Coit Tower is a monument to firefighters at the top of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California. Located at 1 Telegraph Hill Blvd in San Francisco
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Coit Tower is a gift from Lilly Hitchcock Coit, an eccentric heiress whose particular passion was the San Francisco Fire Department. In the late 1800′s during the gold rush, Lillie Hitchcock Coit (aka Miss Lil) apparently deserted a wedding party and chased her favorite engine, Knickerbocker No. 5, while clad in her bridesmaid finery. She was made an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Company and signed her name “Lillie Coit 5″ in honor of her favorite fire engine. Lillie died in 1929 at the age of 86, leaving the city $125,000 to “expend in an appropriate manner…to the beauty of San Francisco.”Money she left in her will for The City’s beautification council was used to construct the 210-foot art deco tower on Telegraph Hill in 1932. Not only is the tower — and the hill where it stands — a beautiful site to see, but the views from the tower are also beautiful: the San Francisco Bay, the two bay bridges, and the Marin Islands.

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