The San Francisco tourist attraction Coit Tower reopens today with some new guidelines in place. The 210-foot-tall concrete tower hosted some 1,500 visitors each day before the pandemic forced it to close. Now it’s pretty much back to business as usual. But, the city says that visitors to Coit Tower must wear masks in the elevator, and guided tours of the tower’s Depression-era frescoes will be limited to six people.
Coit Tower was built in 1933 with funds left to the city by socialite Lillie Hitchcock Coit. The Museum of the City Of San Francisco says when she was 15, Coit helped firefighters put out a blaze on Telegraph Hill. After that she regularly followed crews to fires. As an adult she’d smoke cigars and gamble with the firefighters in North Beach — ultimately becoming a mascot and patron until her death.
