Coit Tower (also known as Coit Memorial Tower) is a tower in the

Telegraph Hill A telegraph hill is a hill or other natural elevation that is chosen as part of an optical telegraph system. Telegraph Hill may also refer to: England * A high point in the Haldon Hills, Devon * Telegraph Hill, Dorset, a hill in the Dorset Downs ...

neighborhood of

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, overlooking the city and

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using

Lillie Hitchcock Coit Elizabeth Hitchcock Coit (August 23, 1843 – July 22, 1929) was a patron of San Francisco's volunteer firefighters and the benefactor for the construction of the Coit Tower in San Francisco, California. Life Born in West Point, New York, in 1843 ...

's bequest to beautify the city of San Francisco. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on January 29, 2008. The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

tower, built of unpainted

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

, was designed by architects

Arthur Brown Jr. Arthur Brown Jr. (May 21, 1874—July 7, 1957) was an American architect, based in San Francisco and designer of many of its landmarks. He is known for his work with John Bakewell Jr. as Bakewell and Brown, along with later works after the par ...

and Henry Temple Howard. The interior features

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

murals in the American

Social Realism Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

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. A concrete relief of a phoenix by sculptor

Robert Boardman Howard Robert Boardman Howard (September 20, 1896 – February 18, 1983) was an American artist. He is known for his graphic art, watercolors, oils, and murals, as well as his Art Deco bas-reliefs and his Modernist sculptures and mobiles. An online facs ...

is placed above the main entrance. It was commissioned by the architect and cast as part of the building. Although an apocryphal story claims that the tower was designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle due to Coit's affinity with the San Francisco firefighters of the day, the resemblance is coincidental.

History

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." 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 Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...

system, replaced in 1853 by an electrical telegraph that was destroyed by a storm in 1870. Coit Tower was paid for with money left by

(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

, 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. 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, "be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved." 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. The San Francisco County Board of Supervisors proposed that Coit's bequest be used for a road at

Lake Merced Lake Merced () is a freshwater lake located on the West Side of San Francisco, in the southwest corner of the city. It is surrounded by three golf courses (the private Olympic Club and San Francisco Golf Club, and the public TPC Harding Park), as ...

. 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". Art Commission president

Herbert Fleishhacker Herbert Fleishhacker (November 2, 1872 – April 2, 1957), was an American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist. In 1924, he created and helped fund the Fleishhacker Pool in San Francisco, for many years the world's largest outdoor salt ...

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. 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'. Coit Tower was listed as a

San Francisco Designated Landmark This is a list of San Francisco Designated Landmarks. In 1967, the city of San Francisco, California, adopted Article 10 of the Planning Code, providing the city with the authority to designate and protect landmarks from inappropriate alteration ...

in 1984 and on the

in 2008. Although Coit Tower itself is not technically a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

, the state historical plaque for Telegraph Hill is located in the tower's lobby, marking the site of the original signal station. 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. The

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cal ...

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 The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

that began in May 2020, and it was removed on June 18, 2020.

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 shaft that supports the viewing platform. An intermediate shaft contains a stairway, and an inner shaft houses the elevator. The observation deck is below the top, with an arcade and skylights above it. A rotunda at the base houses display space and a gift shop. According to the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' (1985), "The tower has been leaking since the day it was dedicated." The building was never designed to house artwork. Potable water is pumped from a water main at street level to two 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.

Mural project

The Coit Tower murals in the American

style formed the pilot project of the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal work-relief program that employed professional artists to create sculptures, paintings, crafts and design for public buildings and parks during the Great Depression in the United States. The ...

, the first of the New Deal federal employment programs for artists.

Ralph Stackpole Ralph Ward Stackpole (May 1, 1885 – December 10, 1973) was an American sculpture, sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator, San Francisco's leading artist during the 1920s and 1930s. Stackpole was involved in the art and causes of so ...

and

Bernard Zakheim Bernard Baruch Zakheim (April 4, 1898 – November 28, 1985) was a Warsaw-born San Francisco muralist, best known for his work on the Coit Tower murals. Early life and immigration Zakheim was born to a Hasidic Jewish family in Warsaw, then part ...

successfully sought the commission in 1933, and supervised the muralists, including

Maxine Albro Maxine Albro (January 20, 1893 – July 19, 1966) was an American painter, muralist, lithographer, mosaic artist, and sculptor. She was one of America's leading female artists, and one of the few women commissioned under the New Deal's Federal Ar ...

Victor Arnautoff Victor Mikhail Arnautoff (November 11, 1896 – March 22, 1979) was a Russian-American painter and professor of art. He worked in San Francisco and the Bay Area from 1925 to 1963, including two decades as a teacher at Stanford University, and was ...

, Jane Berlandina, Ray Bertrand, Ray Boynton, Ralph Chessé,

Rinaldo Cuneo Rinaldo Cuneo (July 2, 1877 – December 27, 1939), was an American artist known for his landscape paintings and murals. He was dubbed "the Painter of San Francisco". Early life and education Rinaldo Cuneo was born in San Francisco on July 2, 1 ...

, Ben Cunningham, Mallette "Harold" Dean, Parker Hall, Edith Hamlin,

George Albert Harris George Albert Harris, also known as George Harris (1913–1991), was an American painter, muralist, lithographer, and educator. He was a participant in the WPA Federal Art Project and was among the youngest artists on the mural project at Coit Tow ...

, William Hesthal,

John Langley Howard John Langley "Lang" Howard (1902–1999) was an American artist, known as a Social realism, Social Realist muralist, printmaker and illustrator. Biography John Langley Howard was born in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, Upper Montclair, New Jersey ...

Lucien Labaudt Lucien Adolphe Labaudt (May 14, 1880 – December 12, 1943) was a French-born American painter based in San Francisco, California. His best-known work may be ''Powell Street'' (1934), a mural in fresco at Coit Tower that he created for the Public ...

, Gordon Langdon, Jose Moya del Pino Otis Oldfield,

Frederick Olmsted Jr. Frederick "Fred" Olmsted Jr. (April 10, 1911 – February 14, 1990) was an American artist and biophysicist. He created social realism themed murals and sculptures for the Federal Art Project, and the Public Works of Art Project. Later, he be ...

Suzanne Scheuer Suzanne Scheuer (1898 – 1984) was an American fine artist, best known for her New Deal-era murals. She painted one of the murals in Coit Tower, ''Newsgathering''. Biography Suzanne Scheuer was born in San Jose, California on February 11 ...

, Edward Terada, Frede Vidar, and Clifford Wight. Many were faculty and students of the

California School of Fine Arts San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

(CSFA). These artists (chosen by Walter Heil, director of the

de Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...

, together with other officials) were each paid $25 to $45 per week to depict "aspects of life in California." The most well-known of them were assigned sections that were in size, while less famous artists were confined to .

Themes

The artists were committed in varying degrees to racial equality and to

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

and

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

political ideas, which are strongly expressed in the paintings. Bernard Zakheim's mural ''Library'' depicts fellow artist

crumpling a newspaper in his left hand as he reaches for a shelved copy of Karl Marx's ''

Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

'' (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'' includes the periodicals ''

The New Masses ''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). It was the successor to both '' The Masses'' (1911–1917) and ''The Liberator'' (1918–1924). ''New Masses'' was later merge ...

'' and ''

The Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'' in the scene's news stand rack.

's mural ''California Industrial Scenes'' 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'' was composed along the same lines as an early study of the destroyed ''Man at the Crossroads''. The youngest of the muralists,

, painted a mural called ''Banking and Law'' . 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. 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. After

Diego Rivera Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican muralism, mural movement in Mexican art, Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted mural ...

's ''

Man at the Crossroads ''Man at the Crossroads'' (1933) was a fresco by Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Originally slated to be installed in the lobby of the 30 Rockefeller Plaza, RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City, the fresco showed aspects of contempo ...

'' 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 , Stackpole is painted reading a newspaper headline announcing the destruction of Rivera's mural.

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, caused government officials, shipping companies, some union leaders and the press to raise fears about communist agitation. This "

red scare A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of thos ...

" has been identified as playing a "crucial role" in a subsequent controversy that mainly focused on two of the murals: # and : 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 The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between industrial and agricultural workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing wo ...

and the caption "

Workers of the World Unite The political slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" is one of the rallying cries from ''The Communist Manifesto'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (, literally , but soon popularised in English as "Workers of the world, unite! You h ...

." # :

'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 above a crowd of workers. On June 23, 1934, the conservative banker

, 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." 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. Subsequently, articles in the ''

'' and ''

The San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the H ...

'' 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. 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." Eventually, only the hammer and sickle and the "Western Worker" banner were removed, and Coit Tower opened on October 12, 1934.

Technical details and access

Two of the murals are of

scenes. Most murals are done in

; the exceptions are one mural done in

egg tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...

(''Home Life'' by Jane Berlandina, : upstairs, in the last decorated room) and the works done in the elevator foyer, which are

oil on canvas Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or copper for several centuries. ...

(, , , and ). While most of the murals were restored in 1990 and again in 2014 through cleaning and touching up scratches, the murals in the spiral stairway exit to the observation platform (''Powell Street'' by

) were not restored but durably painted over with

epoxy Epoxy is the family of basic components or Curing (chemistry), cured end products of epoxy Resin, resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide fun ...

surfacing. Most of the murals are open for public viewing without charge during open hours, although there are ongoing negotiations by the Recreation and Parks Department of San Francisco to begin charging visitors a fee to enter the mural

rotunda A rotunda () is any roofed building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It may also refer to a round room within a building (an example being the one below the dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). ...

. The murals in the spiral stairway and second floor, normally closed to the public, are open for viewing through tours. Labaudt's ''Powell Street'' runs along both sides of the spiral staircase; the second-floor murals all carry recreational themes. Since 2004 artist

Ben Wood Ben Wood (born 1980, in Shoreham-By-Sea, United Kingdom) is a British visual artist living and working in San Francisco. Over the past decade he has carried out public projects in San Francisco and exhibited in Mexico City, Honolulu and the United ...

collaborated with other artists on large scale video projections onto the exterior of Coit Tower, in 2004, 2006, 2008 & 2009.

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.

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 Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highe ...

Russian Hill Russian Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is named after one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills". Location Russian Hill is directly to the north (and slightly downhill) from Nob Hill, to t ...

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American Surrealist cinema, surrealist Mystery film, mystery-Horror film, horror Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It Pilot (Twin Peaks), premiered on American Broad ...

, Aquatic Park,

Pier 39 Pier 39 is a shopping center and popular tourist attraction built on a pier in San Francisco, California. At Pier 39, there are shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances, the Aquarium of the Bay, virtual 3D rides, and views of C ...

, the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

and the Ferry Building, as well as

itself including Angel Island,

Alcatraz Alcatraz Island () is a small island about 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco in San Francisco Bay, California, near the Golden Gate Strait. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fo ...

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

, and the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...

and Bay Bridges.

Gallery

File:TelegraphHillbyJohnCurley.jpg, A view of Telegraph Hill from a boat in the

. File:Coittower sf view.jpg, View of Coit Tower, Alcatraz, and Marin County from Downtown. File:CoitTowerLookingFromGreenwichAndTelegraphHillBlvd.jpg, A closer photograph of Coit Tower from the parking lot File:Coit Tower ascensore.JPG, ''Bay Area Map'', mural by Otis Oldfield above the elevator File:coit tower lombard street.JPG, View from Lombard Street File:Coit Tower, San Francisco (south facing side).jpg, The south-facing side of Coit Tower File:Sfcoit.jpg, Looking south from the tower File:Looking up at Coit Tower.jpg, Looking up at the tower File:Coit Tower at Night.JPG, Coit Tower at night, lit orange in recognition of the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

File:San Francisco bay from coit tower.jpg, View of the bay from Coit Tower File:Coit tower 2.jpg, As seen from below File:Coit tower.jpg, Vertical view File: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 Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

's 1958 film, ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

'', set largely in San Francisco. The character of Madeleine (

Kim Novak Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American retired actress and painter. Her contributions to cinema have been honored with two Golden Globe Awards, an Honorary Golden Bear, a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, and a s ...

) tells Scotty (

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...

) 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 Lloyd Henry "Bummy" Bumstead (March 17, 1915 – May 24, 2006) was an American cinematic Art director#Film, art director and production designer. In a career that spanned nearly 70 years, Bumstead began as a draftsman in RKO Pictures' art de ...

, 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." Coit Tower is also featured in: * ''

After the Thin Man ''After the Thin Man'' is a 1936 American murder mystery comedy film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starring William Powell, Myrna Loy and James Stewart. A sequel to the 1934 feature ''The Thin Man (film), The Thin Man'', the film presents Powel ...

'' (1936): the roundabout in front of the tower served as the driveway for Nick and Nora Charles' home in San Francisco. * ''

The Strawberry Statement ''The Strawberry Statement'' is a non-fiction book by James Simon Kunen, written when he was 19, which chronicled his experiences at Columbia University from 1966–1968, particularly the April 1968 protests and takeover of the office of the dean ...

'' (1970) * '' The Enforcer'' (1976) * ''

Tex Murphy ''Tex Murphy'' is a series of video games designed by Chris Jones. The eponymous main character is portrayed in live-action by Chris Jones himself. He is characterized as a down-on-his-luck private investigator in a post-nuclear future San Franc ...

'' series (1989–2014) * ''

California's Gold ''California's Gold'' was a public television human interest program that explores the natural, cultural, and historical features of California. The series ran for 24 seasons beginning in 1991, and was produced and hosted by Huell Howser in coll ...

'' Episode 12004 * '' Just like Heaven'' (2005) * '' X-Men: The Last Stand'' (2006) * '' The History Detectives'' Episode 709 August 24, 2009 * '' Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore'' (2010) * '' San Andreas'' (2015) * ''

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' is a 2021 American superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Shang-Chi. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is List of Marvel ...

'' (2021)

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coit Tower Art Deco architecture in California Art Deco sculptures and memorials Buildings and structures in San Francisco Observation towers on the National Register of Historic Places Towers in California Towers completed in 1933 Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco 1930s architecture in the United States Public Works of Art Project San Francisco Designated Landmarks Landmarks in San Francisco North Beach, San Francisco