de Young Museum
The tower M. H. de Young added in 1921 still anchors the Golden Gate Park skyline — and the museum it caps drew just under a million visitors in 2023.
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San Francisco's fine arts anchor, born from the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition. It survived the 1906 earthquake (closed a year and a half for repairs), shed its salt-corroded cast-concrete ornamentation in 1949, and now ranks 22nd most-visited museum in the United States.
What to look for
- The 1921 tower — de Young's own addition that became the building's defining feature
- The legacy of Louis Christian Mullgardt, who designed the Spanish-Plateresque building completed in 1919 (the predecessor structure that shaped the museum's footprint through most of the 20th century)
- The site of the original Egyptian Revival building — erected for the 1894 Exposition, declared unsafe, and demolished in 1929
In Golden Gate Park on the city's West Side; paired with the Legion of Honor under the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco umbrella.
de Young Museum is one of 31 sights worth the detour in San Francisco, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the San Francisco pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in San Francisco
- Golden Gate BridgeOpened May 27, 1937 as simultaneously the world's longest and tallest suspension bridge — you can walk the 4,200-foot main span yourself.
- Alcatraz IslandFor 29 years, cold Bay tidal currents did what bars alone could not — make escape nearly impossible.
- Transamerica PyramidAn 853-foot pyramid that ruled San Francisco's skyline for 45 years — still on the Transamerica logo even though the company quietly moved its HQ to Baltimore.
- Golden Gate ParkSan Francisco turned three miles of bare shifting sand dunes into the country's third-busiest urban park — starting from scratch in 1870.
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)The West Coast's first museum devoted solely to 20th-century art, now stretched across 170,000 square feet after a 2016 expansion that nearly sextupled public space.
- Alcatraz Federal PenitentiaryA 9-by-5-foot cell surrounded by cold bay currents — the federal government once staked its reputation on the claim that no one could leave.