Aquatic Park Historic District is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

and building complex on the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

waterfront within

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located in San Francisco, California, United States. The park includes a fleet of historic vessels, a visitor center, a maritime museum, and a library/research facility. The park used to be r ...

. The district includes a beach, bathhouse, municipal pier, restrooms, concessions stand, stadia, and two speaker towers.

Background

The District's San Francisco Maritime Museum building was built as a

bathhouse Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

in 1936 by the

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

; in

streamline moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

style, its interior is decorated with fantastic, colorful murals. The Steamship Room illustrates the evolution of maritime technology from wind to steam, and there are displays of lithographic stones, scrimshaw, and whaling guns and photo-murals of San Francisco's early waterfront. A visitors gallery hosts such exhibitions as ''Sparks'' (2005), which showcased shipboard radio, radiotelephone, and radio-teletype equipment from over the years. In front of the Maritime Museum is a man-made lagoon on the site of the former Black Point Cove. To the west is the horseshoe-shaped Municipal Pier, which was voted ''SFWeekly''s Best Place to Go Fish 2009. The lagoon is fronted by a sandy beach and a stepped concrete seawall. To the south is a grassy area known as Victorian Park, which contains the Hyde Street cable car turnaround. Hyde Street Pier, though part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, is not part of Aquatic Park Historic District. The Historic District was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, and and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on January 26, 1984. The park is at the foot of Polk Street and a minute's walk from the visitor center and Hyde Street Pier. Its beach is one of the cleanest in the state. In the park near the corner of Beach and Larkin streets is

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

marker No. 236, honoring the Spanish

packet ship Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th ...

'' San Carlos'', which on August 5, 1775 was the first ship to enter

. Black Point Cove was named for Black Point, which juts into the bay between North Beach and the Marina District. Originally named Punta Medanos by the Spanish settlers, it was renamed Black Point after 1849. The shoreline of Black Point is the last remaining section of original coastline in San Francisco east of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Gallery

File:San Francisco Maritime Park lagoon panorama.jpg, View of the lagoon at sunset File:Aquatic Cove Cityscape San Francisco.jpg, From left to right:

Telegraph Hill A telegraph hill is a hill or other natural elevation that is chosen as part of an optical telegraph system. Telegraph Hill may also refer to: England * A high point in the Haldon Hills, Devon * Telegraph Hill, Dorset, a hill in the Dorset Down ...

and

Coit Tower Coit Tower is a tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's beq ...

, Fisherman's Wharf,

Downtown San Francisco The Financial District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States, that serves as its main central business district and had 372,829 jobs according to U.S. census tracts as of 2012-2016. It is home to the city's largest conce ...

, Russian Hill and Aquatic Park Historic District. File:ENTRANCE - Aquatic Park Bathhouse, Beach Street, West of Polk Street, San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA HABS CAL,38-SANFRA,157-3.tif, Aquatic Park Bathhouse File:Municipal Pier (Aquatic Park Historic District) - San Francisco, CA -DSC02359.jpg, Municipal Pier File:Black Point, San Francisco, circa 1888 (14681305024).jpg, Black Point circa 1888

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in California San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Buildings and structures in San Francisco Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco Sports venues in San Francisco National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Historic Landmarks in the San Francisco Bay Area Geography of San Francisco Government buildings completed in 1936 Works Progress Administration in California Streamline Moderne architecture in California Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in California

Background

Gallery

See also

References