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Overview

Real estate magnate and philanthropist James Lick commissioned this large iron and glass conservatory from the recently-formed Lord and Burnham Company in Irvington, NY. The kit of parts produced by Lord and Burnham was thought to have been shipped around the Cape Horn from New York, arriving at the Port of San Francisco. The elaborate greenhouse arrived at Lick's San Jose estate in around the time of Lick's death in 1876, and remained there until 1878, when a group of San Francisco philanthropists purchased it and arranged for it to be erected in Golden Gate Park. In 2021, the Conservatory of Flowers remained the oldest building in the park.