Coit Tower has stood on top of Telegraph Hill since 1933, and it's one of the few major San Francisco landmarks where the best part is free. Starting in November, though, you'll have an hour less daylight to see it. Here's what to know.

Hours

The tower is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the warmer months and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in winter. The two official visitor pages differ slightly on when the switch happens (one says November through March, the other November through April), but both agree that November means a 5 p.m. close. The tower is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

What's free and what isn't

The ground floor, including the murals, is free during open hours. The 360-degree viewing platform at the top costs extra, with tickets sold on site. Pricing differs between the two official sources. The Pioneer Park visitor page lists platform tickets at $10. The tour operator's price list shows adult tickets at $6 for San Francisco residents and $8 for non-residents, with discounts for seniors, youth and children, free entry for kids 4 and under, and a $10 adult all-access ticket that adds a self-guided audio tour. Bring a little extra in case. Volunteer-led tours of the tower and murals run 30 to 40 minutes for small groups and cost $10, or $5 for the second floor only. Tickets are sold until an hour before closing.

One warning: the tower's own visitor page says the 90-year-old elevator may not be working when you visit. If it's down, you'll have to climb 13 flights of stairs to reach the viewing level.

Getting there

Parking at the top is very limited, and the line of cars waiting for a spot can be long. The Muni 39 bus runs to the tower from Fisherman's Wharf. For a more scenic route, climb the Filbert Street stairs, which pass through the Grace Marchant Garden, or the Greenwich Street stairs. A cafe at the base is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. No food or drinks are allowed inside the tower.

The murals

The fresco murals inside were the pilot project of the Public Works of Art Project, the first New Deal employment program for artists. Ralph Stackpole and Bernard Zakheim got the commission in 1933 and supervised the muralists. The tower's volunteer tours cover the lives of the 26 artists who created the murals, many of them teachers and students at the California School of Fine Arts. The artists were paid $25 to $45 a week to depict "aspects of life in California." Many held leftist politics, and it shows. In Zakheim's Library, fellow artist John Langley Howard reaches for a copy of Karl Marx's Das Kapital. In Victor Arnautoff's City Life, the newsstand carries The New Masses and The Daily Worker.

The woman behind it

The tower was paid for by Lillie Hitchcock Coit (1843–1929), a wealthy socialite who loved to chase fires. At 15, she saw Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5 struggling to get up Telegraph Hill to a fire, threw down her schoolbooks and rallied bystanders to help pull the engine. She became the company's mascot and often rode with Engine Co. 5 in parades and celebrations. Her will left one-third of her fortune, $118,000, to be spent "adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved."

Despite the popular story, the tower was not designed to look like a fire hose nozzle. The resemblance is a coincidence. Coit's will funded two memorials: a statue of volunteer firefighters in Washington Square, and this tower. Architect Arthur Brown Jr. won the design competition, and the tower was dedicated on Oct. 8, 1933. It stands 210 feet tall in Pioneer Park. A month after it opened, a Telegraph Hill cafe owner was charged with firing a pistol at it because she thought it looked like a silo. San Francisco voters passed Proposition B in 2012, which requires the city to pay to preserve the murals and the building.