Woodward's Gardens in San Francisco is the subject of this albumen stereoview, published by Carleton Watkins under his Watkins' Pacific Coast imprint and issued from his gallery at 22 and 26 Montgomery Street, opposite Lick House. Watkins was among the most celebrated photographers working in the American West during the nineteenth century, and his commercial stereoview series documented California landmarks with characteristic precision and depth.

The view is taken from an elevated vantage point looking down toward a glass-and-wood greenhouse structure with a distinctive peaked roof and decorative scalloped fascia, flanked by a mature pine tree at left and open lawns receding toward an ornate domed building in the middle distance. A woman in a full white dress and a figure in dark clothing stand near the greenhouse steps in the foreground, providing scale, while a directional sign reading "To The Amphithe[atre]" is visible in the right frame. A low wooden rail fence and wire mesh railing border the foreground walkway.

Woodward's Gardens, opened by Robert B. Woodward in 1866 on his Mission District estate, operated as San Francisco's premier public amusement park and zoological garden through the 1890s, drawing visitors to its conservatory, museum, and amphitheater. The manuscript caption "Woodwards Gardens . San Francisco" is inscribed in ink along the lower mount, and the number 727 appears in pencil at the upper right of the reverse.