for training." On May 16 the national circuit will visit the Central Park Track, "men are in trainingfor the national circuit meet to be held in this city for six days beginning May 16."

The National Circuit L. A. W. Race Meet stop over at the Central Park Track was well publicized in the San Francisco newspapers. 

The Referee, May 16, 1896 item has more information about the national circuit with an emphasis on the Central Park Track since it is the current stop over. 

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However, The Referee article also has some unflattering words about the host club of the previous week's national circuit stop over at the San Jose Agricultural Park Track "not the success that was anticipated owing mainly to the wretched management of affairs by the officials of the Garden City Cyclers." as well as "The Garden City Cyclers have always been notorious for their lack of courtesy to the newspaper men."

The San Francisco Call, May 17, 1896 article is an extremely detailed description, plus illustration, about the first day of the national circuit races to be held at the Central Park Track. 

The Los Angeles Herald, May 17, 1896 also has an article summarizing the first day of National Circuit races at the Central Park Track. 

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There are interesting comments in the Herald article about the pace between the amateurs and the professional not comparing as expected "The time was fast in every heat, much faster than in the professional races." Specifically, "In the one-mile scratch professional there was a loaf in every heat for four laps and a sprint at the finish. This style of racing was very unpopular with the audience, which expressed its disapproval by hissing and hooting the riders."

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The Wheel, May 23 & 24, 1896 summarizes the last two race days of the Circuit, "The National Circuit meet closed here to-night by electric light racing on the little six lap track."

The San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 1896 has a very extensive summary of the previous day's racing at the Central Park Track. The illustration is especially interesting, with the main illustration showing the City Hall dome in the background, and the insets showing different aspects of the day at the track. 

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Due to the readability on the webpage, just a preview of the article shown. Please click on the links to more easily read the article in the viewer.  

The Referee and Cycle Trade Journal has two small articles about the Central Park Track dated June 4.

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The first article summarizes a return regular racing which sounds rather lackluster. That seems understandable since the National Circuit racing has migrated to Southern California tracks. 

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The second article indicates the track will be closed for two weeks for repairs. It seems the regular racing scene at the track has financial challenges, "The weekly race meets did not prove remarkably profitable and the series may be terminated at once."

After the National Circuit wrapped up its swing through Northern California, Palmer Tires placed a half-page advertisement in The Wheel, May 29, 1896 publicizing their sponsorship of the races and the results of racers using Palmer Tires. 

...and a FULL page advertisement in The Referee, May 28, 1896.

A few days later one of the local papers has an article, San Francisco Call, June 6, 1896, describing urgent financial problems for the Central Park Track, "Cycle track racing has been abandoned in this City for the present, the Central Park venture not proving a financial success."

Similar to 1895, it appears there is an effort being made to get the "six prominent cycling clubs" to contribute more to the sustainability of the Central Park Track.

These are two contrasting articles within the span of one week.

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The Referee, June 12, 1896 article states "it is useless to try to keep the track open without the support of the clubs, so it has been closed."

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The Referee, June 19, 1896 article indicates "clubs and agents have taken hold of the defunct proposition at Central park and propose to maintain it in good condition and hold meets as often as possible." The financial details appear to be "Seven local clubs will pay $10 each month" and "$30, will be made up by the cycle dealers" to raise the needed $100 per month. 

It appears racing is back On at the Central Park Track, with a race scheduled for August 22. 

The Referee, August 27, 1896 article summarized the August 22nd race at the Central Park Track. It also has a nice photograph of W. A. Terrill, the new Pacific coast champion.

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Earlier, the San Francisco Call, August 15, 1896 article indicates the August 22nd race "will probably be the last to be held there, as the track must be removed ... to make room for a circus." This is similar to the end of 1895 but apparently this time the Central Park Track would not have a revival the next year. 

CHECKLIST:

  • mention that there are NO PICS of this track. two illustrations though??

  • make sure to doc the track specs in para, someplace.

  • make sure to Note where other tracks are mentioned for CONTEXT!

  • review each writeup and the archive item to make sure the details of the archive item are touched upon in the writeup

  • review to make sure the Links are ALL GOOD!

  • review to trim pics if necessary.

  • HIDE this section. 

There are many illustrated street views archived in "The Illustrated Directory; a monthly magazine of American cities" created by E. S. Glover and published by the Kicks-Judd Company in March 1895. The illustration below shows the Market Street storefronts on the block containing the Central Park Track in 1895. 

The center of the illustration above shows some interesting details. There appears to be an entrance toward the left, in the image below. There is also a storefront sign indicating "Central Park Track & Grounds, D. R. McNeill".  Mr. McNeill was the "proprietor and manager" of Central Park. 

Here's a photograph of the Central Park Track office included in the 1895 Decoration Day pages from the Bay City Wheelmen's scrapbook of the period. The BCW scrapbook: 1894-1903 is provided courtesy of Joel Metz and the Marin Museum of Bicycling.

The 1899 Sanborn map shows that the Central Park Track was truly in the heart of San Francisco, just across the street from City Hall Square. 

When spectators left the Central Park Track, they would have been treated to the cityscape below. 

Lastly, it's interesting to see "Bicycling Riding Academy" featuring "Phoenix & Yosemite" bicycles across the street from the Central Park Track. 

Anecdotally, this 1899 Sanborn map is certainly an attention-getter for a velodrome researcher. However, the oval below is a common circus ride of the day called the Steeplechase. Many of the larger cities had such a circus ride. Here's some information about San Francisco's Steeplechase. 

Below is a current Google Map of the area (37.778508, -122.413401), on the edge of the SOMA (South of Market) neighborhood of San Francisco. 

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Current Google Map of the area bound by Market, Mission and 8th Streets in San Francisco

1893-96 | Central Park Track | San Francisco

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Page last updated May 9. 2026. 

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The first piece below, a clipping from The Bearings, March 10, 1893, is a very early reference to the Central Park Track in San Francisco. 

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The Wheel, May 26, 1893 article provides some details of the track dimensions and surface. The date of June 1 is mentioned as a possible completion date. The Bay City Wheelmen have a two year lease on the property. The cost of building the track is estimated at $5000. 

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From the two articles the dimensions of the track are:

  • 1056 feet per lap, 1/5th of a mile

  • 30 feet wide finishing straight, 25 feet wide elsewhere

  • banking in the turns of 13 feet

  • cement surface

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