Pioneer Park

Lillie Hitchcock Coit flew by in 1924, leaving the city with $118,000. In the end, the money was used to construct the Coit Tower, the primary feature of the park.

 

The path winds up to a stunning view on the top, where Pioneer Park surrounds Coit Tower and the Telegraph Hill. Their tales are interwoven, but Pioneer Park, like the early settlers for which it is named, has had to struggle for survival. When the storm demolished the old Marine Telegraph Station, which signaled approaching ships, lots on the hilltop became commercially accessible. To protect them, a group of businessmen, including George Hearst, bought the 1,73-acre site for $12,000 in 1876 and donated it to the city, stipulating that the property would be known as Pioneer Park, after the first inhabitants of the hill. Other investments by the city greatly expanded the park and, in 1877, the Board of Supervisors appropriated $5000 for improvement, consisting of a retaining wall and limited grading.

In the 1880s, San Francisco dedicated its limited park improvement fund to Golden Gate Park, which was then under construction. Pioneer Park remained tall and dry. In order to attract public interest, a German-style castle observatory offering beer and telescope views was established on the telegraph station site. The effort floated and the building burned down in the early 1900s. The Gray Brothers Quarry was biting off the eastern side of the hill, and the downtown business interests were supplying excavated filling for Bay Tidelands and paving contracts. The Merchants Association study described Telegraph Hill as 'scarred, gasped, dismantled and forlorn.'

 

Civic clubs have jumped in to save the day. In 1902, the California Society, the North Beach Development Club, and the California Outdoor Art League joined forces to campaign for the preservation of the hill. As the road to the summit was completed in 1923, public access was made possible. In 1924, Lillie Hitchcock Coit, famous for her obsession with firefighters and firefighters, died leaving $100,000 to the community. Arthur Brown Jr., the City Hall architect, was hired to design the tower that bears his name. It was finished in 1933. Experts deny that it's modeled on a fire hose nozzle.

 

Over the last 60 years, tourism has taken the park down to the exposed roots of its trees. Drought, insufficient irrigation and foot traffic caused catastrophic erosion. Pedestrian access is minimal and there are endless lines of vehicles, their engines idling, a queue up the Telegraph Hill Boulevard. The Pioneer Park Project was born in 1995, just in time. The public-private collaboration, including Telegraph Hill Dwellers, San Francisco Stunning, the Department of Public Works and the Department of Recreation and Parking, brought together talented architects, landscape architects, designers, fund-raisers and environmental educators, all working pro bono. They have drawn up and refined plans to repair stairways, pathways and terraces, restore natural habitat, and fix the problems of flooding, protection and access to handicaps.