San Francisco City Hall • Docent Tour

Leisure

Oct 26

Having lived in SF for nearly 7 years, I’ve been itching for an opportunity to be available on a Friday afternoon for a docent led tour. The tour was nothing short of marvelous, and has given me for a new appreciation for the building which is dare I say the crown jewel of San Francisco. I truly learned so much about the structure and even more about city over the last century or so. I will spare you all of the nitty gritty should you decide to embark on the tour yourself.

Each tour begins at the Docent Tour Kiosk, located in the Goodlett Place elevator lobby where you’ll be asked to sign in before meeting with your guide.

City Hall boasts well over 2,000 weddings each year with Adam and Eve watching over each ceremony.

Our tour guide enlightened us that the dome of city hall is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome and the open ceiling found in the Pantheon was designed in a manner in which God can look in from heaven. Although the ceiling in San Francisco is not truly “open” in both the Pantheon and San Francisco City Hall during certain times of day the building floods with golden light. The plaster flowers on the ceiling are Dahlias which I learned are the official flower of San Francisco. Another place to explore and enjoy this flower is the Dahlia Dell in Golden Gate Park next to the Conservatory of Flowers. The flowers are in peak bloom in August through September.

A model of the dome structure, which stands taller than the Capitol in Washington D.C.

A tribute the Lady Liberty, this goddess was once the highest point on City Hall before the 1906 Earthquake and with the fires that followed she finally fell from the building in 1909 and was unearthed from the basement of City Hall during later retrofitting and repair.

Marilyn Monroe and Frida Kahlo are just a couple of high viz individuals that have been married here. Here our tour guide cracked jokes and applauded the two New Yorkers in our group for their bravery coming to this hell hole, not before remarking on the tremendous amount of renovations the building has gone through, and boasting about the building’s many attributes.