The San Francisco call., 1895-10-08
After March First the
Course Will Pass
Away.
WILLIAMS SYNDICATE.
1t Failed to Com bine on the
Purchase of the Prop
erty.
WILL BE CUT UP INTO LOTS
A Noted Sporting Place to Be Re-
moved to Give Place to I'M
proVements.

After March 1, 1896, the old Bay District
racetrack will fade away like dissolving
mirage, and the paved streets will cut
across the old course where f1eeting hoofs
flung flakes of mud through the wintry air
and clouds of dust under the blue summer
sky. The unsightly stables, hay-yards and
rubbish heaps will go, to give place to the
graded lot and handsome suburban resi-
dence.
T. II. Williams. the racing man and les
| see of the track, agreed to buy the prop
erty for $65O,000. 1t belongs to the Charles
| Crocker and Leland Stanford estates and
covers sixteen blocks. Williams hurried
| East to form a syndicate among turfmen.
and at first met with considerable success
in interesting capitalists of sporting tend
encies.
The price was of no moment, as the bare
| 76S lots are valued at $1,000 each-corner
lots S2000-but inquiries into the stability
of title revealed dangerous possibility.
| Under legislative enactment OF 1867-68,
| the Board of Supervisors could extend the
| streets through the Bay District track at
| any time.
The syndicate quickly melted away, and
with it the perpetuity of the old racetrack.
Colonel Fred Crocker said last evening
when interviewed, that the track will be
graded, improved and put on the market.
"Mr. Williams failed to make his pro-
posed deal with the Eastern sporting men.
and the sale fell through. His lease will
expire March l, and the place will shut
| down as racing place.
1.-THE property Is too valuable to be used
| as a racetrack and there is no special re-
! gret upon our part that the transaction did
not come off. Seven or eight hundred
| building lots will be made ready for oceu-
pancy-principally dwelling houses | i'm
| agine. There will be considerable filling
| to be done in those low places on the
| grounds, but the neighboring sandhills
will supplNthe needed soil. The pavilions,
stables, barns and fencing will be removed
soon after the grounds are vacated by the
| lessee and the work OF leveling quickly
| commenced"
Attorney Charles n. Hubbs, who lives al
Clement street and Eighth avenue and
who has been the champion of the needs
of Richmond District, is pleased with the
passing of the racetrack.
eve Richmond people have no objection
to the racing, except that it was part oi
the barrier which kept the tide of improve
ment and progress away from our locality.
| The City spreading westward came to the
4 ridge of sandhills; upon the east side lie
| the cemeteries and on our side lies the
| Bay District track. These barriers We
hope to have removed, and the racetrack
| is the first to go.
"Of course, Williams could never have
gotten the Eastern turfmen into the race
track combine, because, the locality being
within the City limits, streets would GO
through the course whenever the Board OF
Supervisors %illed it. But the horse
men would have done we'll to buy
the property ana cut it up themselves
for those sixteen blocks graded would be
worth fully $500, 900 now. With the pres
ent upward progress of values here they
will increase from month to month.
Zone more big removal must take place
the cemeteries. The Masonic, Odd Eel
lows, Laurel Hill and Calvary huria
grounds are between US and the City, an(
the public burial place, known as the CITY
Cemetery, west of US, is very undesirable
institution. Even sanitary reasons, strong
er than the commercial ones, call for thei
removal. They are far more objectiona
bic than the racetrack. Lying on the slop,
of the hills above US much of the drainag,
comes down into the Richmond Tract
| Then we have the cemetery gas which
comes up through the sand of the graves
and tell you the odors are unmistakable
See how liable we are to an epidemic
However, it will be an excellent thing fo
us when the old racetrack is thing of th
past.
''It is reported that an effort will b.
made TO transfer all the racing parapher
MALTA of the Bay District Park to Oakland
where Williams is interested. However
the new speed grounds at Ingleside will
probably take the place OF the cid course.