On this site in 1872, General David D. Colton, a railroad attorney, built one of the most elaborate residences ever seen in San Francisco...

In 1892, Central Pacific railroad baron Collis P. Huntington purchased the house where he lived with his wife, Arabella, until the time of his death in 1900. Mrs. Huntington occupied the grand mansion until its destruction in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. In 1915, Mrs. Huntington donated the land to the City of San Francisco to remain in perpetuity as a park for all the people of the City to enjoy.

Beginning in the late 1970s, the park became a continuing restoration and preservation project of the Nob Hill Association in cooperation with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.