With a flourish of political pomp and circumstance, Coit Tower threw open its doors Wednesday after being closed for six months of repairs to its water-damaged murals and leaking roof. The $1.7 million restoration injected new life into the monument’s historic fresco murals that depict the city during the Great Depression, and fixed the roof so it won’t leak onto the works of art. For 81 years, Coit Tower has risen above the fray in San Francisco, as Herb Caen once said, offering the increasingly crowded city some breathing room, or “very much an exclamation point at the end of an unfinished sentence.” Since she loved to chase fires and was a longtime friend of city firefighters, Coit Tower came to symbolize the sacrifice and dedication of those who battle blazes. Despite its appearance and contrary to urban legend, the landmark was not designed to resemble a fire-hose nozzle, according to tour guides from the nonprofit San Francisco City Guides. New Deal projectThe murals were painted in 1934 as part of the New Deal Public Works of Art Project, and restored with money from the city’s Recreation and Park Department, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and Bank of America. Sitting atop Telegraph Hill, the tower is more skyline scenery than tourist attraction, with its relatively paltry 200,000 annual visitors – compared with the 12 million visitors to Fisherman’s Wharf. With a grin and a nod she would agree to stand in front of one of the murals, which featured her 12-year-old self wearing a blue parochial school uniform, painted by her father, Bernard Zakheim.
