City and County of San Francisco, Recreation and Park Commission, Coit, Lillie Hitchcock, Tower, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, CA (1932-1933)

Structure Type: built works - public buildings - monuments

Designers: Brown, Arthur, Jr., and Associates, Architect (firm); Arthur Brown Jr. (architect); Henry Temple Howard (architect); Michael Victor Pregnoff (structural engineer)

Dates: constructed 1932-1933

1 Telegraph Hill Boulevard
Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, CA 94133
OpenStreetMap (new tab)
Google Map (new tab)
click to view google map
Google Streetview (new tab)
click to view google map
Coit Tower was located at the end of Telegraph Hill Boulevard.

Building History

Lillie Hitchcock Coit, (1842-1929), the eccentric wife of a San Francisco financier, endowed the tower as a monument to the city's firefighters. Coit was an habituée of North Beach saloons and gambling parlors, and to gain entry into these male-only spaces, she often dressed in drag.

Building Notes

The structural engineer, Michael Pregnoff, (1900-1996), periodically collaborated with the architect Arthur Brown, Jr., (1874-1957), during his work after 1930. Pregnoff has been credited with structural engineering work on Coit Tower. (See Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, "Michael Pregnoff," accessed 04/24/2020.)

PCAD id: 2384

Publications

Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) — © 2005-Alan Michelson

About | License | Contact