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Photo: User:tfinc, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Exhibits in San Francisco's original US Mint Building about the history of the City.
The San Francisco Historical Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and presentation of the history of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area. It is a membership-based organization that holds monthly speaking programs, conducts walking tours of San Francisco, provides educational resources for grade schools and publishes original research. The Barbary Coast Trail walking tour is a project of the society as is the journal Argonaut.
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San Francisco's tallest and most famous skyscraper, controversial when it opened, but now accepted. There used to be an unusual observation deck on the ground floor with 4 big TV monitors, showing live views of the city transmitted from cameras at the top of the building. They now have a happy worker at the bottom that tells you anything and everything you want to know about San Francisco and has some great stories. Then he tells you that they no longer have the 4 big TVs and are building a restaurant where you can view the city from inside.
Consists of many buildings between Sacramento and Clay Streets running from the Embarcadero to Battery Street housing a shopping center, offices, and the Hyatt Regency hotel, which has a wonderful 17 story atrium used in the film Towering Inferno.
A long-standing photography gallery with changing museum-quality exhibits featuring the work of many of the medium's masters.
Home to Shelton Studios, SF Playhouse, and Stage Werx.
The most important site is the square itself, which was revamped in 2002 to provide more space for outdoor events and less space for napping homeless people (an earlier version of the square appeared in the film The Conversation). The square now includes a Cafe along with an underground parking garage. For blogging people-watchers, there is free wi-fi provided by the city. Look under the leaves of the greenery in the planters, and you'll find a few power outlets for your laptop.
A ticket booth run by Theater Bay Area, this booth offers many half-price tickets for local performances if you purchase on the day of the show, and you can sometimes buy full-price tickets in advance here as well.