Presidio Celebrates 30 Years as a National Park Site

San Francisco, CA (October 1, 2024) – Today, the Presidio marked its 30^th anniversary as a national park site at a celebration honoring all those who supported its remarkable transformation from a storied Army post to one of the most visited parks in America. The event included special recognition of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, champion of the bi-partisan legislation that created the Presidio Trust and advocate for the park’s mission across three decades.

Hosted at the park’s newest public destination, Presidio Tunnel Tops, the event celebrated the Ramaytush Ohlone as original stewards of the land, military and public service in the Presidio, and the many individuals, agency partners, and public-private partnerships that were integral to reimaging the Presidio.

“Thirty years ago, the prospect of making a public park from a military post was incredibly daunting,” said Jean Fraser, CEO of the Presidio Trust. “Today, the Presidio is a beloved park site due to the work of volunteers, donors, and dedicated park staff members at the National Park Service and the Presidio Trust. But there has been no greater champion of the Presidio than Speaker Emerita Pelosi, who made the transformation possible.”

“For two centuries, no shot was ever fired in anger at the Presidio of San Francisco where the military were good stewards of its natural environment,” said Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. “In that spirit, our community and the Congress transformed this iconic space into an urban national park, now inseparable from San Francisco’s identity. The Presidio has guarded our Golden Gate as troops came home from battle and newcomers came to our country – and now, it honors our past and stands as a model to the nation of patriotism, sustainability and enjoyment for our children. As we celebrate thirty years of ‘Post to Park,’ let us recommit to preserving the beauty and accessibility of the Presidio – now and into the future.”

About the “Post to Park” Transformation

On September 30, 1994, the Army lowered its flag at the Presidio for the last time. The next day – October 1 – the former post joined the national park system as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The occasion was marked by a weekend of events honoring the history of the Presidio, the ancestral home of the Ramaytush Ohlone and later a military post successively under the flags of Spain, Mexico, and the United States.

While public enthusiasm for the new park was great, the Presidio’s future was initially clouded by concerns about the costs and complexity of restoring the Presidio’s historic buildings, infrastructure, and natural areas.

To provide for a successful park transformation, Congresswoman Pelosi, then a relatively new member of the U.S. House of Representatives, led the community and her colleagues in Congress to develop a bi-partisan compromise to save the Presidio. A bill passed in 1996 created a new federal agency, the Presidio Trust, to steward the Presidio in partnership with the National Park Service, and with the support of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Congress required the Presidio Trust to cover the park’s annual operating costs by 2013, building in a cost-effective structure for the American taxpayer.

“The Presidio Trust Act was a revolutionary concept in creating a sustainable partnership model for the entire National Park Service,” said David Smith, Golden Gate National Recreation Area superintendent. “The collaboration and ingenuity that has come from the creation of the Presidio has helped make Golden Gate one of the most popular and beloved parks in the world.”

The Presidio Today

The Partnership for the Presidio – comprised of the Trust, the National Park Service, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy – has never been stronger. After a three-decade transformation, the Presidio is one of most beautiful, most surprising, and most welcoming national park sites in America. Its emergence as a beloved visitor destination was cemented with the 2022 opening of Presidio Tunnel Tops, a 14-acre gateway featuring picnic areas, trails and gardens, and a huge nature playground, all with Golden Gate views. The Presidio now hosts 9.5M visits annually.

The park’s historic buildings have been transformed into museums, restaurants, schools, gyms, and hotels, as well as homes and offices. Today, the Presidio is home to 3,500 residents and 200 businesses. Rents earned from leasing and from the park businesses including two hotels and Presidio Golf Course, sustain the park.

With volunteer support, dozens of acres of natural habitats have been restored including at Mountain Lake and the Tennessee Hollow Watershed.

Today, the Presidio Trust is preparing for the park’s future by investing $200 million secured by Speaker Pelosi in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Funds are being used to replace the Presidio’s Army-era power grid, enabling the park to convert to clean electric energy, and to upgrade wet utility systems. See Presidio Forward.

Video on the 30^th Anniversary
Images for Download

Presidio by the Numbers

• The Presidio is a National Historic Landmark District. Of the 870 structures in the Presidio, 470 are on the National Registry of Historic Places — more 80% been fully or partially rehabilitated for public use.
• The 300-acre historic forest planted by the Army is maintained as important habitat and as part of a cultural landscape; more than 60 acres of the declining forest have been since 2003.
• 3,500 people live in the park’s rehabilitated housing and 4,000 people work at the 200 public, private, and non-profit organizations housed at the Presidio. Their rent supports the park.
• The Presidio is a model of sustainable park management, with two dozen S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified projects, the first LEED-certified neighborhood in the United States, the Public Health District.
• Since its establishment in 1996, the Presidio Trust has engaged more than 125,000 volunteers who have donated more than 650,000 hours of service.
• Due to habitat restoration efforts, the Presidio’s biodiversity is unusually high for an urban park, with mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, fish, and 300+ species of birds visiting the park each year, and nearly 400 native plant species, 21 of which are threatened, rare, or endangered.
• 16 landfill sites have been removed or capped; 500 former fuel storage tanks have been remediated; miles of fuel distribution piping have been removed; and lead-based paint in soil has been removed at hundreds of structures.
• The Presidio and its partners created 24-miles of hiking and biking trails, eight scenic overlooks, and Rob Hill Campground, which welcomes nearly 16,000 campers annually.
• Among the visitor amenities housed in rehabilitated buildings are: two historic boutique hotels, a performing arts theatre, a bowling alley, The Walt Disney Family Museum, the Presidio Officers’ Club galleries, an 18-hole historic golf course, 13 restaurants, six special event venues, a visitor center, and many recreational businesses.
• The Trust stewards 30 archaeological areas that date from Native Ohlone settlements through the occupation of the Army
• In July of 2022, the 14-acre Presidio Tunnel Tops was opened to international acclaim. It has hosted 3M+ visitors in two years.
• Outpost Meadow, an extension of the Presidio Tunnel Tops, will add a new 1.5-acre picnic and community gathering space, opening in 2025.
• The Golden Gate National Park Conservancy has raised over $784 million from generous members and donors to support park projects and community connections across the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1981. That includes the transformation of Crissy Field, support for Presidio trails and overlooks, and $98 million raised through the Presidio Tunnel Tops Campaign.

About the Presidio and the Presidio Trust

The Presidio is one of America’s most visited national park sites, located within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is the ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone. Spanning 1,500 acres next to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio is among the most biologically diverse parks in America. It became a military post under three flags, and subsequently a national park site in 1994. Today, its facilities have been reinvented as museums, restaurants, hotels, homes, and offices. The Presidio Trust is the federal agency that stewards the Presidio, in partnership with the National Park Service and with support from the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The Trust sustains the Presidio by leasing homes and workplaces and offering visitor amenities. Learn more at presidio.gov and @presidiosf.