# What Is This San Francisco Landmark? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249 "2007-05-15T23:32:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/21 "2007-05-18T12:30:44Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis] Backstory: My wife and I have been watching the first season of **Ironside** on DVD, [/QUOTE] “I was sittin’ in Miami pouring blended whiskey down, While an old gray black gentleman was cleaning up the lounge. There wasn’t anyone around except for this old man and me, The guy who ran the bar was watching Ironside on TV.” Sorry. Just had a Tom T. Hall moment there. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/22 "2007-05-18T16:14:06Z")
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy] Probably the 2nd most identifiable figure on the [SF skyline](http://www.miriamgrebeimages.com/images/SanFrancisco/SanFranciscoSkyline304.jpg) after the TransAmerica building. [/QUOTE] True. But now that I think about it I had never heard of Coit Tower, nor do I remember having seen a picture of it, before I actually went to San Francisco and saw it. One time I walked the entire length of Lombard Street to it, then went up to the top. I took the elevator. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/23 "2007-05-18T16:45:20Z")
[QUOTE=China Guy] Aren’t the murals by diego rivera? [/QUOTE] Close, but [not exactly](http://www.ashfield.com/mural.html). > [@](#): > > In 1933, four years after the disastrous stock market crash, the economy had still not recovered to the level of prosperity of pre-crash days. Prices and sales in the art world had also plummeted. At the initiative of George Biddle, a former classmate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was established to employ and support professional artists. Although government patronage of the arts had a long and productive history in both the ancient world and Europe, it had never before existed in the United States. San Francisco became one district of this national plan; 26 master painters were selected to participate in the project, and Coit Tower was the public building chosen for embellishment. > > Each mural was painted by a different artist, but first-time visitors to Coit Tower often think that one artist painted all of the murals. The technique of fresco, applying colors to wet plaster directly on a wall, is, in itself, a unifying influence. The artists also established for themselves one scale and one palette consisting of elementary earth colors. Stylistically the murals share many characteristics with the work of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Several of the painters, including Victor Arnautoff, who was the project director at Coit Tower and supervised the work of his colleagues, had previously worked with Rivera. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/24 "2007-05-20T02:30:17Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis] Yep. Thanks again, guys. Any questions you might have about the Cincinnati skyline, fire away. 😃 Sir Rhosis [/QUOTE] Yeah…where can I get some of that famous chili in SoCal? I thought I saw someplace that it was sold in cans in a grocery store, but I don’t know if it would even compare with the “real thing.” …sorry, that’s about all I know about Cincinnati. Other than that’s where WKRP was set. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/25 "2007-05-20T04:05:34Z")
^^^Their website has an online store. You can order it in cans, or order the fixins’ and do it yourself. > **[Skyline Chili – Local Restaurants Near Me | Skyline](https://www.skylinechili.com/)** > > Famous for secret recipe chili & fast, friendly dine-in & drive-thru service. Serving Cheese Coneys, Ways, Greek Salad & more great-tasting food since 1949. And you’re right, nothing sold in cans compares to the real deal. And you’ve never heard of the Reds?!! I’m referring to the Reds of (c.) 1970-76 and 1990, not the sad excuse for a team that we field today, though a couple of the kids would do well under new leadership. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/26 "2007-05-20T04:12:01Z")
Sorry, I misread, it is cans only via mail orders. What else would it be? Duh, Dave. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/27 "2007-05-20T04:31:25Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Not according to [wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coit_Tower). [/QUOTE] It’s marked “citation needed,” and he rest of that paragraph doesn’t do anything to back up that claim. The fire nozzle theory is perfectly acceptable to me, given Lillie Coit’s love for the City’s firemen. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249/28 "2007-05-20T06:51:20Z")
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy] Close, but [not exactly](http://www.ashfield.com/mural.html). [/QUOTE] Thanks. I had to look this up and found Diego did 3 murals in SF: The great Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, painted his first commissioned mural outside of Mexico in San Francisco starting in 1930. “Allegory of California” was completed in 1931 and is located in The City Club of San Francisco, 155 Sansome Street, 10th Floor. Shortly after completing “Allegory of California,” Rivera began work on “The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of A City.” This mural is located in the Diego Rivera Gallery of the San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut Street (between Leavenworth and Jones). The most accessible of the three Rivera murals in San Francisco; Perhaps the most impressive of the three murals painted by Rivera is “Pan American Unity.” This mural is “about the unity of the North and the South on this continent,” according to Rivera. Originally painted in 1940 at the Golden Gate International Exposition, the mural is now housed in the Diego Rivera Theatre at San Francisco City College. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-san-francisco-landmark/404249.md?page=1)