The palace for cows belongs to San Mateo

San Francisco can technically claim the address, as they sometimes show it at Geneva Avenue and Santos Street. That is just a corner of the property that extends into the city and county of San Francisco. The building was built inside our county line back in 1941 and was actually named the Grand National Livestock Exposition Pavilion.

The idea for a permanent livestock pavilion came from the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. It was held in today’s Marina District. The Palace of Fine Arts still stands there as a lasting monument to the 1915 event. Since the huge livestock exhibit was one of the most popular attractions of the PPIE, local businessmen decided that a permanent structure should be built to hold such an affair annually.

The project was put on a back burner until 1925 when money was appropriated to buy the Marina land. The Great Depression further delayed the project, and that’s when a news headline appeared, "Why, when people are starving, should money be spent on a palace for cows?” This spawned the new name for the place, The Cow Palace. A new site was selected and the W.P.A. project actually put thousands of unemployed men to work.

Construction was finished in 1941 just in time for its first event, the Western Holstein Show. Was this a cow beauty pageant? The first Grand National Rodeo was held in November of that year. That show was a tribute to the late Will Rogers and was a tremendous success. Society dinner parties heralded the event. Peninsula luminaries in particular were excited over the inauguration. After all, they represented the sporty set of San Francisco Society. Lurline Roth Coonan of Woodside participated in equestrian events.

Pearl Harbor was attacked two weeks after that first rodeo, and the federal government then rented the six-acre site with its concrete and steel roofed arena. The United States paid $1 per year for the huge structure. At first it was used as an embarkation center for troops. Later during the war it became a huge garage for repairing ordinance. In 1946, it was turned back to its original purpose.

Since 1949, the facility has been made available for general public use. It has seen every type of sports event and musical presentation. Billy Graham held one of his crusades here. Political party conventions have been held here. Long-term tenants include the Grand National Rodeo, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, the San Francisco Sport & Boat Show, the Golden Gate Kennel Club Dog Show and Disney on Ice.

In 1974, a Grateful Dead concert unveiled the greatest P.A. system of all time, their famous "Wall of Sound.” The group had sponsored research and experimentation to improve sound systems for large venues like the Cow Palace. It took five trucks to haul the 72 tons of equipment, and the system was retired after only two years. Though considered wondrous to behold, it was just too expensive and cumbersome for the band to maintain.

When you see ads for events to be held at the Cow Palace, notice that they mention the location is in Daly City, although sometimes in small print. They also maintain a San Francisco mailing address, but that’s a post office box.

Rediscovering the Peninsula appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal. For more information on this or related topics, visit the San Mateo County History Museum, 2200 Broadway, Redwood City.