Marina District, San Francisco: the Palace of Fine Arts, Fort Mason and the exposition ground

The neighbourhood stands on the site of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The fair opened on 20 February 1915 and closed on 4 December 1915, covering 636 acres and recording 18,876,438 visitors. Aside from the Palace of Fine Arts, all other buildings were demolished to make the current neighborhood. Much of the Marina is built on former landfill and is susceptible to soil liquefaction during strong earthquakes, which caused extensive damage to the neighborhood during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. That is worth knowing before you read a single street here as ordinary flat ground.

The Palace of Fine Arts is San Francisco Landmark No. 88, designated in 1977, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 5 December 2005, reference number 04000659. The architects of record are William Gladstone Merchant and Bernard Maybeck, and the structure was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The colonnade and rotunda were framed in wood and then covered with staff, a mixture of plaster and burlap-type fiber; between 1964 and 1974 they were rebuilt in permanent, lightweight, poured-in-place concrete, and steel I-beams were hoisted into place for the dome of the rotunda. The exhibit hall behind the colonnade has had two lives since: in 1970 it also became the home of the 966-seat Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, and it became home to the Exploratorium in 1969, the museum closing there in January 2013 before moving to the Embarcadero. On 6 October 1976 the Palace of Fine Arts hosted the second presidential debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

The water side of the neighbourhood is one Rec & Park holding. The department files the yacht harbour and the park together as property 112, "Yacht Harbor and Marina Green", a regional park of 165.47 acres at 1 Marina Green Drive; Wikipedia describes the Marina Green as a park adjacent to the municipal boat marina from which the neighborhood takes its name. On the jetty that shelters the small boat harbour, at 83 Marina Green Drive, is the Wave Organ, an acoustic sculpture of 25 organ pipes made of PVC and concrete whose sound depends on the tide. Chestnut Street carries the neighbourhood's civic buildings: Moscone Recreation Center, 12.73 acres at 1800 Chestnut Street, and the Marina Branch Library at 1890 Chestnut Street.

The bluff at Black Point was called Punta Medanos and Punta de San Jose by the Spanish settlers, and was renamed Black Point after 1849, for the abundance of dark-colored California bay laurel trees that grew on it. In the 1850s it carried a civilian community whose residents included John Fremont, Jessie Benton Fremont and Leonides Haskell. The National Park Service records that the outbreak of the Civil War forced the army to take back possession of Black Point, evict the civilian residents, and re-establish the original name, Point San Jose; that in 1864 the army fortified Point San Jose with more guns; and that in 1882 the post was renamed Fort Mason to honor Colonel Richard Barnes Mason, the second military governor and commander of California. Two of the private houses built on the north end of Black Point still stand, and are now called Quarters 3 and Quarters 4. Of the 1864 work, a breast-high wall of brick and mounts for six 10-inch Rodman cannons and six 42-pounder guns were built on the site; excavation in the early 1980s uncovered the well-preserved remains of the western-half of the temporary battery, and it has now been restored to its condition during the Civil War.

The Fort Mason Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 25 April 1972, reference number 72000109, and a boundary increase was listed on 23 April 1979, reference number 79000530. The San Francisco Port of Embarkation was listed on 4 February 1985, reference number 85002433, as a National Historic Landmark with 14 contributing buildings; Wikipedia records it as operating from 1932 to 1955. During the Second World War, Fort Mason became the headquarters of the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, controlling a network of shipping facilities across the Bay Area.

The lower post is now the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, at 2 Marina Boulevard: a 13-acre campus with 11 venue options ranging from 500 to 50,000 square feet and more than 100,000 square feet of rentable space, reporting approximately 1.5 million visitors annually. It describes itself as the nonprofit steward of the former San Francisco Port of Embarkation, and Wikipedia records that lower Fort Mason became the Fort Mason Center, a nonprofit organization, in 1976. The Festival Pavilion covers 50,000 square feet and holds up to 3,840 people; the Gateway Pavilion covers 40,000 square feet and holds up to 2,000; the Herbst Pavilion housed a San Francisco Art Institute graduate campus from 2017 until its closure in 2022. The Magic Theatre, the 437-seat Cowell Theater, Greens Restaurant and The Interval at Long Now all take the same 2 Marina Boulevard address.

No source states a bus route, a rail line or a station for the Marina, so none is given here. Steer by street addresses instead, and note that the waterfront and the inland blocks are two different sets of them.

On the water: the Palace of Fine Arts at 3301 Lyon Street, the Wave Organ at 83 Marina Green Drive, Marina Green at 1 Marina Green Drive, and Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture at 2 Marina Boulevard, which is also the address for the Magic Theatre, the Cowell Theater, Greens Restaurant and The Interval at Long Now. Inland: Moscone Recreation Center at 1800 Chestnut Street, the Marina Branch Library at 1890 Chestnut Street, Lucca Delicatessen at 2120 Chestnut Street, the San Francisco Gas Light Company building at 3640 Buchanan Street, the Ladies' Protection and Relief Society building at 3400 Laguna Street, the Colonial Dames Octagon House at 2645 Gough Street, Allyne Park at 2609 Gough Street, Cow Hollow Playground at 1 Miley Street, the North End Police Station and Garage at 2475 Greenwich Street, the Sherman House at 2160 Green Street, the Golden Gate Valley Carnegie Library at 1801 Green Street, the Metro Theater at 2055 Union Street and the Burr House at 1772 Vallejo Street. Chestnut Street runs from Fillmore Street down to Lyon Street.

Few things here publish hours. San Francisco Public Library gives the Marina Branch as Sunday 1 to 5, Monday and Tuesday 10 to 6, Wednesday 1 to 8, Thursday 10 to 8, Friday 1 to 6 and Saturday 10 to 6, on 415-355-2823. Greens serves lunch Tuesday to Friday 11.30am to 2.30pm, brunch Saturday and Sunday 10.30am to 2.30pm and dinner Tuesday to Sunday 5.00pm to 9.00pm. The Interval at Long Now opens Monday 5pm to 10pm, Tuesday to Friday 10am to 11pm, Saturday 5pm to 11pm and Sunday 3pm to 10pm. Lucca Delicatessen opens daily from 9am to 6pm. For everything else in the neighbourhood no source states opening hours, so none are given here.