Home Destinations USA California San Francisco Sights City Hall

City Hall Review

Read our San Francisco sights reviews. Or post your own.

City Hall

Address: Bordered by Van Ness Ave. and Polk, Grove, and McAllister Sts., Civic Center, San Francisco, CA | Map It
Phone: 415/554-6023
www.ci.sf.ca.us/cityhall

Category: Government Buildings
Location: Civic Center

Write a review

Fodor's Review:

This imposing 1915 structure with its massive gold-leaf dome—higher than the U.S. Capitol's—is about as close to a palace as you're going to get in San Francisco. (Though the metal detectors take something away from the grandeur.) The classic granite-and-marble behemoth was modeled after St. Peter's cathedral in Rome. Architect Arthur Brown Jr., who also designed Coit Tower and the War Memorial Opera House, designed an interior with grand columns and a sweeping central staircase. San Franciscans were thrilled, and probably a bit surprised, when his firm built City Hall in just a few years. The building it replaced, dubbed "the new City Hall ruin," had lined the pockets of corrupt builders and politicians during its 27 years of construction. That 1899 structure collapsed in about 27 seconds in the 1906 earthquake, revealing trash and newspapers mixed into the building materials.

City Hall was spruced up and seismically retrofitted in the late 1990s, but the sense of history remains palpable. Some noteworthy events that have taken place here include the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio (1954); the hosing—down the central staircase—of civil-rights and freedom-of-speech protesters (1960); the murders of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay supervisor Harvey Milk (1978); the torching of the lobby by angry members of the gay community in response to the light sentence given to the former supervisor who killed the men (1979); and the registrations of scores of gay couples in celebration of the passage of San Francisco's Domestic Partners Act (1991). February 2004 has come to be known as the Winter of Love: thousands of gay and lesbian couples responded to Mayor Gavin Newsom's decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex partners, turning City Hall into the site of raucous celebration and joyful nuptials for a month before the state Supreme Court ordered the practice stopped. Free tours are offered weekdays at 10, noon, and 2.

The South Light Court houses a modest, rotating display from the collection of the Museum of the City of San Francisco (www.sfmuseum.org), including historical items, maps, and photographs. That enormous, 700-pound iron head once crowned the Goddess of Progress statue, which topped the old City Hall building when it crumbled during the 1906 earthquake. Unlike the building, the statue survived the earthquake in one piece, but the subsequent removal proved too much for it. The museum plans to open a permanent home in the Old Mint, south of Market on 5th Street, in 2010.

Across Polk Street is Civic Center Plaza, with lawns, walkways, seasonal flower beds, a playground, and an underground parking garage. This sprawling space is generally clean but somewhat grim. A large part of the city's homeless population hangs out here, despite frequently being shunted away, so the plaza can feel dodgy.

Cost: Free
Open: Weekdays 8-8

Find more sights in San Francisco »