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San Francisco · Beaux-Arts

Legion of Honor

Also known asLegion of Honor Museum · California Palace of the Legion of Honor · Lincoln Park Legion of Honor
Beaux-Arts · Architecture · Civic · Urban · Steps · Sandstone

A Beaux-Arts museum and colonnaded courtyard high above the Pacific, in the quietest corner of San Francisco.

What to expect at a glance
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Legion of Honor hasn't been shot for portraits yet — most clients come here for couples work. Switch to "All" to see everything.

Often paired with

Hop next door for a different mood

Baker Beach

Baker Beach

Coast · Beach
From the photographer
Chris Schmauch
by Chris Schmauch, owner of GoodEye Photography

The Legion of Honor is a 1924 Beaux-Arts museum in Lincoln Park — columns, a colonnaded courtyard, Rodin's Thinker out front, and the Pacific somewhere over the cliff. One of the only sites in San Francisco that gives couples a classical-architecture backdrop without a hike or a permit.

Most San Francisco couples' photography happens on sand or in fog: Baker, Sutro, Lands End, Crissy. The Legion of Honor is the rare exception. A full Beaux-Arts museum sitting on a bluff at the western edge of the city, with a colonnaded courtyard, a Rodin sculpture out front, and views west toward the Pacific. You get the look of a European palace in twenty minutes from downtown, with no airfare and no scaffolding.

What to expect

The lay of the land

Access
Pay parking at the museum lot ($) or free street parking along Legion of Honor Drive and El Camino del Mar. Fifty-foot walk from car to colonnade on flat paved stone.
Footwear
Anything goes — smooth paved stone throughout. The one SF couples location where heels are genuinely fine.
Best Time of Day
Late afternoon to golden hour for the back of the building and cliff views. Morning hits the front colonnade hard. For proposals + privacy, before 9:30 AM when the museum opens.
Best Season
Every season works. Winter is the most reliably clear; summer brings the famous SF marine layer (which photographs beautifully against the sandstone). Closed Mondays for the museum interior — grounds stay open and Mondays are the quietest shoot day.
Privacy
Public museum grounds, never private. Crowds vary from sparse (weekday mornings) to dense (weekend afternoons during exhibitions). For elopements wanting fewer onlookers, target a weekday before 10 AM.
Drive times

Getting here

San Francisco (downtown)20 min
Sausalito25 min
Half Moon Bay35 min
Berkeley35 min
San Jose1 hr
Santa Cruz1 hr 30 min
Approximate, off-peak driving.
Worth knowing

A few things about Legion of Honor

  • Built in 1924, the Legion of Honor is a three-quarter-scale replica of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris. It was a memorial gift from Alma Spreckels to the City of San Francisco honoring California soldiers who died in World War I.

    — famsf.org

  • The bronze cast of Rodin's 'The Thinker' that sits in the courtyard is one of about 20 lifetime casts in existence. It was installed at the museum's opening in 1924.

    — famsf.org / Wikipedia

  • The grounds are free and open to the public from sunrise to dusk; only the museum interior requires admission. Handheld photography on the grounds is unrestricted; tripods and large lighting setups put you in 'commercial production' territory and require a permit through FAMSF Production Services.

    — famsf.org/visit/photography-and-filming-policy

  • George Segal's 'The Holocaust' sculpture installed on the museum's back lawn in 1984 was originally controversial — the museum board fought it for years. It's now considered one of the most quietly powerful pieces of public art in the city.

    — Wikipedia / SF Chronicle archive

  • Lincoln Park is built on top of San Francisco's old Golden Gate Cemetery, which was relocated to Colma in the early 1900s. Occasional remains still surface during grounds construction — most recently during the 1995 museum renovation.

    — San Francisco Public Library
Also known as

Legion of Honor also appears as Legion of Honor Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, or Lincoln Park Legion of Honor.