By all accounts, Ganesha Park was named by the man who established it on his property in the spring of 1888: Pomona attorney Patrick C. Tonner (c. 1844-1900). But why did Tonner, an Irish Catholic, decide to honor Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god, with a park? Reports as early as 1904 – though note, this was after Tonner’s death – claimed that Tonner, who was also a poet and a scholar, had a fondness for Indian literature. I found no evidence from his lifetime that could substantiate this claim, so we’ll just have to take it as is. At any rate, Ganesha is known as the god of removing obstacles, whether that means taming wilderness into a park or breaking through writer’s block, both of which would have appealed to Tonner. He sold nine acres of Ganesha Park to the City of Pomona c. 1890. It ultimately grew to around sixty acres. Ganesha Place was laid out in 1934.
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