San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we meet a treasured landmark of San Francisco.

Aerial view of the Legion as it is today. You can see the expanse of the museum and how closely it resembles the original in Paris with the enclosed courtyard. huangcolin/Shutterstock

The Palace of the Legion of Honor is located in Lincoln Park, at the northwestern corner of the San Francisco Peninsula, with some of the best views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge anywhere in the city.

The Palace of the Legion of Honor was the vision of Alma Spreckels, a philanthropist and socialite in the early 1900s. The Panama–Pacific International Exposition opened in San Francisco in 1915. Alma was so taken by a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur at the fair that she commissioned architect George Applegarth to create an exact copy of the Palais to be built on a bluff overlooking San Francisco Bay. The Legion of Honor would be a museum and memorial to honor San Franciscans who had been lost in World War I and then World War II.

Authenticity was so crucial to Spreckels that she purchased two well-appointed gilded rooms from France to emulate those at the Palais. Architectural details were religiously copied, making the museum a stunning example of neoclassical architecture that has been carefully curated to provide visitors with a glimpse into the past.

One of the most striking features of the museum is the main entrance, which is adorned with two bronze lions sculpted by Auguste Bartholdi, the same artist who created the Statue of Liberty. The entrance leads to a grand rotunda surrounded by galleries displaying the museum’s art collection. The Palace of the Legion of Honor is also home to “one of the most comprehensive Rodin collections in America,” according to the museum’s website, including “The Thinker,” and other sculptures, paintings, and decorative arts from Europe and America.

The Legion as it is today on the bluff of Lincoln Park overlooking San Francisco Bay. Courtesy Legion of Honor.

The elegant rectangular Court of Honor ("cour d’honneur") of Greco-Roman inspiration is classic in its well-ordered composition, the harmony of its proportions, and the sobriety of its architecture, topped with the inscription of the Legion of Honor’s motto, "Honor and Fatherland" ("Honneur et patrie). Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

Located in the Court of Honor at the museum's entrance is a bronze casting of Auguste Rodin’s "The Thinker." Note the columns and walls in the background. The Legion was a three-quarter scale adaption of the 18th-century Parisian original and incorporated the most advanced ideas in museum construction. The walls were 21 inches thick and made with hollow tiles to keep the temperature even. Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

The rotunda roof is encircled by statues copied from sculptures made in 1804 by two French sculptors for the Palais in Paris. Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

The monumental triumphal arch in the classical style is supported by two columns and can be seen as one enters a hallway leading to the rotunda. Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

The entrance to the Legion leads down a hall of palatial marble columns typical of the neoclassical style and into a large rotunda that itself leads to various rooms of exhibits. Courtesy of the Legion of Honor

The Salon Doré was built in 1781 and installed in the Hôtel de Neuchâtel in Paris. Typical of pre-revolutionary Paris, it was gilded with paneled walls and rich fabrics; the Legion has taken care to return it to its original opulence. Courtesy Legion of Honor

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