Day One

South of Market

Start your grand tour of the West Coast’s first major city South of Market, an eclectic mix of historic architecture, major museums, galleries, outdoor sculptures, performance spaces, cafes, restaurants, terraced gardens and dramatic bayfront vistas. Begin with breakfast at the elegant 1 Palace Hotel (Market and New Montgomery; 512-1111) in the soaring, glass-roofed Garden Court.

A block away is 2 St. Patrick’s Catholic Church (756 Mission St.), a landmark 1851 Gothic Revival red brick building, a classic anachronism among its modern neighbors. The most recent is the Contemporary Jewish Museum (736 Mission St., 655-7800), a metal-clad structure whose form, says architect Daniel Libeskind, is based on the Hebrew word l’chaim, which means “to life.”

3 California Historical Society (678 Mission St.; 357-1848) is a treasure-laden repository of materials that document the state’s development. Its offerings are vast: a 5,000-piece fine arts collection; 35,000 books and pamphlets; 3,700 maps, posters and broadsides; 3,500 unpublished letters, diaries and manuscripts from Gold Rush miners, settlers and businessmen; 450,000 photographs; and 43,000 film and glass plate negatives. The library is open to the public Wed.-Fri., noon-4:30 p.m.. Exhibits and the bookstore are also open weekends, same hours.

4 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St.; 978-2700) and its six-acre gardens occupy an entire block, home to three art galleries, a 750-seat theater and a 350-seat multiuse forum. In the gardens, amid quirky sculpture, the city presents free plays and festivals.

5 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (151 Third St.; 357-4000), established in 1935 as California’s first museum of 20th century art, was reincarnated in 1995 by architect Mario Botta. SFMOMA’s four stories of exhibits and permanent collections are closed Wed., open til 8:45 p.m. Thur.

6 The Embarcadero Promenade, renamed Herb Caen Way after the Chronicle columnist, offers history, architecture, public art and splendid waterfront views. 7 The Ferry Building was the city’s transit hub long before the Golden Gate and Bay bridges were built in 1937. Ferries still carry people to Alameda, Oakland, Vallejo and Tiburon, but the building now is an upscale marketplace. Open daily, several dozen food specialties and restaurants line the indoor hall. Local chefs and San Francisco food lovers fill their baskets at Saturday’s huge, 120-stall outdoor farmers’ market, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and at a smaller market on Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. South of the Ferry Building, piers are even-numbered; north odd-numbered. Walking south toward Pier 40, note the 8 Promenade Ribbon, a 2.5-mile-long sculpture. Along the way are pieces of history in the 9 Interpretive Signage Project — a plaque with a circa 1913 panorama of the area, a yellow and black illustrated pylon depicting the dangers of sailing. At 10 Pier 40 is grassy South Beach Park and sculptor Mark di Suvero’s 60-foot stainless steel sculpture, “Sea Change.” For waterfront refreshment, stop at the Java House (495-7260). Like Red’s Java House farther down at Pier 30, it dates from the days when shipping was big here and each pier had its own Java House.

South Park is a tranquil square surrounded by stately, restored Georgian houses that in that 19th century were the homes of cattle kings, state senators and other powers. Today, South Park is a mix of private homes and small enterprises. At the south end of Jack London Alley, at Third and Brannan, a 11 plaque on the Wells Fargo building marks the birthplace of the famous writer.

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