News Release

Virtual Film Premiere of "Palace for the People, The Art and Artistry of the Aquatic Park Bathhouse."

Date: March 8, 2021
Contact: Morgan Smith, 4158596797

San Francisco, CA – Over eighty years ago, San Franciscans, with the help of the federal WPA, realized a decades-old dream: building a palace for the people on the City’s northern waterfront. On Saturday, March 13th, 11:00 am, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park salutes that legacy with the virtual premiere of a 15-minute documentary that tells the story of this iconic Art Moderne building. The premiere includes an interview with the director John Rogers. Tickets are required and are free through the park’s partner website https://maritime.org/maritime-museum-film/. A link to live captioning will be provided.

Building on architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s 1866 concept of an aquatic park at Black Point Cove, a 1930s WPA project transformed an industrial site into a “modern” park with recreational facilities. The Federal Art Project brought in a creative team including bohemian artist Hilaire Hiler, Sargent Johnson, Beniamino Bufano, Richard Ayer, and Charles Nunemaker who crafted tile mosaics, brilliantly colored murals, sculptures, lighting fixtures, and terrazzo floors into a fanciful, three dimensional homage to the sea.

Buffeted by controversy, the building was overlooked until the 1950s, when the private San Francisco Maritime Museum integrated conceptually fresh history exhibits with the building’s unique architecture to tell the seafaring stories of America’s West Coast. In the 1970s, the Museum, Aquatic Park, and historic ships at Hyde Street Pier were joined under the auspices of the National Park Service, and in 1988 the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park was established to care for the historic district and National Historic Landmark vessels.

The documentary was produced by John Rogers’ production company, Ideas in Motion, in partnership with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, The Fund for People in Parks, the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association with generous support from additional donors. After the event, the film will be posted on the park’s YouTube channel and will show in the Aquatic Park Bathhouse when it reopens to the public. Ideas in Motion is also developing a longer documentary on the Aquatic Park Bathhouse to more deeply explore the meaning and stories related to this Federal Art Project masterpiece.

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, located at the west end of Fisherman’s Wharf, includes a fleet of historic ships, Visitor Center, Maritime Museum, Maritime Research Center, and the Aquatic Park Historic District. Many open-air areas of the park, including Aquatic Park, Victorian Park, two sets of historic bleachers, the swimming/boating cove, and the Aquatic Park Pier, have remained open to visitors throughout the pandemic. The park plans to open outdoor areas of the fee area, including Hyde Street Pier and above deck areas of the historic vessels on March 15th. Current alerts and status of facilities can be found on the park webpage: https://www.nps.gov/safr/.