Coit Tower
1 Telegraph Hill Boulevard
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1932
Coit Tower, designed by Arthur Brown Jr.
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October 1933
Completed and dedicated: a 182-foot fluted, unpainted reinforced concrete tower on a square base in Pioneer Park, with an arcaded observation belvedere and an open lantern at the top, paid for out of the nearly $100,000 Lillie Hitchcock Coit left the city for its beautification when she died in 1929. Designed by Arthur Brown Jr. with Henry Temple Howard, who rendered it, and built by Young & Horstmeyer for $125,000 including the landscaping; the phoenix relief over the entrance is by Robert Boardman Howard. A restaurant and a grander south terrace were cut from the design for cost.
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1934
Coit Tower holds the largest single group of Public Works of Art Project murals in San Francisco: twenty-six works painted in 1934 by twenty-five artists, among them Maxine Albro's California Agriculture, Victor Arnautoff's City Life, Jane Berlandina's Home Life, Ralph Stackpole's Industries of California and Bernard Zakheim's Library, in fresco, egg tempera and oil on canvas. The tower is City Landmark No. 165 and is listed in the National Register.
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July 2, 1934
The public opening planned for this day was cancelled, and the Park and Art Commissions locked the tower during the waterfront strike after a doctored newspaper photograph set Clifford Wight's hammer and sickle over Bernard Zakheim's mural. Wight's panels over the windows and the Western Worker banner in John Langley Howard's mural were removed before it reopened.
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October 12, 1934
The tower finally opened to the public, with its murals, after months of closure.
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1935–1941
The Works Progress Administration built a new stone stairway, sidewalks, retaining walls, concrete stairs and gutters here, installed chain link fencing, drainage and irrigation, spread 210 cubic yards of loam and planted the slope.
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1957
The statue of Christopher Columbus was put up at the centre of the parking circle in front of the tower.
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1960
The murals were restored by the painter Dorothy Puccinelli Cravath and the plasterer John Wong under Henry Rusk, with some of the original artists retouching their own work.
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1984
Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 165, Coit Tower.
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January 29, 2008
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its Public Works of Art Project murals, Aspects of Life in California, and as an Art Deco monument.
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Sep 2012
Reroofing - coit memorial tower.
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Sep 2012
Add address 1 telegraph hill blvd to block 0086 lot 012.
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May 2013
Building rehabilitation, exterior repair, door & window rehabilitation, interior finishes paint & tile repair. upgrade for mechanical & electrical, accessibility, hand & guardrail, restroom. new accessible & site signage. ($50k non barrier removal items, others are maintenance & accessibility upgrade work).
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Feb 2014
Paint interior of existing shop, remove/replace existing slatwall, add 3 new outlets to existing circuit, add new cabinets, add 2 new audio/visual alarms exit signage, ada accessible counter top & ada signage.
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May 2014
A $1.7 million rehabilitation by the Recreation and Parks Department, prompted by the voters' Proposition B of June 2012, was completed after closing the tower for six months: a new waterproofed roof, new plumbing and wiring, accessibility work, and $250,000 of mural conservation.
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Apr 2016
(rear building) to erect 1 story, no basement, limited restaurant.
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Mar 2018
Permit is to revise record with building dept on paper. the work done under pa 2016-0425-5639; water, electrical & sewer connection service points to the existing food kiosk.
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2023
Recommended for city landmark designation in 2023, on historical, aesthetic and artistic grounds.
2 nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits are omitted from the timeline.
Nearby
- 275 Telegraph Hill Boulevard Same street
- 420 Filbert Street Around the corner
- 427–431 Greenwich Street Around the corner
- 439 Greenwich Street Around the corner