Telegraph Hill
Coit Tower
Telegraph Hill is topped by Coit Tower, which no, is not a fire hose nozzle, even if it is a dead ringer for one, but is an Art Deco monument to the firefighters of the San Francisco Fire Department. It was erected in 1933 by bequest of SFFD's greatest fan, one Lillie Hitchcock Coit
"who, always in love with fire fighting, had been made an honorary member of her Volunteer Company Number Five." [From San Francisco: the Story of a City, John Bernard McGloin, S.J., San Rafael, CA and London: Presidio Press]Inside the tower are a series of frescos painted in the Social Realism style of Diego Rivera. They were commissioned by the Roosevelt era Civil Works Administration. Panels like these are preserved here and in other public buildings across the country built during the Depression, such as the old Terminal Annex post office in Los Angeles. To some, they are trippy; to others including this writer, they are a monument to life as it was in our parents' generation between the wars. To our parents, those who are still living, they evoke bittersweet memories. A time will come, maybe in this new century, when people have no inkling whether this kind of art represents the 1930s or the 1960s or what part of the last century it flourished for awhile.
The tourist who has only a half a day to spend in San Francisco should see Coit Tower if nothing else. Never mind the breathtaking views outside the tower which are also worth the excursion.
There are two ways to go up Telegraph Hill on foot: straight up one side, or straight up the other side. There is no easy route, but I prefer the east side ascent by staircase. The stairs pass in front of houses whose owners obviously prefer having a staircase to having a front yard.
Those driving should go east on Lombard Street which also goes more or less straight up after a few winds. Parking is free at the top of the hill. Consider taking a cab.
So here is our approach: we walk north on Montgomery Street as far as our stamina will take us, and find the stairs that go up to the tower. Montgomery Street itself eventually becomes steep enough to require stairs.
This is what a lot of Los Angeles looks like. And we are ready for our final climb up the hill..
Montgomery at Filbert
View of bay islands from the north entrance
If you look carefully, you can discern Yerba Buena Island on the right from Treasure Island on the left.
Stairs leading down to Sansome Street
Montgomery Street on
the way up Telegraph Hill
Not as bad as Mt. Davidson
The trees at the top of the block are at the base of another hill. The city has thoughtfully provided stair steps where the street would be so that people carrying their cars up won't need pitons.
Coit Tower
Some of these must
be self portraits of the muralists.
Detail of previous
The man in green is pulling
a copy of Karl Marx off the shelf, obviously a symbolic gesture connoting
more than intellectual curiosity. These are tempestuous times, San
Francisco in 1933-34. (The newspaper headlines are concerned with
the CWA, the painters' employer.) I don't know the identities of
anybody in the picture. The man has a faint resemblance to Harry
Bridges, head of the Iocal branch of the International Longshoremen's Association,
which brought about a general strike on and off the San Francisco waterfront
in 1934. Bridges was in his early 30s at the time.
Neighborhood on top of
Telegraph Hill