Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO
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Frog Woman Rock
The Presidio SFMOMA is closed until 2016. It is undergoing a $610 million expansion. As a result they are scattering art around the city. The first exhibit was the di Suvero’s at Crissy Field. This particular exhibit “Frog Woman Rock” is part of David Wilson’s Arrivals series. Wilson will develop a series of intimately composed…
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William Alexander Leidesdorff
One Leidesdorff Financial District The plaque outside this building celebrates the architect, leaving one to assume that that is who this person is. However, this is William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. Leidesdorff was born to a Dane and a Creole in the Virgin Islands in 1812. Legally recognized by his Danish father, Leidesdorff came under the…
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The First School of California
Portsmouth Square Chinatown This marks the site of the first public school in California. Erected in 1847 Opened April 3, 1848 This commemorative marker was erected in 1957 by the grand lodge of free and accepted masons of the state of California California Historical Landmark 587. The following contemporary account of the little schoolhouse in…
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Thomas Starr King
Franklin between Starr King and Geary Japantown/Western Addition/ Fillmore Due to the lack of land their are very few bodies actually buried within the City of San Francisco. This is why the Sarcophogus of Thomas Starr King is so unusual. Thomas Starr King, a young, inexperienced Unitarian minister, came to San Francisco in 1860 when…
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St Markus Kirche
St Marks Cathedral 1111 O’Farrell Street Fillmore/Japantown/Western Addition Germans starting flocking to the San Francisco Bay area during the gold rush of 1849 . The dedication of the present church building in 1895 marked three decades of effort by German immigrants to establish Lutheranism in California. Rev. Frederick Mooshake from Goettingen University arrived in 1849 to…
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West Coast War Memorial to the Missing
Presidio Lincoln and Harrison Boulevards This memorial is in the memory of the soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and coast guardsmen, who lost their lives in service of their country in the American coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean during World War II. The memorial consists of a curved gray granite wall decorated with a bas…
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Win Ng
Maxine Hall Health Center 1301 Pierce Street Western Addition This mural, by Win Ng, is 10′ x 6′ and made of ceramic tiles. The mural depicts various elements of medical science. The mural was installed in 1968. Win Ng (1963-1991) was born in Chinatown, San Francisco. He studied at Saint Mary’s Academy and the City College of San Francisco and San…
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Pacific Coast Garrison Monument
Presidio National Cemetery The Pacific Coast Garrison Monument was erected 1897. Dedicated to the dead of the Regular Army and Navy Union, the monument is a cast zinc (sometimes called white bronze) statue of a Union color bearer manufactured by the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Statues of this type were sold through catalogues…
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The Totem Pole at the Cliff House
Cliff House Land’s End According to the San Francisco Public Library there was a small news copy regarding the totem pole when it was installed. The publication date was not noted but it appears to be April 28th, 1949. Newscopy: “Chief Mathias Joe Capilano of the Squamish Indians of Western Canada, he carve ‘um 58-foot totem…
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Fishermen’s and Seamen’s Chapel
Fisherman’s Wharf Pier 45 Inner Harbor Built in 1979, this charming little chapel is a memorial to the memory of Bay Area fishermen who’ve lost their lives at sea. It’s also something of a touchstone for San Francisco’s mostly Italian, mostly Roman Catholic fishing community, which traces its origins to Sicilian immigrants from the early…
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Frank Marini
Marini Plaza North Beach Frank Marini (1862-1952) is mentioned often in Alessandro Baccari’s book, “Saints Peter and Paul: ‘The Italian Cathedral’ of the West, 1884-1984.” Marini was a major civic benefactor, participating in the work of the Salesian groups at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. He was a sponsor of the boys’ club,…
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Guardians of the Gate
Pier 39 Fisherman’s Wharf Guardians of the Gate by Miles Metzger Metzger attended Denver University and the Instituto de Allende in Mexico. Guardians of the Gate, which depicts a “nuzzling” male and female with a pup, was created in 1990 and cast in Everdur bronze in 1991. Metzger considers the sculpture one of his favorite pieces.…
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Ruth Asawa at Ghirardelli Square
Ghirardelli Square Fisherman’s Wharf This fountain is titled Andrea’s Fountain and is by Ruth Asawa. It sits in Ghirardelli Square. There is a plaque next to the fountain that tells the story of the piece, it reads: Then-owner William Roth selected Ruth Asawa, well known for her abstract, woven-wire sculptures, to design and create the…
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Abstract Sculpture at 100 Buchannan
100 Buchanan UCSF Dental Center Market Street/Hayes Valley These two abstract sculptures are by Andrew Harader. Harader attended Cal State University in Long Beach and then received an MFA in 1976 at the Maryland Institute’s Rhinehart School of Sculpture. He is presently the coach at Andy’s Tennis Camp in Palo Alto. The piece is owned…
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Hall of Justice
850 Bryant South of Market The Seal of San Francisco adopted in 1859 features a sailor and a miner flanking a shield that bears a steamer ship entering the Golden Gate. Above the shield a Phoenix foretold of the great fire to come in 1906 and below the shield, the city’s motto, ‘Gold in Peace,…
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Damoxenus and Kruegas
Entryway to the Olympic Club 524 Post Street Union Square Domoxenus Established on May 6, 1860, The Olympic Club enjoys the distinction of being America’s oldest athletic club, which makes it appropriate, that these two statues of Damoxenus and Kreugas stand outside its front door. Damoxenus and Kreugas were boxers. Domoxenus of Syracuse was excluded from…
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St. Anne of the Sunset
850 Judah Inner Sunset Groundbreaking and construction on Saint Anne’s began in 1930 and the church was completed three years later. The architect was William D. Shea. William went to work with his brother Frank in 1890 and formed Shea and Shea. In 1907 William D. Shea became city architect. Ordinance No. 1767, under which…
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Sundial on the Hilltop
Hilltop Park Newcomb Avenue and Progress Street Hunters Point This painted steel, 70 foot tall, sundial is by Jaques Overhoff, he is known for his large sculptures, which you can see here and here. The sundial apparently keeps somewhat accurate time. The markers and numbers on the base are made with various colors of concrete. Hilltop…
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Queseda Gardens
Queseda and Newcomb Bayview/Hunters Point The Quesada Gardens Community Mural & Gathering Space emerged with leadership from QGI Co-Founders Sharon Bliss and Mike Aisenfeld. Neighbors wanted to express the magic of the garden and spirit of community. In the end, a gritty urban space was transformed when community-based artist Deirdre DeFranceaux, with fellow artist Santie Huckaby, breathed life into…
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Mission Dolores Mosaic
Mission Dolores 16th and Dolores The Mission District This mural is in the hallway between the Mission and the Basilica. The brass plaque that accompanies it reads: Guillermo Granizo 1923-1996 This ceramic mural is the work of Guillermo Granizo a native San Francisco Artist. Shortly after Guillermo’s birth in 1923 the Granizo Family moved to…
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Tekakwitha Lily of the Mohawk
Mission Dolores Cemetery 16th and Mission The Mission District Saint Kateri Tekakwitha baptised as Catherine Tekakwitha and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks (1656 – April 17, 1680), is a Roman Catholic saint, who was an Algonquin–Mohawk virgin and religious laywoman. Born in Auriesville (now part of New York), she survived smallpox and was orphaned as a child, then baptized as a Roman Catholic and settled for the last years of…
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Father Junipero Serra
Mission Dolores 16th and Dolores The Mission District This sculpture, found inside the cemetery is by Arthur Putnam. The cast stone sculpture is one of a series of allegorical figures originally commissioned to depict the history of California for the estate of E. W. Scripps. This cast was funded by D. J. McQuarry at the cost…
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Mission Dolores Cemetery
16th and Dolores The Mission District Mission Dolores is one of my favorite places in all of San Francisco. I try to visit at least once every two months or so. The history of the mission is well know to every Californian (we are required to study them in the 2nd grade), so I will…
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The Bohemian Clubs Allegorical Figures
624 Taylor Street Nob Hill These four bas-relief, terra cotta panels are between the second and third floors of the Bohemian Club on the Post Street side. The first panel depicts Art and Architecture represented by a semi-nude turbanned male figure kneeling. In his proper left hand is a mallet which rests on the ground…