The Palace of the Fine Arts

We came upon The Palace of the Fine Arts following a long walk along the Marina Blvd Promenade which eventually
takes you to Chrissy Fields, the Golden Gate Bridge and the wonderful "Warming Hut", a coffee house for tourists but
a really nice one you will enjoy stopping at.
The "Palace" constructions and sculptures are all that remain of the enormous 1915 Panama-Pacific
International Exposition. The expositions temporary buildings were all torn down but the Palace of Fine Arts remained
due to its popularity with the public. Constructed of wood, chicken wire and plaster stucco it began to seriously deteriorate
in the 1960's and was finally completely resurrected in concrete, restoration and cleaning work still goes on as the concrete
takes its turn to age (see the arm of the cherry picker in the shot below) The Palace's many sorrowful statuary symbolically
lament that the people of San Francisco do not possess their own collection of Fine Arts of Antiquity.

North facade - Harold Washington Library Centre
image © lee-anne raymond

Corner flourish - H. W. Public Library
image © lee-anne raymond
Corner flourish - H. W. Public Library
image © lee-anne raymond