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Coit Tower — The checkable facts
Quick answer
Coit Tower stands 210 feet on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, completed in 1933 with money left by Lillie Hitchcock Coit, an honorary volunteer firefighter who died in 1929. Its ground floor is wrapped in fresco murals painted in 1934 by 22 artists under a federal relief program. A dispute over communist imagery delayed the public opening until October.
| Claim | Source |
|---|---|
| Lillie Hitchcock Coit was 15 when she joined Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5's crew in 1858 | Wikipedia — Coit Tower |
| She left one third of her estate to San Francisco 'for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city' | Wikipedia — Coit Tower |
| The bequest funded Coit Tower and the volunteer firefighters monument in Washington Square | Wikipedia — Coit Tower |
| The 210-foot tower was built between 1932 and 1933 | Wikipedia — Coit Tower |
| Twenty-two artists painted frescoes on site in 1934 under the Public Works of Art Project | Wikipedia — Coit Tower |
| On 23 June 1934 the removal of communist symbols was ordered; the 7 July opening was cancelled and the tower opened on 12 October 1934 | Wikipedia — Coit Tower |
| Only the hammer and sickle and the 'Western Worker' banner were ultimately removed | Wikipedia — Coit Tower |
| The dispute coincided with the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike at the foot of Telegraph Hill | Wikipedia — 1934 West Coast waterfront strike |
Frequently asked
Was Coit Tower designed to look like a fire hose nozzle?
No. The architects, Arthur Brown Jr. and Henry Howard, said the fluted concrete shaft was a plain classical column and that any resemblance to firefighting equipment was accidental. The story survives because the donor spent her life attached to a volunteer engine company, which makes the coincidence too neat for people to give up.
Do you have to pay to see the murals?
The lobby frescoes on the ground floor are open without a ticket. The elevator to the observation deck is the part that charges, and there is usually a queue for it because the cab is small. A second set of murals climbing the stairwell can only be seen on a guided tour, which runs on limited days.
Why were the murals controversial?
They were painted while the 1934 waterfront strike shut the port, and critics found leftist symbols in them: a hammer and sickle, the slogan Workers of the World Unite, and the masthead of a communist paper on a newsstand. Those details were removed. The July opening was canceled and the public was admitted on October 12, 1934.
What do the murals actually show?
California at work during the Depression: wheat harvests, orange picking, a steel mill, a stockbroker's office, a library reading room, a street corner with a holdup in progress. The technique is buon fresco, pigment painted into wet plaster, and the composition borrows openly from Diego Rivera, who had recently completed commissions in the city.
How did Lillie Hitchcock Coit make her money?
She married Howard Coit, caller of the San Francisco Mining Exchange, and inherited from him and from her own family. Widowed in 1885, she spent long stretches in Paris and returned to California late in life. By her death in 1929 the estate was large enough that a third of it paid for both a monument and a landmark.
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