A Lovers’ Line
Self-Guided Walk through Time on Lovers’ Lane
Lovers’ Lane is the Presidio’s oldest foot trail. For more than two centuries people have made their way to and from the Presidio and San Francisco along the scenic, romantic path.
An interactive audio experience, A Lovers’ Line, offers a series of perspectives on the trail. The project was created by artist Jeannene Przyblyski.
Przyblyski is a professor at the San Francisco Art Institute and executive director of the San Francisco Bureau of Urban Secrets, a visual arts and urbanism think tank that promotes art in city life. Last year she created a similar art experience at Lands End that used the Coastal Trail as a backdrop to explore ever-changing history, geology, and ecology along San Francisco’s western edge.
"A Lovers’ Line gives you the pieces of several stories about the Presidio and asks you to put them together in your own mind as you walk the lane,” said Przyblyski. “Think of it as a way of meditating on history."
The stories overlap and intermingle with a cast of characters including the missionary, the soldier, the military wife, the translator, the dreamer, the hawk and the dove, the wayward trees, and the springs of the Tennessee Hollow watershed.
“Working in the national parks around San Francisco is a great pleasure and a great challenge,” said Przyblyski. “My work isn’t about giving people one story about how these places came to be, but rather asking them to make connections between the many stories still living in the landscape and the present day.”
Lovers’ Lane begins near the intersection of Presidio Boulevard and West Pacific Boulevard, just inside the Presidio Gate. Download a Map of Presidio Trails and Overlooks (PDF color map – updated March 2008)
DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST
iTunes Podcast (List View; Get All)
itpc://interface.audiovideoweb.com/podlnk/6476/play.xml
Other Media Players
http://library.presidio.gov/archive/documents/LoversLineAudioTimeline.zip
Track 1: Intro by Our Agent, c. 2009
Track 2: The Missionary & the Native Plants, c. 1778
Track 3: The Explorer in Uncharted Territory, c. 1806
Track 4: Juana Briones & the Sum of Possibilities, c. 1825
Track 5: Deserters & Dreamers, c. 1849
Track 6: The Migration of the Trees (Arbor Days), c. 1886
Track 7: The Buffalo Soldier, on Patrol, c. 1903
Track 8: Puppy Dog Tales, c. 1923
DOWNLOAD THE MAPS
Lovers’ Line “Stroll through Time” Maps