Marina District
About Marina District
The Marina spreads along the northern waterfront. The land itself is mostly artificial. A cove was filled gradually from the late 1800s through the early 1910s, partly with rubble from the 1906 earthquake but mostly with sand and mud dredged from the bay. The large push happened around 1912 in preparation for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The flat streets and Mediterranean-style architecture you see today went up after the expo wrapped.
What to See & Do
The waterfront trail runs from Fort Mason to the Golden Gate Bridge along the bay. It’s a shared-use path used by runners, cyclists, and walkers. The Marina Green is the open lawn along the waterfront. The yacht harbor sits east of the green.
The Palace of Fine Arts is the architectural remnant from the 1915 fair. Bernard Maybeck’s original was built in temporary materials and was supposed to be demolished after the exposition closed. It deteriorated; the current structure is a 1965 rebuild in permanent materials (concrete and steel) following Maybeck’s plans. The rotunda and colonnade surround a lagoon.
Fort Mason Center occupies the former military installation at the neighborhood’s eastern edge. The converted warehouses house restaurants, theaters, and event spaces. Off the Grid food truck gatherings run in the parking lot on Friday nights from spring through fall.
Where to Eat & Drink
Chestnut Street is the commercial spine, with shops, restaurants, fitness studios, and cafes that cater to the residential apartments around it.
Union Street runs parallel to Chestnut, generally with a slightly older crowd. The shops and restaurants on Union tend to be longer-established.
The Character
The flat streets and waterfront make the Marina easy to walk and bike compared to the hills around it. Because the neighborhood is built on liquefaction-prone fill, it took some of the worst structural damage in the city during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Many of the buildings you walk past today are rebuilt or seismically retrofitted since then.
Getting There
The 30 Stockton bus runs through the neighborhood. The 28 19th Avenue runs along the western edge. Street parking is possible with patience. The waterfront trail connects to the entire northern shoreline.
Views from the trail and the Marina Green extend across the bay toward Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Where to Eat
All restaurants →
Things to Do
All activities →
Wave Organ
Wave-activated sound sculpture built in May 1986 by Peter Richards (Exploratorium) and stone mason George Gonzales, with 25 PVC and concrete pipes set into rocks salvaged from the demolished Laurel Hill Cemetery. Free, open 24 hours, on a jetty at 83 Marina Green Drive next to the St. Francis Yacht Club. Loudest at high tide; check NOAA before you go.
Presidio Pet Cemetery
A half-acre pet cemetery in the Presidio, surrounded by a white picket fence and shaded by Monterey pines. Hundreds of graves for dogs, cats, parakeets, rabbits, hamsters, lizards, goldfish, and at least one mouse, with the oldest visible markers dating to the early 1950s and many headstones engraved in the format of military grave markers. Free, dawn to dusk, on McDowell near Crissy Field Avenue.
House of Air
Indoor trampoline park opened in 2010 inside a 1921 Army airplane hangar at Crissy Field, originally home to biplanes flown by the 91st Observation Squadron. Architect Mark Horton redesigned the space; 42-foot bi-fold hangar doors and a second-story catwalk over 8,000+ square feet of trampolines. 926 Mason Street; grip socks required.
Hopper’s Hands
Two yellow-painted metal hand outlines bolted to the fence behind Fort Point, put up around 2000 by Golden Gate Bridge ironworker Ken Hopper. The Ferry Building round trip to the hands and back is about 10 miles, a common marathon training turnaround. Free, on the Bay Trail under the bridge.
Palace of Fine Arts
The surviving structure from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, designed by Bernard Maybeck as a temporary plaster building. Reconstructed in reinforced concrete from 1965 to 1974 using Maybeck's original drawings, with a second seismic retrofit completed in 2009. Rotunda rises 162 feet over the reflecting lagoon. Grounds are free.
Presidio Theater
A 1939 art deco theater at 99 Moraga Avenue, originally the Sixth Corps post theater, restored and reopened in 2019 with about 600 seats. Programming cycles independent film, comedy, music, dance, and lectures. Tickets typically $15 to $50, free PresidiGo shuttle stops at the Main Post.
