Julius' Castle

Julius' Castle is a castle-shaped building that sits at 1541 Montgomery Street on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. It served as a visual landmark and as a restaurant for many years, originally opening between 1924 and 1928. Since 1980, the building has been listed as a San Francisco Landmark Number 121. The architecture is described by the San Francisco Planning Department as, "primarily derived from the Gothic Revival and Arts & Crafts Styles".

1. History

In 1886, the lot originally housed Michael Crowley's two-story grocery store and later it was replaced with a family home which burned down in a fire in 1917. In 1923, Julius Roz (1869–1947) started the construction process with architect Luigi "Louis" Mastropasqua (1870–1951). The design of Julius' Castle was to pay tribute to Layman's Wooden Castle (also known as Layman’s Folly) a former German-style castle building that was a tourist attraction on Telegraph Hill from 1882 to 1903. Both Roz and Mastropasqua had emigrated from Italy to San Francisco a year prior to the closing of Layman's Folly. The Panama–Pacific International Exposition demolition in 1919 provided salvaged redwood and maple for the construction of Julius' Castle. In the 1920s the castle was painted pink. It operated as a speakeasy for a time during Prohibition. Julius' Castle stayed open after Roz died in 1947. The interior was decorated in Victorian-era parlor style with views of the San Francisco Bay. It was very popular with celebrities, politicians and businessmen such as Robert Redford, Cary Grant, Sean Connery, Marlon Brando, Ginger Rogers, Sir Edmund Hillary, and the entire cast of the film The Empire Strikes Back. Julius' Castle makes appearances in Dashiell Hamett's novels. The 1951 film, The House on Telegraph Hill was filmed at Julius' Castle. After being operated by a series of restaurant owners and managers, Julius' Castle closed in 2007. In 2017, the City approved the reopening of the eatery. However, due to the neighbors complaints of a fear of crowds and noise and a related lawsuit, there were delays in reopening, and it's now scheduled to reopen October 2025.

1. Gallery


1. See also

List of San Francisco Designated Landmarks

1. References


1. External links

Julius' Castle website Video: "Julius Castle on Telegraph Hill – This Forgotten Day in S.F." from San Francisco Chronicle (2015)

Nearby Places View Menu

Coit Tower

Coit Tower ( KOYT; also known as Coit Memorial Tower) is a 210-foot (64 m) tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, overlooking the city and San Francisco Bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's bequest to beautify the city of San Francisco. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 2008. The Art Deco tower, built of unpainted reinforced concrete, was designed by architects Arthur Brown Jr. and Henry Temple Howard. The interior features fresco murals in the American Social Realism style, painted by 22 different onsite artists and their numerous assistants. Three artists preferred oil on canvas and worked offsite. One artist preferred egg tempera rather than fresco. It is often erroneously stated that the structure was dedicated to the volunteer firemen who had died in San Francisco's five major fires, but that is not accurate. The tower was constructed as the result of a bequest by Lillie Hitchcock Coit, whose will included two bequests, one to create a memorial to the city's volunteer firefighters, which was done by statuary in Washington Square, and the other to beautify the city. Coit Tower is the result of the second bequest. A concrete relief of a phoenix by sculptor Robert Boardman Howard is placed above the main entrance. It was commissioned by the architect and cast as part of the building. Although an apocryphal story claims that the tower was designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle due to Coit's affinity with the San Francisco firefighters of the day, the resemblance is coincidental.

Historic Site Landmark

Statue of Christopher Columbus (San Francisco)

A statue of Christopher Columbus was installed in Pioneer Park, San Francisco, California.

Landmark Monument

Telegraph Hill, San Francisco

Telegraph Hill (elev. 285 ft (87 m)) is a hill and surrounding neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills". The iconic Coit Tower stands at the apex of Telegraph Hill.

Landmark

Pioneer Park (San Francisco)

Pioneer Park is a 4.89-acre (19,800 m2) park crowning the top of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. It was established in 1876 in celebration of the United States Centennial. Prior to establishment of the park, it was the site of the Marine Telegraph Station. The main feature of the park, Coit Tower, was completed in 1933 using a $118,000 bequest left to the city by Lillie Hitchcock Coit in 1929. A bronze statue of Christopher Columbus was placed in the park in 1957, and removed in June, 2020.

Landmark Monument