The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located in
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 ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, 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 referred to as the San Francisco Maritime Museum, however the former 1951 name changed in 1978 when the collections were acquired by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
. Today's San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park was authorized in 1988; the maritime museum is among the park's many cultural resources. The park also incorporates the
Aquatic Park Historic District, bounded by
Van Ness Avenue,
Polk Street
Polk Street (also sometimes referred to by its German name, ''Polkstrasse'') is a street in San Francisco, California, that travels northward from Market Street to Beach Street and is one of the main thoroughfares of the Polk Gulch neighborhood t ...
, and
Hyde Street
Hyde Street is an iconic street in San Francisco, California. Hyde Street connects the Aquatic Park Historic District to Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Aus ...
.
Historic vessel fleet
The historic fleet of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is moored at the park's
Hyde Street Pier
The Hyde Street Pier, at 2905 Hyde Street, is a historic ferry pier located on the northern waterfront of San Francisco, California. Background
Prior to the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, it was the ...
. The fleet consists of the following major vessels:
*''
Balclutha'', an 1886 built square rigged sailing ship.
*''
C.A. Thayer'', an 1895 built schooner.
*''
Eureka'', an 1890 built steam ferryboat.
*''
Alma
Alma or ALMA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film
* ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922
* ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017
* ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...
'', an 1891 built scow schooner.
*''
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
'', a 1907 built steam tug.
*''
Eppleton Hall'', a 1914 built paddlewheel tug.
Image:Alma (scow schooner, San Francisco) 2.JPG,
Image:Hercules (steam tug, San Francisco).JPG,
Image:Balclutha (San Francisco).JPG,
Image:Eppleton Hall (San Francisco).jpg,
Image:Eureka (steam ferryboat, San Francisco).JPG,
Image:C A Thayer.JPG,
The fleet also includes over one hundred small craft.
Visitor center
The visitor center is housed in the park's 1909 waterfront warehouse, located at the corner of Hyde and Jefferson streets. The City of San Francisco declared the four-story brick structure a historic landmark in 1974, and the building was listed on 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 ...
in 1975. Inside, exhibits (including a first order
Fresnel lighthouse lens and a shipwrecked boat) tell the story of San Francisco's colorful and diverse maritime heritage. The visitor center also contains a theater and a ranger-staffed information desk.
Maritime Museum
The maritime museum was until recently housed in a
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 ...
(late
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
) building that is the centerpiece of the
Aquatic Park Historic District, 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 ...
at the foot of Polk Street and a minute's walk from the visitor center and Hyde Street Pier. The building was originally built (starting 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 ...
as a public
bathhouse, and its interior is decorated with fantastic and colorful
mural
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
s, created primarily by artist and
color theoretician Hilaire Hiler
Hilaire Harzberg Hiler (July 16, 1898 – January 19, 1966) was an American artist, psychologist, and color theoretician who worked in Europe and United States during the mid-20th century. At home and abroad, Hiler worked as a muralist, jazz mu ...
. The architects were William Mooser Jr. and William Mooser III.
Maritime Research Center
The Maritime Research Center is the premier resource for San Francisco and Pacific Coast maritime history. Originating in 1939, the collections have become the largest maritime collection on the west coast and the largest museum and research collection in the National Park Service.
The collections include more than:
* 35,000 published titles comprising over 74,000 items
* 500,000 photographs
* 7,000 archival and manuscript collections
* 150,000
naval architecture
Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and o ...
and
marine engineering drawings
* 3,000 maps and charts
* 150,000 feet of motion picture film and video
* 6,000 historical archaeology artifacts
* 2,500 pieces of folk and
fine art
In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...
* 40,000 history objects
* 100 small craft
* 50,000 pieces of
ephemera
Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...
* 600
oral histories and audio recordings
Supporting associations
The park is supported by several
cooperating associations. One of these is the
San Francisco Maritime National Park Association.
Location and access
The visitor center,
Hyde Street Pier
The Hyde Street Pier, at 2905 Hyde Street, is a historic ferry pier located on the northern waterfront of San Francisco, California. Background
Prior to the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, it was the ...
, and Maritime Museum are all situated adjacent to the foot of Hyde Street and at the western end of the
Fisherman's Wharf district. The park headquarters and Maritime Research Center are located in
Fort Mason, some 10 minutes walk to the west of the other sites. The Beach and Hyde Street terminal of the
San Francisco cable car system
The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco. The system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway ...
adjoins the main site, while the Jones Street terminal of the
F Market historic streetcar line is some 5 minutes walk to the east.
Opening times and fees for the various sites can be found on the park's website; see 'External links' below.
Open-water swimming
Aquatic Park is a popular place for
open water swimming
Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers.
The beginning of the modern age of open water human swimming, swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when L ...
, both for recreation and training. The
South End Rowing Club South End Rowing Club is an athletic club and social club in San Francisco, California.
The South End Rowing Club, founded in 1873, is one of the oldest athletics clubs in the western United States. The boathouse, with a fleet of 30 boats, is lo ...
and
Dolphin Club are located in Aquatic Park. Recently there have been several incidents of swimmers being bitten by sea lions.
See also
*
49-Mile Scenic Drive
The 49-Mile Scenic Drive is a designated scenic road tour highlighting much of San Francisco, California. It was created in 1938 by the San Francisco Down Town Association to showcase the city's major attractions and natural beauty during the 19 ...
*
List of maritime museums in the United States
List of maritime museums in the United States is a sortable list of American museums which display objects related to ships and water travel. Many of these maritime museums have museum ships in their collections. Member museums of the Council of ...
*
List of museum ships
This list of museum ships is a comprehensive, sortable, annotated list of notable museum ships around the world. Replica ships are listed separately in the article on ship replicas. Ships that are not museum ships, but are still actively used fo ...
References
Bibliography
Bill Pickelhaupt, "San Francisco's Aquatic Park," Charleston, SC, 2005,
External links
NPS: official San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park website— ''bay swimming club based at Aquatic Park''.
{{Authority control
Parks in San Francisco
National Historical Parks of the United States
Maritime museums in California
Museums in San Francisco
Open-air museums in California
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco
San Francisco Bay
National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco
Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in California
Maritime history of California
Protected areas established in 1978
National Park Service areas in California
Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums
Lincoln Highway
1978 establishments in California
Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in California
Water transportation on the National Register of Historic Places