The last time I went to San Francisco, it was with my family. While passing through the city, I pointed at the tall, white tower off in the distance and asked, "What is that building? And why is it there?"My mother, a woman born and raised in the Bay Area, thought for a moment and responded, "It's Coit Tower. I think it has something to do with firefighters."
Not satisfied with this limited response, I asked several more questions. "Who built it?" "Is it a memorial?" "Could we go there?" None of these were answerable by my mystified parents.
Coit Tower, at the top of Telegraph Hill (so named because the hill was home to the city's first telegraph pole from 1850-1853), is visible from multiple parts of the city, and if often represented in the cionic images for San Francisco. It's a building found on posters, postcards, book covers, and websites, but what is it?
The tower was funded by a wealthy woman named Elizabeth Wyche "Lillie" Hithcock-Coit. She was born to a wealthy family of high social status in 1842, and the family moved to SF when she was still a young girl. Legend has it that as a teenager, Lillie rushed to the aid of one of San Francisco's poorly-manned volunteer fire brigades (the Knickerbocker company), and soon became a beloved mascot for the city's volunteer firefighters. Growing up in the city, and continuing to help the fire department when able, Lillie was eventually granted an honorary member of the Knickerbocker company. A fairly independent spirit for a woman of her status, Lillie was often seen out and about wearing trousers, smoking cigars, and betting long before it was socially acceptable for a woman to do so. After getting married, travelling the world, and becoming independently wealthy, Lillie moved back to California. When she died in 1929 at age 86, Lillie left one-third of her fortune to the city, for public beautification projects.The tower itself was built in 1933, several years after Hitchcock-Coit's donation. Today, it sits in a park, right behind a statue of Columbus, which really brings out the imperialist, expansionist, and Western idealist allusions of the phallic, fire-nozzle-like, white tower. I believe that the inner content of the tower, a series of detailed murals from the 1930's, make the building all the more racist and imperialist. The content of the murals is something akin to everyday life of art-deco-era San Francisco, but with representations of minorities working as maids and fisherman, whereas the white figures are average citizens in street scenes. This, plus the uniquely masculine form of the tower and the male Columbus statue, completely belies the powerful female figure that brought about the tower's construction. I believe we have forgotten about this woman as a character, and as a major figure in Imperial-Era San Francisco.
2 comments:
I've been up to Coit Tower a few times and never knew its history. Aside from having a pretty good view of the bay area, today it seems like a spot where people like to purpose and/or profess their love. Each time I'm there someone is getting asked to get married. One time there was a girl who was sitting with over a hundred red roses on her lap and a plane flew over the tower with a sign saying: "Andrea, will you marry me?" It's was actually really sweet. It's interesting how something commemorating fire fighters can turn into a hot spot for proposals.
It's interesting how you brought up how we've forgotten about the woman behind it all. The tower itself being phallic and the mosaic murals inside of maids and servants and white men it's almost like she has nothing to do with the tower at all, or that volunteer firefighters had anything to do with it. Like I said, I've been up to Coit Tower a few times and never even new why it was there.
Didn't know about the murals, either! Seems to be on par with the statue of Indians about to be crushed... Imperial symbol, indeed! The romantic spot idea makes a lot of sense, with the view...and this makes me think of the SF easy-listening radio station, aptly named 96.5, "KOIT".
Post a Comment