Lillie Hitchcock Coit

Lillie Hitchcock Coit (born 1842 - died July 22, 1929 in San Francisco) was a well-known volunteer firefighter and the benefactor for the construction of the Coit Tower in San Francisco.

In 1851, she moved to California from West Point with her parents, Charles, an Army doctor, and Martha Hitchcock.

'Firebelle Lil' Coit was one of the more eccentric characters in the history of North Beach and Telegraph Hill, smoking cigars and wearing trousers long before it was socially acceptable for women to do so. She was an avid gambler and often dressed like a man in order to gamble in the males-only establishments that dotted North Beach. Coit was reputed to have shaved her head so her wigs would fit better.

She had a special relationship with the city's firefighters, having been rescued from a fire at the age of eight. By the age of fifteen, she was riding the Knickerbocker Engine Co. 5. and as an adult was recognized as an honorary firefighter.

Coit Tower is built on the site of the first west coast telegraph, a semaphore line completed in 1849. Coit commissioned another neighborhood landmark, a on the southwest corner of Washington Square Park.

External links

* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/h-coit2.html 1900 Biography and Photo] and [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/h-coit.html 1939 Biography] , at the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.