Coit Tower

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox NRHP Coit Tower (also known as Coit Memorial Tower) is a Template:Convert tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, overlooking the city and San Francisco Bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's bequest to beautify the city of San Francisco. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 2008.<ref name=nris/>

The Art Deco tower, built of unpainted reinforced concrete, was designed by architects Arthur Brown Jr. and Henry Temple Howard. The interior features fresco murals in the American Social Realism style, painted by 22 different onsite artists and their numerous assistants. Three artists preferred oil on canvas and worked offsite. One artist preferred egg tempera rather than fresco.

It is often erroneously stated that the structure was dedicated to the volunteer firemen who had died in San Francisco's five major fires, but that is not accurate. The tower was constructed as the result of a bequest by Lillie Hitchcock Coit, whose will included two bequests, one to create a memorial to the city's volunteer firefighters, which was done by statuary in Washington Square, and the other to beautify the city. Coit Tower is the result of the second bequest.<ref>Robert W. Cherny, The Coit Tower Murals: New Deal Art and Political Controversy in San Francisco (2024), ch. 1</ref> A concrete relief of a phoenix by sculptor Robert Boardman Howard is placed above the main entrance. It was commissioned by the architect and cast as part of the building.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Although an apocryphal story claims that the tower was designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle<ref name="shadow0">Template:Cite book</ref> due to Coit's affinity with the San Francisco firefighters of the day, the resemblance is coincidental.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

File:Coit Tower aerial.jpg

Coit Tower in 2008, looking WSW

Telegraph Hill, the tower's location, has been described as "the most optimal 360 degree viewing point to the San Francisco Bay and five surrounding counties."<ref name="nrhpnom1" /> In 1849, it became the site of a two-story observation deck, from which information about incoming ships was broadcast to city residents using an optical semaphore system, replaced in 1853 by an electrical telegraph that was destroyed by a storm in 1870.<ref name="nrhpnom1" />

Coit Tower was paid for with money left by Lillie Hitchcock Coit (1843–1929), a wealthy socialite who loved to chase fires in the early days of the city's history. Before December 1866, there was no city fire department, and fires in the city, which broke out regularly in the wooden buildings, were extinguished by several volunteer fire companies. Coit was one of the more eccentric characters in the history of North Beach and Telegraph Hill, smoking cigars and wearing trousers long before it was socially acceptable for women to do so. She was an avid gambler and often dressed like a man in order to gamble in the males-only establishments that dotted North Beach.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:San Francisco (CA, USA), Coit Tower -- 2022 -- 0891.jpg

Robert Boardman Howard's cast concrete relief of a phoenix is placed above the main entrance to the tower.

Coit's fortune funded the monument four years following her death in 1929. She had a special relationship with the city's firefighters. At the age of fifteen she witnessed the Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5 in response to a fire call up on Telegraph Hill when they were shorthanded; she threw her school books to the ground and pitched in to help, calling out to other bystanders to help get the engine up the hill to the fire, to get the first water onto the blaze. After that Coit became the Engine Co. mascot and could barely be constrained by her parents from jumping into action at the sound of every fire bell. She frequently rode with the Knickerbocker Engine Co. 5, especially in street parades and celebrations in which the Engine Co. participated. Through her youth and adulthood Coit was recognized as an honorary firefighter.

In her will she specified that one third of her fortune, amounting to $118,000,<ref name=nrhpnom1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved."<ref name="women1">Template:Cite book</ref> Two memorials were built in her name. One was Coit Tower, and the other was a sculpture depicting three firemen, one of them carrying a woman in his arms.<ref>h2g2 Lillie Hitchcock-Coit – Firefighter</ref>

The San Francisco County Board of Supervisors proposed that Coit's bequest be used for a road at Lake Merced. This proposal brought disapproval from the estate's executors, who expressed a desire that the county find "ways and means of expending this money on a memorial that in itself would be an entity and not a unit of public development".<ref name=nrhpnom1/> Art Commission president Herbert Fleishhacker suggested a memorial on Telegraph Hill, which was approved by the estate executors. An additional $7,000 in city funds was appropriated, and a design competition was initiated. The winner was architect Arthur Brown, Jr, whose design was completed and dedicated on October 8, 1933.<ref name=nrhpnom1/>

The following month Honore Bowlby-Gledhill, proprietor of the Dead Fish Cafe (an 'artists' restaurant') in Telegraph Hill, was charged (under the name 'Helen Smith') with shooting a pistol at the tower. Bowlby-Gledhill was quoted as objecting to the tower because it 'looked like a silo'.<ref>'Girl Angered, Shoots Tower', San Bernardino County Sun 18 November 1933 p. 1; 'Seek Dame Who Once Took Shot at Coit Tower', Siskiyou Daily News 15 February 1946 p. 5</ref>

Coit Tower was listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark in 1984<ref name=SFLandmark/> and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.<ref name=nris/> Although Coit Tower itself is not technically a California Historical Landmark, the state historical plaque for Telegraph Hill is located in the tower's lobby, marking the site of the original signal station.<ref name=CHL>Template:Cite ohp</ref>

In 2012, residents of the city voted in favor of Proposition B, the Coit Tower Protection Initiative, that requires the city to pay for the preservation of the murals and the building.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The San Francisco Arts Commission ordered the removal of the Statue of Christopher Columbus that had stood outside the entrance of the tower since 1957, following numerous other removals of controversial statues during the George Floyd protests that began in May 2020, and it was removed on June 18, 2020.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Architecture

Brown's competition design envisioned a restaurant in the tower, which was changed to an exhibition area in the final version. The design uses three nesting concrete cylinders, the outermost a tapering fluted Template:Convert shaft that supports the viewing platform. An intermediate shaft contains a stairway, and an inner shaft houses the elevator. The observation deck is Template:Convert below the top, with an arcade and skylights above it. A rotunda at the base houses display space and a gift shop.<ref name="nrhpnom1" />

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (1985), "The tower has been leaking since the day it was dedicated." The building was never designed to house artwork.<ref name=":2" /> Potable water is pumped from a water main at street level to two Template:Cvt tanks on the fifth floor, and gravity is used to feed all systems in the tower; a booster pump was installed later at the tanks to provide adequate pressure for the restrooms. Because of this arrangement, the murals (on the second and ground floors) are vulnerable to water damage from system leaks, which could be avoided if adequate pressure was available from the water supply at the street.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>

Mural project

File:Coit Tower lobby mural layout.svg
Coit Tower rotunda layout and murals<ref name=Zakheim>Template:Cite book</ref>

No.		Thumbnail	Name	Artist	Size (H×W)	Notes	Refs.
Rotunda murals
1	a	File:Animal Force (Boynton).jpg	Animal Force	Ray Boynton	Template:Cvt (aggregate)	First mural visible as visitors enter the rotunda; left and right panels are separated by "Old Man Weather" over the entrance to the elevator lobby. Animal Force has an alcove with a bronze plaque and commemorative dates; this panel depicts the use of animals in agriculture. Machine Force shows construction, transportation, and power production machines.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	b	File:Machine Force (Boynton).jpg	Machine Force
2		File:California Industrial Scenes (Howard).jpg	California Industrial Scenes	John Langley Howard	Template:Cvt	Industrial scenes, including construction, oil recovery, and mining; ironic points include use of hand tools and a broken-down car.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
3		File:Railroad and Shipping (Hesthal).jpg	Railroad and Shipping	William Hesthal	Template:Cvt	Train and ship, used to transport goods; a narrow window interrupts the center of the panel.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
4	a	File:Steelworker (Wight).jpg	Steelworker	Clifford Wight	Template:Cvt (each)	Straddles windows on the west wall; originally linked by a bridge with controversial symbols depicting capitalism and communism, but these elements were removed before 1934.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref name=Wight-LND>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	b	File:Surveyor (Wight).jpg	Surveyor
5		File:Industries of California (Stackpole).jpg	Industries of California	Ralph Stackpole	Template:Cvt	Industrial scenes, including food production and a chemical laboratory. Depicts several artists, including Tom Lehman (pouring chemicals), William Hesthal (bending over table in checked shirt), and Helen Clement Mills (part of packing crew).	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
6		File:Newsgathering (Scheuer & Daum).jpg	Newsgathering	Suzanne Scheuer and Hebe Daum	Template:Cvt	Newspaper offices; the window ledge has a replica of the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, celebrating the completion of the murals.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
7		File:Library (Zakheim).jpg	Library	Bernard Zakheim	Template:Cvt	Public library; individual portraits depict numerous artists, family, and friends alongside current news topics.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
8	a	File:Scientist-Inventor (Dean).jpg	Scientist-Inventor	Harold Mallette Dean	Template:Cvt (each)	Straddles windows on the south wall; stockbroker may depict Amadeo Giannini, while scientist stands in front of Lick Observatory.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	b	File:Stockbroker (Dean).jpg	Stockbroker
9		File:City Life (Arnautoff).jpg	City Life	Victor Arnautoff	Template:Cvt	Depicts busy street scenes in the Financial District of San Francisco, based on the corner of Montgomery and Washington.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
10		File:Banking and Law (Harris).jpg	Banking and Law	George Albert Harris	Template:Cvt	Depicts Federal Reserve Bank, Stock Exchange, and a law library.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
11		File:Department Store (Vidal).jpg	Department Store	Frede Vidar	Template:Cvt	Contemporary department store interior, including soda fountain.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
12	a	File:Cowboy (Wight).jpg	Cowboy	Clifford Wight	Template:Cvt (each)	Straddles windows on the east wall; farmer may depict Ralph Stackpole while cowboy may depict Wight.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref name=Wight-LND/>
	b	File:Farmer (Wight).jpg	Farmer
13		File:California (Albro).jpg	California	Maxine Albro	Template:Cvt	Depicts agricultural scenes from California; most portraits are friends of Albro, including her future husband (Parker Hall, next to apricot trays) and Ralph Stackpole (checkered shirt).	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
14		File:Meat Industry (Bertrand).jpg	Meat Industry	Ray Bertrand	Template:Cvt	Slaughterhouse and meat packing operations.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
15		File:California Agricultural Industry (Langdon & Mills).jpg	California Agricultural Industry	Gordon Langdon and Helen Clement Mills	Template:Cvt	Dairy and timber industries.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
20			Power	Frederick Olmsted Jr.	Template:Cvt	Transition piece flanked by industrial scenes, over rotunda entrance	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Elevator lobby murals
16		File:Coit Tower - "San Francisco Bay" (Otis Oldfield).jpg	San Francisco Bay	Otis Oldfield	Template:Cvt	Oil on canvas, depicts view from Telegraph Hill towards Berkeley.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref name=CAR19-Oldfield>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Oldfield-LND>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
17		File:San Francisco Bay, North, by Jose Moya del Pino - Coit Tower, San Francisco, CA - DSC04838.jpg	San Francisco Bay, North	Jose Moya del Pino	Template:Cvt	Oil on canvas, depicts view from Telegraph Hill towards Marin County, including Alcatraz Island.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
18	a		Bay Area Hills	Rinaldo Cuneo	Template:Cvt (each)	Depicts agricultural scenes from the Santa Clara Valley and Berkeley Hills.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	b
19	a	File:Coit Tower ascensore.JPG	Bay Area Map	Otis Oldfield	Template:Cvt (each)	Installed in lunette spaces over doorways in elevator lobby.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref name=CAR19-Oldfield/><ref name=Oldfield-LND/>
	b		Seabirds
Spiral staircase murals (special access required)
21		File:Coit Tower Lobby Murals 04.JPG	Powell Street	Lucien Labaudt	Template:Cvt (each of two panels)	Largest mural in Coit Tower; most portraits are recognizable.	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Upper level murals
22			Collegiate Sports	Parker Hall	Template:Cvt	Includes depiction of The Big Game between California and Stanford	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
23			Sports	Edward Terada	Template:Cvt	Leisure sports, including golf and polo	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
24			Children at Play	Ralph Chesse	Template:Cvt	Playground	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
25		File:Edith Hamlin Coit Tower Mural.jpg	Hunting in California	Edith Hamlin	Template:Cvt	Ducks and deer	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
26			Outdoor Life	Ben Cunningham	Template:Cvt	Picnickers, bathers, photographers, hikers	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
27			Home Life	Jane Berlandina	Template:Cvt	In a separate room, shows typical home life activities, including contract bridge, baking, music making, and newspaper reading	<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp <ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Coit Tower frescos 20.JPG

Detail from Ray Boynton's fresco Animal Force and Machine Force, crediting the Public Works of Art Project

The Coit Tower murals in the American Social Realism style formed the pilot project of the Public Works of Art Project,<ref name="nrhpnom1" /> the first of the New Deal federal employment programs for artists. Ralph Stackpole and Bernard Zakheim successfully sought the commission in 1933, and supervised the muralists, including Maxine Albro,<ref name=Albro-Hall>Template:Cite interview</ref> Victor Arnautoff, Jane Berlandina, Ray Bertrand, Ray Boynton, Ralph Chessé,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref><ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> Rinaldo Cuneo, Ben Cunningham,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> Mallette "Harold" Dean, Parker Hall,<ref name=Albro-Hall/> Edith Hamlin,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> George Albert Harris, William Hesthal,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> John Langley Howard,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> Lucien Labaudt,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> Gordon Langdon, Jose Moya del Pino<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> Otis Oldfield,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> Frederick Olmsted Jr., Suzanne Scheuer,<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> Edward Terada, Frede Vidar, and Clifford Wight. Many were faculty and students of the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA).<ref>San Francisco Art Institute. The Commission. SFAI Offers Diego Rivera His Second Commission in the US Template:Webarchive</ref>

These artists (chosen by Walter Heil, director of the de Young Museum, together with other officials) were each paid $25 to $45 per week to depict "aspects of life in California."<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The most well-known of them were assigned sections that were Template:Convert in size, while less famous artists were confined to Template:Convert.<ref name="nrhpnom1" />

{{#invoke:Gallery|gallery}}

Themes

The artists were committed in varying degrees to racial equality and to leftist and Marxist political ideas, which are strongly expressed in the paintings. Bernard Zakheim's mural Library Template:Color box depicts fellow artist John Langley Howard crumpling a newspaper in his left hand as he reaches for a shelved copy of Karl Marx's Das Kapital (here spelled as Das Capital) with his right. Workers of all races are shown as equals, often in the heroic poses of Socialist realism, while well-dressed racially white members of the capitalist classes enjoy the fruit of their labor.

Victor Arnautoff's City Life Template:Color box includes the periodicals The New Masses and The Daily Worker in the scene's news stand rack.

John Langley Howard's mural California Industrial Scenes Template:Color box depicts an ethnically diverse Labor March as well as showing a destitute family panning for gold while a wealthy, heavily caricatured ensemble observes.

Stackpole's Industries of California Template:Color box was composed along the same lines as an early study of the destroyed Man at the Crossroads.<ref name="Lee1999">Template:Cite book</ref>

The youngest of the muralists, George Albert Harris, painted a mural called Banking and Law Template:Color box. In the mural, the world of finance is represented by the Federal Reserve Bank and a stock market ticker (in which stocks are shown as declining) and law is illustrated by a law library.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some of the book titles that appear in the law library, such as Civil, Penal, and Moral Codes, are legitimate, while others list fellow muralists as authors, in a joking or derogatory manner.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

After Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads mural was destroyed by its Rockefeller Center patrons for the inclusion of an image of Lenin, the Coit Tower muralists protested, picketing the tower. Sympathy for Rivera led some artists to incorporate references to the Rivera incident; in Zakheim's Library panel Template:Color box, Stackpole is painted reading a newspaper headline announcing the destruction of Rivera's mural.<ref name="Lee1999" />

Censorship

After most of the Coit Tower murals had already been completed, the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, taking place nearby at the foot of Telegraph Hill,<ref name=":0" /> caused government officials, shipping companies, some union leaders and the press to raise fears about communist agitation.<ref name=":1" /> This "red scare" has been identified as playing a "crucial role" in a subsequent controversy that mainly focused on two of the murals:

1. Template:Color box and Template:Color box: These portraits were linked originally by a third small fresco in which Clifford Wight portrayed capitalism, the New Deal and communism, the three prominent economic systems of the era, with the communism part containing a hammer and sickle and the caption "Workers of the World Unite."<ref name=":1" />
2. Template:Color box: John Langley Howard's Industry mural (designed with the support of his architect brother Henry Howard), which depicts California industrial scenes including out-of-work men, and angered conservatives by showing a banner of the communist periodical Western Worker<ref name="marxists/westernworker">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> above a crowd of workers.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1" />

On June 23, 1934, the conservative banker Herbert Fleishhacker, the most powerful member of the committee allocating funds from the Public Works of Art Project, asked Heil to inspect the art, who telegraphed back that some artists had included "details ... and certain symbols which might be interpreted as communistic propaganda," and that "editors of influential papers ... have warned us that they would take hostile attitude towards whole project unless those details be removed."<ref name=":1" /> The official opening of the tower, planned for July 7, was canceled and Fleishhacker ordered to close the tower and to block the view from outside through the windows.<ref name=":1" /> Subsequently, articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner attacked the project, sometimes using misleading representations of the artworks in question, while Wight refused to remove the hammer and sickle symbol from his mural.<ref name=":1" /> However, federal government officials decided that the offending parts would need to be painted over, and 16 of the artists signed a statement saying that they opposed the hammer and sickle symbol and that it "has no place in the subject matter assigned."<ref name=":1" /> Eventually, only the hammer and sickle and the "Western Worker" banner were removed, and Coit Tower opened on October 12, 1934.<ref name=":1" />

Technical details and access

Two of the murals are of San Francisco Bay scenes. Most murals are done in fresco; the exceptions are one mural done in egg tempera (Home Life by Jane Berlandina, Template:Color box: upstairs, in the last decorated room) and the works done in the elevator foyer, which are oil on canvas (Template:Color box, Template:Color box, Template:Color box, and Template:Color box).<ref name=Zakheim/>Template:Rp While most of the murals were restored in 1990<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and again in 2014 through cleaning and touching up scratches,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the murals in the spiral stairway exit to the observation platform (Powell Street by Lucien Labaudt) were not restored but durably painted over with epoxy surfacing.

Most of the murals are open for public viewing without charge during open hours, although there are ongoingTemplate:When negotiations by the Recreation and Parks Department of San Francisco to begin charging visitors a fee to enter the mural rotunda.Template:Citation needed The murals in the spiral stairway and second floor, normally closed to the public, areTemplate:When open for viewing through tours.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Labaudt's Powell Street runs along both sides of the spiral staircase; the second-floor murals all carry recreational themes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Since 2004 artist Ben Wood collaborated with other artists on large scale video projections onto the exterior of Coit Tower, in 2004, 2006, 2008 & 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Residents

There is a small unindexed apartment on the second floor of the building. The former army lieutenant William J. Bradley and his wife were paid to live in the apartment to guard the art and the building. It is not known when the couple moved out. During the 1980s, the city renovated the artwork in the building, and once again hired a permanent guardian, Tim Lillyquist, who became the third and last permanent resident of the tower.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Panorama

The tower, which stands atop Telegraph Hill in San Francisco's Pioneer Park, offers panoramic views of San Francisco that take in "crooked" Lombard Street, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, Twin Peaks, Aquatic Park, Pier 39, the Financial District and the Ferry Building, as well as San Francisco Bay itself including Angel Island, Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.

Gallery

• TelegraphHillbyJohnCurley.jpg

  A view of Telegraph Hill from a boat in the San Francisco Bay.

• Coittower sf view.jpg

  View of Coit Tower, Alcatraz, and Marin County from Downtown.

• CoitTowerLookingFromGreenwichAndTelegraphHillBlvd.jpg

  A closer photograph of Coit Tower from the parking lot

• Coit Tower ascensore.JPG

  Bay Area Map, mural by Otis Oldfield above the elevator

• Coit tower lombard street.JPG

  View from Lombard Street

• Coit Tower, San Francisco (south facing side).jpg

  The south-facing side of Coit Tower

• Sfcoit.jpg

  Looking south from the tower

• Looking up at Coit Tower.jpg

  Looking up at the tower

• Coit Tower at Night.JPG

  Coit Tower at night, lit orange in recognition of the San Francisco Giants

• San Francisco bay from coit tower.jpg

  View of the bay from Coit Tower

• Coit tower 2.jpg

  As seen from below

• Coit tower.jpg

  Vertical view

• 17 30 085 coit tower.jpg

  Detail of arches at the top of the tower

In popular culture

Coit Tower is a prominent landscape feature in Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film, Vertigo, set largely in San Francisco. The character of Madeleine (Kim Novak) tells Scotty (James Stewart) that she has used the tower to orient herself to his apartment, as she did not know his street address; he responds this is the first time he had been grateful for the tower. Art director Henry Bumstead, who worked on Vertigo, noted that Hitchcock was adamant that Coit Tower should be seen in the film from the apartment of the lead character, portrayed by Stewart. When Bumstead asked why, Hitchcock said, "It's a phallic symbol."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Coit Tower is also featured in:

• After the Thin Man (1936 film): the roundabout in front of the tower served as the driveway for Nick and Nora Charles' home in San Francisco.
• The Strawberry Statement (1970 film)
• The Enforcer (1976)
• San Andreas (film) (2015)
• Tex Murphy series (1989–2014)
• California's Gold Episode 12004<ref name="vimeo/11537257">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="oac.cdlib/13030/c8k64mfn">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• PBS The History Detectives Episode 709 August 24, 2009.
• Just like Heaven (2005)
• Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010)

See also

• 49-Mile Scenic Drive
• History of San Francisco
• List of San Francisco Designated Landmarks

External links

• Official website
• Template:Structurae