The Beach Chalet is a historic two-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, located at the far western end of

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The building is owned by the

San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, California. The Recreation & Parks Department also runs Sharp Park i ...

; and the

tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...

are the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant, and the Park Chalet. The building is listed as a

San Francisco Designated Landmark This is a list of San Francisco Designated Landmarks. In 1967, the city of San Francisco, California adopted Article 10 of the Planning Code, providing the city with the authority to designate and protect landmarks from inappropriate alterations. ...

since February 22, 1985; and listed in 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 ...

, since July 22, 1981. With

History

The building was designed by architect

Willis Polk Willis Jefferson Polk (October 3, 1867 – September 10, 1924) was an American architect, best known for his work in San Francisco, California. For ten years, he was the West Coast representative of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1915, Polk oversaw t ...

, and opened in 1925 as a city-run restaurant and included changing rooms for beach visitors. The Beach Chalet is located near the Dutch Windmill in Golden Gate Park. It replaced an older building called the Golden Gate Park Chalet, built in 1892, that had stood on the opposite side of the Great Highway.

Murals

Elaborate murals painted by

Lucien Labaudt Lucien Adolphe Labaudt (May 14, 1880 – December 12, 1943) was a French-born American painter based in San Francisco, California. His best-known work may be ''Powell Street'' (1934), a mural in fresco at Coit Tower that he created for the Public ...

were added to the first floor as a 1936

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

project. The murals depict real people and scenes from San Francisco in the 1930s. After World War II the city leased the Beach Chalet to the Veterans of Foreign Wars for $50 a month. A 1952, "smoker" featured gambling, strippers and lewd films; arrested in connection with this was Salvatore (Tarbaby) Terrano of the Waxey Gordon narcotics ring. The Veterans of Foreign Wars moved out after the city bumped the rent to $500 a month in 1979. The mural room is now the San Francisco Visitor's Center. The Beach Chalet murals appear in the

Michael Apted Michael David Apted, (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was a British television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the '' Up'' documentary series (1964–2019). He later directed '' Coal Miner's ...

film, ''

Class Action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

'' (1991). File:Beach Chalet murals (3905184285).jpg File:Beach Chalet murals (3905184445).jpg File:Beach Chalet murals (3905185459).jpg File:Beach Chalet murals (3905185643).jpg File:Beach Chalet murals (3905966118).jpg

Restaurant

After several years of closure and following a renovation completed in 1996, the building now houses the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant on the second floor, opened by Lara and Gar Truppelli and Timon Malloy. Its sister restaurant, the Park Chalet, is located to the back of the Beach Chalet with a dining room facing the park and outdoor dining on a terrace and lawn area.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Golden Gate Park Art in San Francisco Restaurants in San Francisco 1925 establishments in California Buildings and structures completed in 1925 National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco Public art in California

History

Murals

Restaurant

See also

References

External links