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Ingleside Racetrack

Ingleside Racetrack with Merced Heights ridgeline in background, late 1890s. - Courtesy of Greg Gaar

The story goes that Edward Corrigan had a disagreement with Thomas Williams at Williams' Bay View Racetrack. The matter in dispute is lost to the mists of time, but supposedly Corrigan vowed to build his own racetrack, bigger, grander, and of higher quality than Williams's.

On November 28, 1895, Corrigan, and his partners (formed as the Pacific Jockey Club) opened the Ingleside Racetrack, just off the Ocean Road (now Ocean Avenue.) Mostly rural Ocean Road was considered "out of town" in those days and a horse racing track fit right in with the other gambling operations in the vicinity. There was a dog track, a shooting range, and a number of roadhouses along the dusty path.

The Ingleside Racetrack elevated the elegance factor considerably, with a sumptuous clubhouse and a fine viewing stand. Even the horses had one of the best stables to be found in racing. On the once sandy acreage, six inches of finely groomed loam was laid out for the track.

Eight thousand people came on opening day, and the Southern Pacific Railroad built a special line up to the front doors to the serve them. There were bands, fine dining, and wonderful views of Sutro's forest on one side and the undulating grassy ridgeline that would be Merced Heights on the other. Fine views, that is, when the weather permitted:

"The last three days of the Ingleside meeting [in 1898] were blighted by heavy afternoon fogs which shut out the greater part of the races from view."1

The first auto race in California took place at the track in 1900. Eight cars squared off and the winner also happened to be the only vehicle to finish! All the other contestants either crashed or had engine trouble.

Business declined, however, and by 1905 Corrigan's bitter competitor had cornered most of the racing business in the Bay Area. Thomas Williams' California Jockey Club added the fine Ingleside track to its roster in December and promised a renewed schedule of races all week long.

Ingleside Racetrack showing clubhouse and grandstand, 1895. - Courtesy of Greg Gaar

But it wasn't to be. The track closed down and served as a refugee camp for many San Franciscans after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. It also hosted the patients from today's Laguna Honda Hospital as the facility recovered from the quake.

In 1910, Joseph A. Leonard's Urban Realty Development Company bought the old track and set about turning the land into a residence park. By 1913 Ingleside Terraces had opened, with Urbano Drive laid out exactly on the loop of the old racetrack.

Notes:
1. Benedict, "Turf Topics," The Wave,, March 12, 1898.

Thanks to Marsha Fontes for most of this information!

Read more in S.W. LaBounty's Streetwise column, and in Angus Macfarlane's article.

Contribute your own stories about the OMI!

This project is made possible by a grant from the CALIFORNIA COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES with generous support from the San Francisco Foundation, as part of the Council's statewide California Stories Initiative. The COUNCIL is an independent non-profit organization and a state affiliate of the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES. For more information on the Council and the California Stories Initiative, visit www.californiastories.org.

Page launched September 1999; Updated 30 January 2008.