Beach Chalet

The Beach Chalet is a historic two-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style building,[2] located at the far western end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The building is owned by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department; and the tenants are the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant, and the Park Chalet.

Beach Chalet
Beach Chalet is located in California
Beach Chalet
Location1000 Great Highway, San Francisco, California, U.S.
Coordinates37°46′10″N 122°30′33″W
Arealess than one acre
Built1925 (1925)
ArchitectWillis Polk
Architectural styleSpanish Colonial Revival Style architecture
NRHP reference No.81000172[1]
SFDL No.179
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJuly 22, 1981
Designated SFDLFebruary 22, 1985

The building is listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark since February 22, 1985;[3] and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, since July 22, 1981.[4][5]

History

The building was designed by architect Willis Polk, and opened in 1925 as a city-run restaurant and included changing rooms for beach visitors.[6] The Beach Chalet is located near the Dutch Windmill in Golden Gate Park.[7] It replaced an older building called the Golden Gate Park Chalet, built in 1892, that had stood on the opposite side of the Great Highway.[8]

Derelict

The building was taken over by the United States Army as a coastal defense headquarters during World War II. After the war, the city leased the Beach Chalet to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for $50 a month.[9] The VFW moved out after the city bumped the rent to $500 a month in 1979.[9]

The location, remote from downtown San Francisco, drew complaints regarding "rotten performances and nauseating spectacles". A "smoker" party held there in 1952 featured gambling, strippers and lewd films; Salvatore (Tarbaby) Terrano of the Waxey Gordon narcotics ring was arrested following the event.[9] After the VFW moved out, the derelict Beach Chalet was occupied by homeless people and cats and nearly was destroyed by fire before a padlocked fence was erected.[9]

Restaurant

After several years of closure and following a renovation completed in 1996, the building now houses the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant on the second floor, opened by Lara and Gar Truppelli and Timon Malloy. Its sister restaurant, the Park Chalet, is located to the back of the Beach Chalet with a dining room facing the park and outdoor dining on a terrace and lawn area.

Art
Upstairs monochrome mural (Labaudt)
Sea Creatures (von Meyer)
Mosaic (Caredio)

The Beach Chalet has three major works of art added in 1936 and 1937 as Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects

  1. San Francisco Life, a major mural by Lucien Labaudt at the entrance hall;[10] Labaudt also painted monochrome frescoes in the stairwell and restroom hallway.[11]
  2. Sea Creatures, a series of carved magnolia wood panels for the staircase by Michael von Meyer[12]
  3. Mosaics designed by Labaudt and executed by Primo Caredio[13]

San Francisco Life mural
San Francisco Life diagram. The main entrance to the lobby is through the center archway in the west wall.

Lucien Labaudt painted the elaborate San Francisco Life fresco mural in 1936 and 1937.[5] The mural extends from the top of the wainscot to the ceiling of the first floor entrance lobby and wraps around all four walls, split into nine sections, each approximately 9 ft (2.7 m) tall and covering an aggregate area of 1,500 sq ft (140 m2).[10] It depicts real people and scenes from San Francisco in the 1930s, encompassing the beach, Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Marina District.[14]

Golden Gate Park Visitor Center lobby, view directed northeast

Many of the figures depicted are artists, patrons, and WPA administrators that Labaudt knew; unlike the more radical murals at Coit Tower, art history professor Anthony Lee wrote "The Beach Chalet only confirmed [Labaudt's] return to the fold. Its rigorous symmetry and compositional concision, its playful but unabashed kowtowing, its scenes of relaxed pleasure and unproblematic display of the city's entertainment spots, its purposeful omission of any Artists' Union painters — all these run counter to the visual language of his Coit Tower mural."[15]: 167–172  There are four quotations from local poets painted over each doorway.[10]

San Francisco Life by Lucien Labaudt[10]
QuoteSec'nNeighborhood(s) depictedThumbnailWallNotesRefs.
"At the end of our streets — the stars"
(George Sterling)[16]		 1 Embarcadero North, west half
2 Fisherman's Wharf North, east half Primo Caredio depicted mending a net
"Fair City of my love — and my desire"
(Ina Coolbrith)[17]		 3 Baker Beach East, north half Depicts Labaudt's nephew, Bill Chamberlain (walking a dog) and daughters Yliane (playing guitar) and Alwyne (cutting watermelon); also shows fresco assistants Arnold Bray and Farrell Dwyer with sculptor Robert Howard (playing harmonica). Includes self-portrait of Labaudt (seated, studying paper) and his wife (receiving potato salad and again, in green bathing suit).
4 Golden Gate Park East, south half Includes Conservatory of Flowers and de Young Museum along with Beatrice Judd Ryan (art student), Ben Cunningham, Arnold Bray, Spencer Macky (holding leashed dog), Joseph Danysh (on white horse), Benny Bufano (on dark horse), Bill Gaskin, Phil Sears, Dorothy Collins, John McLaren (seated on bench), Jack Spring (holding redwood sapling), and Bohemian Club members (Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg, behind woman with tennis racket).
"Sails are furl'd — from farthest corners of the world"
(Joaquin Miller)[18]		 5 Lands End South, east half Includes Labaudt's wife (white coat).
6 Marina District South, west half Gottardo Piazonni shown in fedora.
"Serene, indifferent of fate thou sittest at the Western Gate"
(Bret Harte)[19]		 7 Civic Center West, southernmost pillar Coit Tower architect Arthur Brown Jr., shown with plans in front of San Francisco City Hall dome.
8 Union Square West, two center pillars (flanking entrance)
9 Chinatown West, northernmost pillar

In 1981, Restoration Associates pledged to restore the mural as part of a thirty-year lease on the property.[20] The mural room is now the San Francisco Visitor's Center.[21] The Beach Chalet murals appear in the Michael Apted film, Class Action (1991).[22]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. "Beach Chalet". SF Rec & Park. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  3. LaBounty, Woody (2020-05-05). "The Beach Chalet: City Landmark #179". San Francisco Heritage. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  4. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Beach Chalet". National Park Service. 1981. Retrieved November 10, 2022. With accompanying pictures
  5. "National Register #81000172: Beach Chalet in San Francisco, California". noehill.com. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  6. Harry J. Johnson (November 13, 2009). "The Beach Chalet". Artamble. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  7. "San Francisco Landmark #179: Beach Chalet". noehill.com. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  8. Van Niekerken, Bill (June 27, 2018). "Beach Chalet: From 1925 draw to dangerous dive bar to SF classic". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  9. Carroll, Jerry (December 26, 1996). "Tide Turns for the Beach Chalet". SF Gate. San Francisco. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  10. "Beach Chalet: Fresco Mural Cycle — San Francisco CA". The Living New Deal. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  11. "Beach Chalet: Monochrome Frescoes — San Francisco CA". The Living New Deal. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  12. "Beach Chalet: Staircase Sculptures — San Francisco CA". The Living New Deal. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  13. "Beach Chalet: Mosaics — San Francisco CA". The Living New Deal. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  14. Casey, Cindy (July 4, 2012). "Beach Chalet Murals". Public Art and Architecture from San Francisco. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  15. Lee, Anthony W. (1999). "6: Federal Patronizing". Painting on the Left: Diego Rivera, Radical Politics, and San Francisco's Public Murals. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 160–183. ISBN 9780520211339. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  16. Sterling, George. "The City By the Sea -- San Francisco". All Poetry. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  17. Coolbrith, Ina. "San Francisco". Poemist. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  18. Miller, Joaquin. "California". Black Cat Poems. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  19. Harte, Bret (July 1868). "San Francisco, from the sea". The Overland Monthly. pp. 63–64. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  20. Schreibman, Jack (April 8, 1981). "Huge WPA fresco to be restored". San Bernardino Sun. AP. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  21. Eichelbaum, Stanley (February 4, 1997). "Dining: Great new places around the Bay Area". Sausalito Marin Scope. Retrieved 3 January 2023. The ground floor, with colorful murals painted in 1936 by Lucien Labaudt, has become the Golden Gate Park Visitor Center.
  22. Pollock, Christopher (2013). Reel San Francisco Stories: An Annotated Filmography of the Bay Area. Castor & Pollux. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-578-13042-2. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
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