Croll's Gardens

Croll's Gardens, at Alameda, California, near San Francisco, had been a popular boxing training camp from the late 1800s to about 1910 or so.

Thirty years earlier it had been known as Neptune Gardens--a popular Sunday getaway for San Franciscans. Neptune Gardens featured water fountains, skating rinks, shooting galleries, dancing pavilions and ice-cold beer. In time, however, it fell into disrepair, until only a few stables and a garish structure known as the Wigwam remained.

Mr. Croll took it over and created a boxing training camp. Many well-known boxers trained there, including: James J. Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, Nonpareil Jack Dempsey, Joe Gans, Peter Jackson, Joe Walcott, Paddy Duffy, Tommy Ryan, Hugo Kelly, Abe Attell and George Dixon.

By early 1914, however, Croll's Gardens too was no more.

Source: 1 March 1914 Salt Lake Tribune wire report [1]

See also, Croll Building: [2]