Free Museums!

San Francisco is a beautiful multicultural city with great restaurants, natural beauty, and world-class museums. I don’t think I am courting controversy when I say it is also an expensive city to visit and live in.  But that doesn't mean it has to be cost prohibitive to experience some of the best artistic and cultural institutions in the city.  Some of our finest museums and cultural institutions may be expensive by some on a budget, but if you are in the know, these great institutions can be experienced for free!

More a working transit facility than museum, the Cable Car Museum on Russian Hill is both.  The giant Willie Wonka-like Victorian era spindles and turbines which power our cable cars evoke a time when the one of only two National Historic Streetcar Landmarks in operation (New Orleans' St. Charles streetcar line is the other) was the only public transportation in town. 

Adjacent to all of the machinery is a little gift shop and museum, but what draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year is a chance to see the real attraction; the clockwork-like inner workings of our 150-year-old landmarks.

We love our public transportation in San Francisco, so much so that we have refurbished scores of vintage streetcars from Milan to Minneapolis and restored them to their original design.   In fact, San Francisco was the first city in the United States to municipalize its public transportation.  It was the first major city to create an entirely city-owned and operated transit system in 1912.  

The San Francisco Railway Museum & Gift Shop

To honor this tradition the city created a second museum dedicated to public transportation.  The San Francisco Railway Museum & Gift Shop, across from the Ferry Building, is small but chock full of accoutrements: Memorabilia, transit-themed toys for the kids, and more books on public transportation and San Francisco you never knew existed.

Fisherman's Wharf is the most popular destination for visitors to San Francisco, and it is anchored by two museums which are both FREE!  The nautical-themed Maritime Museum (in both form and function) honors the seafaring past of San Francisco and is managed by the National Park Service.  This boat-shaped building offers many exhibits and displays which are fun for the whole family and costs nothing.

For 50 years, Playland-at-the-Beach was the only amusement park for almost a hundred miles in any direction from San Francisco.  By the 1970s it ceased to be a wholesome family destination, and slowly morphed into one of those creepy amusement parks featured in old Scooby-Doo cartoons.  

Zoinks!  

When it was demolished in 1972, there were still dozens of old arcade attractions that would have otherwise been destined for the trash heap and lost forever.  

The Musée Mécanique created a literal arcade museum, rescued many of the old games, and lovingly restored them to their original design.  Some of them dating back over 100 years.  All you need is a fist full of quarters and you could enjoy them as generations of flapper girls and Bobby-Soxers did decades before.

For the next 40 years the Musée Mécanique found a home next to the world-famous Cliff House on the western shores of the city. When the Cliff House expanded, they had to move yet again. Fortunately, they found the best possible home for their wonders to delight young and old.

The Musée Mécanique is now located at Pier 45 in the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf and is the perfect place for a family on a budget.  Kids born in the 21st century often only see two-dimensional games on a TV or computer screens, but their jaws tend to drop when the see it in three dimensions.  Except for a handful of quarters, it’s free!

Next to a real fire station is the little and mighty Guardians of the City Museum.  Operated by the San Francisco Fire Department, this little gem is dedicated to the history of the SFFD, and displays firefighting equipment and memorabilia showcasing the integral relationship it had in the development of the city.   So important, in fact, because the city suffered massive fires in its early days. Most notably the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, which destroyed almost a third of San Francisco.

If you stop and look at any official city vehicle, you will notice the seal of the city prominently features a symbol of the Phoenix rising from the ashes.  

But never mind the history, kids love fire trucks!  

And the Guardians of the City Museum will make for a pleasant family excursion.  It’s not very big, but it is filled with all kinds of wonders honoring San Francisco’s firefighting heroes.  The best part for a family on a budget is that it’s also free!

One of the most underrated museums is barely noticed unless you happen to be going to the brew pub above it, but the VFW building at the far western end of Golden Gate Park on the Great Highway has a nice little collection of displays about Golden Gate Park.  But the best reason for going is the 360-degree Works Progress Administration (WPA) - era mural, depicting life in San Francisco in the 1930s.

Built in 1925 by the great San Francisco architect Willis Polk, it was originally used as a lounge but was appropriated by the US Army during WWII, and after that became the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) until 1979.  Today it is part of the National Register of Historic Places and is crowned on the top floor by the Beach Chalet, an upscale restaurant that produces its own variety of San Francisco-themed beers.

San Francisco's SFMOMA (the second largest modern art museum in the United States) and Asian Art Museums (the largest collection of Asian art outside of Asia) are premier destinations for art lovers, but the cost of admission can be expensive.  Especially if you are on a budget.  In an attempt to toss us working stiffs a bone, many of the major museums offer free days once a month. 

If you are a citizen of San Francisco, and with proof of ID, many of these attractions offer different days where no admission is charged.  The free access may not be applicable if the museum is hosting a special exhibit.  The proverbial King Tutt exhibition may not be free, but the rest of the museum’s permanent collection is.

The Asian Art Museum

The aforementioned Asian Art Museum in the city's Civic Center is free the first Sunday of every month.  The Palace of the Legion of Honor, celebrating is centennial in 2024, is free for everyone the first Tuesday of every month, be you citizen or visitor.  If you are a Bay Area citizen with valid ID, the museum is free every Saturday.

 The de Young Museum and Tower

Our premier art museum, the de Young is free for everyone the first Tuesday of every month.  Again, if you are a Bay Area citizen with valid ID, the museum is free every Saturday.

The underrated Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), where I caught a great exhibit on the works of Gordon Parks, is usually free every second Saturday of the month.  However, I would double check their calendar as the free days may change depending on their exhibits.

Daniel Libeskind-designed Contemporary Jewish Museum is free the first Friday of the month.  I once saw a mind-blowing exhibit on pop stars who recorded in Hebrew.  Who knew Johnny Mathis and Connie Francis could sing in Hebrew?

The SFMOMA recently doubled in size to make it the second largest museum of modern art in the United States, behind New York City’s.  They are a little stingier when it comes to free days, however it is free for Bay Area locals the first Thursday of the month.  While the building housing one of San Francisco’s three billboard-sized Diego Rivera murals was renovated over the course of two years, the mural was painstakingly deconstructed and reassembled at the SFMOMA.  During the renovation, the mural was displayed free of charge to all who wanted to get lost in its intricacies.

The Conservatory of Flowers, our Victoria-era jewel in Golden Gate Park contains a variety of exotic plants.  Like the de Young Museum, it is free for everyone the first Tuesday of every month, be you citizen or visitor.  Once again, if you are a Bay Area citizen with valid ID, the museum is free every Saturday.

The Conservatory of Flowers

Also found in Golden Gate Park, the San Francisco Botanical Garden (which is also a great place to go on a first date) is free, but kind of sort of.  It is free for everyone if you can get there between 7:30am and 9:30am, as well as the second Tuesday of each month.  It is also free for everyone on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.  If you are a San Francisco citizen it is free all day, every day with a valid ID?

You can beat those prices, you just have to know how and where.