Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chinese American historical institute is a treasury of artifacts and personal stories, tracing
journeys from China that made American history.
WORTH A TRIP
COIT TOWER
Adding an exclamation mark to San Francisco's landscape, Coit Tower ( MAP GOOGLE MAP
; 415-362-0808; http://sfrecpark.org/destination/telegraph-hill-pioneer-park/coit-tower ; Tele-
graph Hill Blvd; elevator entry (nonresident) adult/child $7/5; 10am-5:30pm Mar-Sep, 9am-4:30pm
Oct-Feb; 39) offers views worth shouting about - especially after you climb the giddy,
steep Filbert St or Greenwich St steps to the top of Telegraph Hill. This 210ft, peculiar
projectile is a monument to San Francisco firefighters financed by eccentric heiress Lillie
Hitchcock Coit. Lillie could drink, smoke and play cards as well as any off-duty firefighter,
rarely missed a fire or a firefighter's funeral, and even had the firehouse emblem em-
broidered on her bedsheets.
Even before it opened in 1934, Lillie's tower became a lightning-rod for controversy.
Federally funded lobby murals show San Franciscans during the Great Depression at
speakeasies, soup kitchens, and dock-workers' unions. Authorities denounced Coit
Tower's 25 muralists as communists, but San Franciscans rallied to protect their artwork
as a national landmark.
Newly restored in 2014, the bright, bold murals broaden world views just as surely as
the 360-degree views from the tower-top viewing platform. To glimpse murals inside Coit
Tower's spiral stairwell, join free guided tours at 11am on Saturdays.
 
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