Mother's Building - Murals Behind the Arches

Photo: Helen Bruton / Margaret Bruton / Esther Bruton, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco Zoo: Exhibit by Exhibit, a free self-guided tour.

Look for the building with a red tile roof and five arches near the playground and Playfield Lawn. This is the Mother's Building, opened in 1925, four years before the zoo. Brothers Herbert and Mortimer Fleishhacker built it in memory of their mother, Delia, as a place where mothers and small children could rest beside the huge Fleishhacker Pool. Boys over six were not allowed in.

In the 1930s, New Deal art programs hired women artists to decorate it. Helen Forbes and Dorothy Puccinelli painted Noah's Ark murals inside, and the Bruton sisters set mosaics of Saint Francis and of children with animals into the porch walls.

The pool, once among the largest outdoor pools in the world, closed in 1971. The Mother's Building is all that remains. It served as the gift shop until 2002 and is now a closed city landmark awaiting restoration, so admire it from the path.

Getting here: Leave the Exploration Zone by its main gate and walk east past the playground toward the Playfield Lawn and Sloat Boulevard.

Did you know?: The Bruton sisters built their mosaics partly from inexpensive tile seconds from a San Jose tile company, and the uneven colors give the pictures depth.

Photo op: Frame the five arches and the tile roof from the path; protective lattice partly covers the porch mosaics.

For kids: Saint Francis, the city's namesake, is the patron saint of animals. Which animals would you put in a picture with him?

Nearby: Cafe Playfield sells coffee and snacks by the playground, and restrooms are close by.

More on Wikipedia: Mother's Building · Fleishhacker Pool · Herbert Fleishhacker · Federal Art Project

Mother's Building - Murals Behind the Arches

Stops on this tour