If you’ve ever made it to the western end of Fisherman’s Wharf (Ghirardelli Square) in San Francisco, you’ve undoubtedly seen this unusually shaped building at the head of the Aquatic Park.

If you manage to get far away enough from the building, you might recognize its ship-like shape. I like to imagine that the stands/bleachers on either side of the building are part of the ship, as they really do blend in with each other quite well.

The building was constructed as part of President Roosevelt’s Work Progress Administration, and created work for thousands of San Franciscans - including many local artists. Its construction also made the decades-long dream of having an aquatic park for the people a reality, beautifully commemorated in this quote from the fact sheet at the time:

“Here one may bathe, swim, canoe or sail…here thousands of happy youngsters find a protected playground in the waters and on the shore. Here thousands of wearied adults may sink into warm, embracing sand, content just to lie and relax, and revel in the beauties spread before them.”

— 1939 Work Progress Administration fact sheet on Aquatic Park

The building nowadays houses a museum, aptly called the Maritime Museum - which is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm, and is free to access.

We visited the museum last week, so… let’s walk through it together.

Ground floor - dioramas and exhibits

The ground floor of the museum has two sets of exhibits and beautiful murals that were created as part of the PWA.

Overview of the ground floor: you enter through those doors on the right, which are facing south.

Marine dioramas

To the left of the entrance the museum has displays of the importance of the waterways to the development of San Francisco. This includes two beautiful dioramas that visually and textually show what life was like on the San Francisco waterfront in the early years of the city.

The original Clipper Cards

There is also a model of a clipper ship on display, which was the then new and fastest type of ship.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the explanation below the ship model:

Those cards you see at the bottom there are called Clipper Cards. Yes exactly, it turns out the Clipper card that is used to pay for public transport in San Francisco was named in honor of the speedy Clipper ships of yore (source). Even when the physical transport cards are becoming less common these days (with the tap-your-phone-to-pay model), it’s fun to know where the Clipper Card name came from.

This side of the ground floor also has a part of the Niantic ship that arrived in San Francisco in 1849, right at the start of the Gold Rush. Many of these original ships were sunk when they made land, and now from the foundation of much of the financial district.

Japanese sailor

The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On the right side of the ground floor doors you’ll find an exhibit about Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie, who in 1962 was the first known person to cross the Pacific Ocean non-stop at 23 - the youngest at the time. He made the trip in the other direction in 2022 aged 83, which also makes him the oldest person to have crossed the pacific in a solo voyage on a sailing vessel.

Ground floor murals

Aside from these two exhibits, the ground floor of the museum has gorgeous murals, and architectural details highlighting various aspects of marine life (real or imaginary).

Ground floor - outside tiling and statues

If you take the doors on the northern side of the museum (opposite from where you came in from the street), you’ll find yourself on a terrace with a beautiful view of the bay, and… even more art.

The green mosaic tiling is fantastical, and you can easily imagine how long the artist in the 1930s must’ve worked on that. There are also two statues by Beniamino Bufano here.

If you make it here, take the time to read the story (or learn about it in the video upstairs) about how the building was sold off to a commercial company right after it was finished, much to the chagrin of the artists. Luckily, it became publicly owned again in 1945 - with the museum opening its doors in 1951.

Ground floor - color wheel

Take the doors to the west to get to a circular room where Hilaire Hiler created a huge color wheel on the ceiling.

This Prismatarium contains 30 colors from Hilaire’s self-developed color chart, representing different emotions and moods.

The room and its unique ceiling mural are now home to a permanent exhibit devoted to Hiler’s color theory and the building’s art and design history.

Enough of the downstairs, let’s go up the stairs (or elevator)!

Top floor - arts and more exhibits story

The top floor of the building is much smaller than the ground floor where we entered (remember: it’s shaped like a classic ship), but there’s plenty to do here too.

Recovered and reconstructed mural art

The main hall has a lot of recovered and reconstructed wall art (some painted, some partially plastered on) from the building’s original construction.

I forgot to take pictures here, because I kept staring out of the window at the beautiful view of the bay and Alcatraz. :)

The deck on this floor was unfortunately not accessible when we were there, but it looks fabulous even from inside with a view over the General’s Residence and Haskell House in (the park of) Fort Mason.

Life of the radio operator

There’s also an exhibit about the life of radio operators aboard Victory ships near the end of the second world war.

A palace for the people

On the eastern side of the top floor is the final small exhibit area we visited.

This area focuses on the history of the bathhouse building itself and has archival drawings, pictures from the construction and early days of the building, and details on the vision of the PWA project to build a grand public recreational center on the San Francisco waterfront.

There’s a screen here playing a 15 minute documentary that details the history of the aquatic park, the bathhouse building, and its various functions before it got converted into the Maritime Museum.

Bottom floor - 🤫

The building actually has one more story under the floor where we entered, but that one is not accessible to the public. You can see it here…

This floor opens up to the beach and used to house lockers, dressing rooms, and showers. It is currently in use by the San Francisco Senior Center, and by the National Park Service itself. Jealous? Me? Uhm.. yeah, somewhat. :-)

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