The San Francisco Maritime Museum is a Streamline Moderne building shaped exactly like a ship’s prow, jutting toward the bay with curved glass corners and smooth, white concrete walls. It was finished in nineteen thirty-nine as a Works…
Historic Fisherman's Wharf
This walk traces the working-class Italian roots and deep maritime traditions of San Francisco's harbor, leading you past historic sailing ships, active fish alleys, and legendary seafood stands.
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1. Maritime Museum
2. Hyde Street Pier
The Hyde Street Pier holds a collection of historic ships featuring tall, wooden masts that rise against the San Francisco skyline. This terminal served as the primary transit point for the Golden Gate Ferry Company, carrying passengers…
3. Capurro's Restaurant
Capurro's Restaurant sits under a prominent green awning along Jefferson Street, distinguished by the black and white photographs of fishing boats lining its windows. Frank Capurro started this business in nineteen forty-six as a small…
4. Alioto Lazio Fish Co
The Alioto Lazio Fish Company building sits with a distinctive, weathered brick facade and a wide, street-level display window that dates back to the early twentieth century. It began as a small venture by Sicilian immigrants who arrived…
5. Scoma's Restaurant
Scoma's Restaurant occupies a long, narrow building perched on a pier, identified by a weathered wood exterior that seems to hover directly over the water. Al and Joe Scoma opened the doors here in nineteen sixty-five, back when the docks…
6. Fisherman’s Wharf Sign
The large, yellow wheel topped by a leaping crab marks the entrance to Fisherman's Wharf. Fisherman Domenico Alioto installed the first version of this sign in the nineteen thirties to pull visitors away from the bustling downtown…
7. Sabella & La Torre
A sign displaying a red crab perched above the name Sabella and La Torre marks this building on the wharf. It began in the nineteen-twenties when two Italian immigrant families, the Sabellas and the La Torres, merged their seafood…
8. Musée Mécanique
The Musée Mécanique houses a collection of over three hundred antique coin-operated mechanical instruments and arcade games. It began as the private collection of Edward Zelinsky, who started gathering these machines in the nineteen…
9. USS Pampanito Museum and Memorial
The USS Pampanito is a Balao class fleet submarine with a jagged, rusted hull that sits low in the water at Pier forty-five. During the final two years of the second world war, the submarine sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others…