Coit Tower, built in 1933, is a 64 metre art deco monument to the fire fighters of San Francisco in the Telegraph Hill neighbourhood. The tower includes murals by 26 different artists and numerous assistants.
Lillie Coit was one of the more eccentric characters in the history of North Beach and Telegraph Hill, smoking cigars and wearing trousers long before it was socially acceptable for women to do so. She was an avid gambler and often dressed like a man in order to gamble in the males-only establishments that dotted North Beach. She was reputed to have shaved her head so her wigs would fit better.
Lillie's fortunes funded the monument after her death in 1929, as she had requested. At the age of fifteen she witnessed the Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5 in response to a fire call up on Telegraph Hill when they were shorthanded, and threw her school books to the ground and pitched in to help. After that Lillie became the Engine Co. mascot, and was frequently riding with the Knickerbocker Engine Co. 5, especially in street parades and other celebrations. Through her youth and adulthood Lillie was recognized as an honorary fire fighter.
Her will read that she wished for one third of her fortune "to be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved." Two memorials were built in her name. One was Coit Tower, and the other was a sculpture depicting three firemen, one of them carrying a woman in his arms. Lillie is today the matron saint of San Francisco fire fighters.
Coit Tower with kite.
Despite Coit's affinity with the San Francisco fire fighters, Wikipedia assures us that the tower was not designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle.
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