Coit tower

Coit Tower was built in 1933 from a bequest of Lillie Hitchcock Coit. She left a third of her fortune, $118K, to beautify the city.
Lillie lived through two traumatic house fires, and loved firefighters with an overpowering passion. Once she abandoned a wedding ceremony at which she was a bridesmaid when she heard the sirens outside the church - she just had to wave at them! The legend that the tower was built to resemble a fire hose is not true, but look for a statue of a phoenix surrounded by bundles of fascis - it's an hommage to the San Francisco Fire Department. Mrs. Coit did leave a separate bequest for a firemen's memorial and you can see it in Washington Square ^{1Over $2MM in today's money}.
The architects were Arthur Brown Jr. (no relation to the architect of the Ferry Building) and Henry Howard. Howard in particular was very proud of the tower and declared it to have no design precedent. Notice how straight the tower is - the top is only 18" narrower than the base.
View from the top is not as good as can be had elsewhere in the city, but do go inside to admire murals in Social Realism style (no relation to Socialist Realism) depicting life in Depression-era California. Many of the figures are the artists themselves and the colleagues who created the adjacent murals.
We almost lost those murals - right after they were completed in 1934 the City hid them away so that they wouldn't give extra inspiration to striking longshoremen. Before the tower could be opened to the public one hammer and sickle and one Western Worker banner were removed. Whenever I visit I enjoy counting the remaining Marxist references in the artworks.
Every day is a continuing fight to protect the murals from water damage - the original design had a restaurant in this space and there were no provisions made for preserving artworks. Do your best not to touch them.
If you are here with a group of 4-6 people try to get a tour ^{3https://sfrecpark.org/facilities/facility/details/Coit-Tower-290">sfrecpark.org/facilities/facility/details/Coit-Tower-290} and ask to see the second-floor apartment where the tower keeper used to live.

Make sure to look for the plaque telling you about the original telegraph that gave a name to this hill. It was used to notify city businessmen of ship arrivals.

Alfred Hitchcock (no relation to Lillie Hitchock Coit) used the tower as a "phallic symbol" in Vertigo (1958), and a suicidal tiger received help on top of the tower in Dr. Doolittle (1998)^{4You can also see the Coit Tower in The Strawberry Statement (1970), The Enforcer (1976), Just like Heaven (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010), San Andreas (2015), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and many other films}.

^{1Over $2MM in today's money}Over $2MM in today's money
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^{3https://sfrecpark.org/facilities/facility/details/Coit-Tower-290">sfrecpark.org/facilities/facility/details/Coit-Tower-290} https://sfrecpark.org/facilities/facility/details/Coit-Tower-290">sfrecpark.org/facilities/facility/details/Coit-Tower-290
^{4You can also see the Coit Tower in The Strawberry Statement (1970), The Enforcer (1976), Just like Heaven (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010), San Andreas (2015), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and many other films} You can also see the Coit Tower in The Strawberry Statement (1970), The Enforcer (1976), Just like Heaven (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010), San Andreas (2015), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and many other films