The Beat Museum, a SF mecca for poetry and literature lovers

Sep 12, 2023

The Beat Museum in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood is across the street and down a few storefronts from another Beat landmark, City Lights Bookstore.

The Beat Museum in North Beach is a pilgrimage site for non-conformists and historians who want to nerd out about mid-20th century counterculture. "Many people get off the plane at SFO and come straight here and to City Light bookstore," Brandon Loberg, art director of the museum, told SFGATE. Loberg has been working at the museum since it opened in its current location at 540 Broadway 17 years ago.

The museum, tucked between two night clubs and kitty corner from City Lights, is filled with enough quirky Beat memorabilia to make it worth an afternoon outing for locals who want a glimpse of what North Beach was like in its intellectual heyday, when rents were cheap and writers could scrape by on low-paying day jobs or, in many cases, no day jobs at all.

Keep reading to learn more about the Beat Generation, and why you should visit this historic gem in San Francisco.

The Beat Poets have a long history in San Francisco and in North Beach especially. Here, poet Allen Ginsberg chats with some fans on a street corner in the city on May 4, 1967.

In the 1950s, North Beach became the center for the Beat Generation, made up of artists, writers and philosophers rebelling against buttoned-up societal norms. Some of the most influential leaders were Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William S. Burroughs.

"In the early years, these folks were basically a glorified book group," said Loberg. "They had a lot of ideas in common."

Beat poetry got its start in NYC in the 1940s, then had its peak in San Francisco in the 1950s. "After World War II, a lot of people were disillusioned with the way society was moving and were afraid there was going to be a nuclear war," Loberg explained. "It created a culture of hedonism — from drugs to promiscuity — in part because there was no guarantee that there was going to be a tomorrow."

Jack Keroauc famously romanticized the idea of freedom through travel with his semi-autobiographical novel "On the Road" after poet and writer Neal Cassady and Kerouac zigzagged across the United States, inspiring the now classic tale.

A 1949 Hudson Commodore — used in the production of the 2012 film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's book, "On the Road" — is parked in the middle of the Beat Museum in San Francisco, Calif.

The Beat Museum was actually inspired by Kerouac's wanderlust. Kerouac's literary descriptions of Big Sur motivated museum founders Jerry and Estelle Cimino to move from Washington to California. They settled on the Central Coast and first opened the museum in Monterey in 2003.

But, after meeting the son of Neal Cassady, the Ciminos decided to preach the gospel of the Beats across the nation and hit the open road in a 1987 Airstream, dubbed the Beatmobile. The traveling exhibit crisscrossed the country two times before becoming a permanent fixture at its current location in North Beach. To celebrate Kerouac's 100th birthday last year, the Ciminos took the Beat Museum on wheels again, giving presentations at high schools, colleges and community centers across the country. The traveling exhibit's ultimate destination was Lowell, MA, birthplace of Kerouac.

This free-spirited, road tripping vibe remains at the heart of the museum. In the middle of the space is the 1949 Hudson Commodore that was used in the filming of the 2012 movie adaptation of "On the Road." The Hudson Commodore was marketed as a family car; it wasn't considered glamorous like a Cadillac, explained Loberg. "But it had good power under the hood."

Led Zeppelin guitarist and founder Jimmy Page got behind the wheel of the car back in 2015 to pose for a photo. Page, a Kerouac fan, has famously visited The Beat Museum several times when he's in San Francisco. Patti Smith and Tom Waits have also made stops to check out the museum.

The relaxed atmosphere of San Francisco's Beat Museum invites visitors to linger over the exhibits and many books on display.

It's easy to see why the museum attracts both famous rock and roll stars and aging hippies. At the entrance is a sign that signals the zeitgeist of the place: "It's the nonconformists who change the world." That ethos is a throwback to the city before its influx of tech workers, when North Beach was a place where writers crowded into Vesuvio Café and spent hours talking and drinking. When you walk through the neighborhood, "you're literally walking the same streets that they did," Loberg said.

The Beat Museum was closed for 14 months because of COVID; before reopening in June 2021, it updated its exhibits. The refreshed space features some new memorabilia, Loberg said, although there's always too much in the collection to display, given that it's being added to every year. (Since the museum is located in the same section of the city where the Beats hung out, it's common for long-time residents to bring in artifacts from that era.) Loberg has focused on the influences of the Beats and select mementos from that time to showcase the influence the thinkers and philosophers had on future generations. There's also a tribute to the often-overlooked work of the women of the Beat Generation, including the writers Diane di Prima and Carolyn Cassady.

There's also an entire display about the "Howl" obscenity trial. Publication of the poem – which Allen Ginsberg read aloud for the first time at San Francisco's Six Gallery in October 1955 — led to the arrest of Ferlinghetti and City Lights bookstore manager Shigeyoshi Murao and the infamous trial in 1957. Judge Clayton W. Horn ultimately ruled the poem was not obscene and had "redeeming social importance."

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Some of the wackier inventions of the era are featured at the museum, including a replica of The Dreamachine, an invention by Ian Sommerville, "systems advisor" to Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs. Inspired by "The Living Brain," a book written by British neurophysiologist William Grey Walter, the Dreamachine, a stroboscopic device, aims to mimic the brain's natural alpha waves.

Interspersed throughout the collection are important, smaller items, like signed prints by Gary Snyder, one of the last poets of the Beat Generation. You can also see an authentic ACID Test Card and buttons featuring novelists Ken Kesey's famous question: "Are you on the bus or off the bus?" Tucked in the back of the museum are not-to-be missed black and white photos by Christopher Felver, one of the most influential members of the generation — including a shot of Allen Ginsberg's last visit to City Lights in 1997 and Ferlinghetti, with arms crossed, in his studio at 250 Francisco Street in 1981. Hanging from on top of the archway, visitors can see one of the first photographs of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs, taken in New York City in 1944.

After you've toured the museum, there's an adjacent bookstore, where you can pick up a vinyl copy of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's album "Déjà Vu," a banned book or a biography on a number of influential Beats.

The museum is open Thursday–Monday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and is well worth the price of admission of $8 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors. Parking is street-only near the museum, so consider ride-booking services, biking or public transportation.

Find it: The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway, San Francisco CA 94133; 800-537-6822.

This story was edited by Hearst Newspapers Managing Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at [email protected].