Who Was Lillie Coit, and Why Is There a Tower on Telegraph Hill?

The name above Telegraph Hill belongs to a San Franciscan with an unusual attachment to the city’s volunteer firefighters. One gift left two landmarks. Put the tower on your map, then find Washington Square in North Beach below. Looking at them together makes the dedication inside Coit Tower easier to understand.

Who gave San Francisco the money for Coit Tower?

Lillie Hitchcock Coit died in 1929 and left the city a bequest to help beautify San Francisco. She had long supported its volunteer firefighters. One surviving object gives a sense of that connection. The SFO Museum catalogs an 1858 Knickerbocker Company Number 5 fire helmet attributed to her. Look for the dedication near the tower’s ticket window as you begin your visit.

Was the tower shaped to look like a fire hose nozzle?

The city’s parks department says the resemblance is coincidental. Take a few steps back in Pioneer Park and look at the grooves running up the sides of the concrete column. They’re architectural fluting. The firm of Arthur Brown Jr., architect of San Francisco City Hall, designed the tower, which was completed in 1933. Look across the roofs of North Beach later and see how little detail it takes to recognize that outline.

Where is the monument to the firefighters themselves?

Find Washington Square in nearby North Beach. Coit’s bequest also paid for a monument there to the volunteer firefighters she admired. The tower gives you a citywide landmark you can spot from afar, while the square gives you a place to stand at street level and look at the people being honored. Together they make a natural hilltop and neighborhood walk.