20 Attractions to Explore Near San Francisco City Hall

The War Memorial Opera House was built as a monument to San Francisco's dead from World War I. It has been the home of the San Francisco Opera since opening night in 1932. It was the site of the San Francisco Conference, the first assembly of the newly organized the United Nations in April 1945. The artists who have performed on its stage are as legendary as the building itself. The theater hosts more than sixty performances of nine operas annually.

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco houses one of the most comprehensive Asian art collections in the world, with more than 18,000 works of art in its permanent collection, some as much as 6,000 years old.

Along the eastern side of Alamo Square Park is one of the most iconic and most photographed sights in San Francisco. These pastel-colored homes, standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the gentle slope of Steiner Street, are called the Painted Ladies. Also known as "postcard row" for their scenic beauty, these Victorian homes are a beautiful reminder of the San Francisco of old, while the gleaming downtown skyline of new San Francisco shimmers in the distance.

Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood and park in San Francisco, California. Its boundaries are not well-defined but are generally considered to be Webster Street on the east, Golden Gate Avenue on the north, Divisadero Street on the west, and Fell Street on the south. The well known postcard motif "Painted Ladies" is located in Alamo Square.

Swan Oyster Depot is larger than life and arguably, the best seafood restaurant in San Francisco. Swan's menu has remained largely unchanged throughout its history, and it has had exactly the same 18 wooden stools and marble counter that were installed for the post-earthquake reopening in 1912.

Union Square is a 2.6-acre public plaza bordered by Geary, Powell, Post and Stockton Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. "Union Square" also refers to the central shopping, hotel, and theater district that surrounds the plaza for several blocks. The area got its name because it was once used for Thomas Starr King rallies and support for the Union Army during the American Civil War, earning its designation as a California Historical Landmark.

Grace Cathedral is an Episcopal church in the heart of San Francisco. This is a house of prayer for all as we are a warm, diverse and an inviting congregat.The parish, which was founded in 1849, lost its previous church building in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The cathedral is famed for its mosaics by Jan Henryk De Rosen, a replica of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, two labyrinths, varied stained glass windows, Keith Haring AIDS Chapel altarpiece, and medieval and contemporary furnishings.

The Children's Creativity Museum offers hands-on, multimedia arts and technology experiences designed to build creative confidence in children ages 2-12. It offers workshops and exhibits that allow children to produce their own media through various interactive, creative processes: stop motion animation, programming robots, music video production, design challenges, art projects, and more.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market. The museum's mission is to make the diversity of the Jewish experience relevant for a twenty-first century audience through exhibitions and educational programs. The museum has no permanent collection. It curates and hosts a broad array of exhibitions each year in collaboration with other institutions.

The Top of the Mark is a penthouse level bar located on the nineteenth floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill at California and Mason Streets in San Francisco, California. Located at the highest point of downtown San Francisco, on fog-free days the Top of the Mark has views of the financial district, Chinatown, North Beach, The San Francisco Bay, and of Grace Cathedral and Huntington Park.

Yerba Buena Gardens is the perfect place to play, dine, shop or just relax. This is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco, California.A pedestrian bridge over Howard Street connects the two blocks, sitting on top of part of the Moscone Center convention center. It is a world-renowned cultural destination for Bay Area residents.

The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is a restaurant and tiki bar in the Fairmont San Francisco hotel in San Francisco, California. Named after the South Pacific nation of Tonga, this dining and entertainment venue opened in 1945. The Tonga Room replaced the Terrace Plunge, an indoor swimming pool that was installed in the Fairmont in 1929. The pool was transformed into the Tonga Room's lagoon.

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is located at the Yerba Buena Park and is a place of cultural essence to the city. They showcase art, feature films, dance performances, public programs, etc. The center displays exhibits and collaboratively works with other foundations to promote public welfare and eliminate violence from the community. It also features all types of cinematic endeavors, including documentaries on a variety of subjects, art-house movies and foreign films.

A modern art museum located in the heart of San Francisco. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. The museum's current collection includes over 33,000 works of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, and media arts and more.

The Museum of the African Diaspora occupies 20,000 Sq. Ft. on portions of three floors of the St. Regis Hotel and Residences designed by SOM. It holds exhibitions and presents artists exclusively of the African diaspora, one of only a few museums of its kind in the United States. It does not have a permanent collection and instead works directly with artists or independent curators when developing exhibitions.

California Historical Society inspires and empowers Californians to make the past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives. The Society maintains a collection of historical documents, photographs, art and other research materials, awards the annual California Historical Society Book Prize, and publishes California History, an academic journal, in association with the University of California Press.

Mission San Francisco de Asís, commonly known as Mission Dolores, is a Spanish Californian mission and the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. This historic structure features authentic adobe architecture and construction. It's a functioning Catholic Church and one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the nation.

The San Francisco Cable Car Museum in the Nob Hill area offers exhibits that trace the history and workings of the iconic San Francisco cable cars. The museum is part of the complex that also houses the cable car power house, which drives the cables, and the car depot.

This is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese enclave outside Asia.

A mnajestic art institute which holds exhibitions, lectures, and symposia, releases publications, and runs a residency program, Wattis.