San Francisco Landmark Is Steeped in History

SAN FRANCISCO —  Robert Louis Stevenson called it “one of the most San Francisco-y parts of San Francisco.” Sam Spade took his secretary to lunch there. And in the 1947 film “Dark Passage,” Humphrey Bogart struggled up its steep steps in search of Lauren Bacall.

This is San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, a place where--as described in the walk below--at one moment you’re on top of the world, while in the next you’re descending into a 19th-Century neighborhood of lush plantings and historic houses.

The Spanish called it Loma Alta, or “high hill.” Its present name was inspired by the Marine Telegraph, erected on its summit in 1849 to signal the arrival of ships through the Golden Gate.

Immigrants from many nations built their homes on its steep slopes. Its precipitous stairways have harbored small stores and saloons, and perhaps a brothel or two. In the 1920s, it became a haven for artists and writers, earning the nickname “Montparnasse of the West.”

In 1876, local businessmen purchased four lots at the top of the hill and donated it to the city as Pioneer Park. And in 1933, Coit Tower opened on its summit.

This 212-foot, reinforced-concrete observatory offers one of the city’s most breathtaking vistas. An elevator carries you to within 37 steps of the glassed-in observation area. On a clear day, the panorama sweeps from the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge to Angel Island and the Berkeley Hills.

The tower was constructed with money donated by Lillie Hitchcock Coit “for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved.” Although evidence indicates that Lillie never liked towers, she would probably be pleased with the murals that decorate the walls of the lower floors. Randolph Delahanty, the first historian for The Foundation for San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage, has called the murals “one of the most important pieces of public art in California.”

A total of 26 artists and 19 assistants worked on the murals between January and June, 1934. Funded by the federal government through the Public Works of Art Project, the paintings display a remarkable unity of theme, scale and palette.

The theme is the working life of California--its agriculture, commerce and industry. Railroading, steamshipping, mining, news gathering, banking, farming and husbandry all appear in the paintings.

Other vignettes depict San Francisco as it was in the ‘30s, with crowds in the streets, a car wreck, a holdup and shoppers at a department store lunch counter. Artist Jose Moya del Pino painted a picture of himself while perched on the rim of Telegraph Hill, sketching San Francisco Bay.

Most of the murals are executed in fresco (colors applied to wet plaster directly on the wall), in earth tones. The forms are rounded and the figures of noble proportions, echoing the work of Mexican artist Diego Rivera. They celebrate the bounty of the land and the dignity of labor, while also communicating the despair and social unrest of the Depression.

The murals have suffered from vandalism. In 1960, they were closed to the public. Limited access was granted in 1977. Last year, after a complete restoration, they were once again opened during the Tower’s operating hours.

In the Tower gift shop, you can purchase a guide to the murals. And while you’re browsing through the post cards, keep an eye out for the gray cat that naps on a stool behind the counter. No one seems to know where he lives, but he shows up every morning when the Tower opens and stays until it closes.

The cat apparently enjoys the crowd, though visitors might want to seek some solitude. If you direct your steps down the eastern slope of the hill, you’ll soon find seclusion. Though many journey to the top, few descend into the leafy enclaves below.

Exit Coit Tower and find the Greenwich Street sign at the head of Telegraph Hill Boulevard near the entrance to the parking circle. Like many of the streets on this side of the hill, it is too steep to pave. Instead, a brick stairway plunges down through over-arching trees and bushy thickets past houses and apartments.

In earlier days, this eastern slope was a Bohemian neighborhood of jury-rigged houses perched at dizzying heights. Something of the neighborhood’s ramshackle ambience and laissez-faire lifestyle of the ‘40s has been captured by journalist Margaret Parton in her 1945 book, “Laughter on the Hill.”

Pause at the junction of Greenwich and Montgomery streets. Here, Harry Lafler constructed his five-cottage “Compound.” Although swept away by time, it regularly attracted Bohemians and writers.

The wood-shingled, crenelated 1921 Julius Castle restaurant still perches on the cliff at the end of Montgomery. Sam Spade brought his secretary to lunch here in Dashiell Hammett’s “A Man Called Spade.”

Turn right down Montgomery to its intersection with Filbert Street. The four-story apartment at the corner (1360 Montgomery), which dates to 1936, is one of San Francisco’s finest examples of Art Deco architecture. Notice the images on its walls: a stevedore holding a globe and a woman representing California. Lauren Bacall called this home in “Dark Passage.”

If you continue down Montgomery to Alta Street, you’ll pass some brightly painted, lovingly restored 19th-Century houses. But be sure to return to the Art Deco apartment and turn down the Filbert Steps.

This is my favorite part of the hill, where a steep wooden stairway plunges down through a lush growth of trees, bushes and flowers. The moaning winds that haunt the evening hours are supposed to have inspired its nickname, “The Street of Vision.” To the foot-weary, however, its other nickname--”Street of a Thousand Steps”--may seem more appropriate, although there are really only about 365.

Nobody was counting during the earthquake and fire of 1906 when residents of Chinatown and the Barbary Coast district fled down Filbert to the safety of the bay. Parts of Telegraph Hill were spared, and some of the city’s oldest buildings survive along these steps.

These old homes, with their earthen hues, offer a teasing glimpse of the youthful boom town of a hundred years ago. No. 224 dates to 1863. No. 228, a Gothic Revival cottage, was built in 1873. No. 222 served as a home, grocery store and “blind pig,” or unlicensed saloon. It dates to 1875.

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of “Treasure Island” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” must have been familiar with these buildings when he took his frequent walks on the hill in 1879.

Most certainly, Humphrey Bogart knew them. In “Dark Passage,” hunted, bandaged and breathless, Bogie stumbles up the steps past these very houses.

As you walk down Filbert, keep an eye open for Napier Lane. This tiny byway is one San Francisco’s last surviving boardwalks. Legend says that sailors were shanghaied from a saloon at the end of the walk. No. 10 dates from 1875. No. 21, a three-story wood-frame apartment house built in 1885, has an outdoor stairway common to the period.

Every Eden has its serpent, and on Telegraph Hill the evil is parking. You might avoid this problem by leaving your car in the vicinity of North Point and Powell streets, three blocks from Fisherman’s Wharf. Catch the 39 bus on Powell. It will carry you to the top of Telegraph Hill. After you’ve toured Coit Tower, walk down Montgomery and then Filbert to Sansome Street. On Sansome, you can catch the 42 bus north to your starting point at North Point and Powell.

Coit Tower is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for senior citizens (64 and over) and $1 for children 6 to 12. For more information, call (415) 982-2648.