The following six Learning Centers are all free and open to the public at convenient times, in some cases with docents on the premises. Steady patronage is one way to help them survive!

1. Rincon History Room
Mission Street between Spear and Steuart
In the Rincon Center complex, the old Post Office ('Rincon Annex') was preserved in a development trade-off. And for good reason: the art-deco design and the 1930's murals are matched only by similar interiors at Coit Tower, and nowhere else in the City. And here is a major bonus: the display cases that tell the story of Native Americans who inhabited these shores, of '49er ships beached here on the way to the Gold Rush, and of immigrant populations for whom the Rincon area was a center.

Open Monday through Saturday, 10 AM-5PM. A guard from Golden Gate National Recreation Area on the premises. Free interpretive literature. Interesting statuary in the surrounding courtyard. Small concessions for food in the vicinity. Restrooms well maintained. Vast park area for lunches or games a block away at Ferry Plaza. Other Gold Rush Trail sites nearby at Hills Plaza (further along the Embarcadero), the Federal Reserve (on Market), and the newly restored Ferry Building. This is a launching pad for much exploration and return visits.

2. Pacific Bell Museum
At 140 New Montgomery, this architectural wonder of another generation (the 1920s) is almost hidden in the new bustle of South of Market development. The lobby of the building alone has much to offer the visitor. Then there is a well-maintained museum just off the lobby, of everything you wanted to know about communications, from telegraph lines to the Internet. Bonus: a giant photo of Market Street from the 1880s, in which you can hear the clanking of streetcars over the clop of horse-drawn carriages.

Open Tuesday through Thursday, 10 AM-2PM. Call 542-0182 for exceptions. Volunteer guides from Pacific Bell retirees on duty, eager to show off the mechanical wonders of another age. The Gold Rush Trail lesson plans for this site aim toward electronic communications, but there is a history lesson here that would be hard to find any other way. There is much nearby to merit a return visit: the Palace Hotel, a long block toward Market; straight down the alley Minna to the Museum of Modern Art; and all that's in Yerba Buena Gardens, the park with the highest density of attractions in the country.

3. Citicorp Center
At the foot of Sutter, the start of Sansome: just another corporate highrise atrium? Well, no. Citicorp didn't stint in paying the City back for allowing this tower to go ahead. The once proud corner was devastated by the 1906 earthquake, and meager buildings emerged from the rubble. Then Citicorp came in and changed things in the 1970s. The decision to celebrate the United Nations here was an inspired one (after all, the UN was founded in the City). On top of this, the site reminds us here of the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915. Why? Because these are two great themes of the City's 20th Century.

Open Monday-Friday during business hours of the building. The interior al fresco restaurant and bar are not meant for children, but give a relaxed feeling for every visitor. Restroom facilities of course, and a park not far away: hidden above the Galleria (between Sutter and Post, an interior space worth celebrating). Many food options, but the best is to pack a lunch for the Galleria Park, where views of the City are the feast.

4. Coins of the West Museum
Perhaps the most hidden of historical resources in the City, in the basement of that grand temple created by William Ralston, the Bank of California on Montgomery near Sansome. Now the Union Bank of California, whose tower rises next to the classic bank structure, this is a true friend of the City. As one enters the bank, stairs to the left lead down to the vaults and to this gem of a museum. The bank has even provided elevator access through the tower area.

Open during bank hours, Monday-Friday. There is more here by far than coins: dramatic stories of tumultuous nineteenth-century San Francisco, including the building of the Sutro Tunnel in Nevada. There are food resources along Leidesdorff, the alley separating the bank from Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo History Museum is thus just a block away. One might wonder: what about a nearby park? Actually there is one, though eighteen stories in the air! A short walk to the corner of Sansome and Sacramento, into the lobby, up to the highrise park created by the building's owners to satisfy the permit process. Here are all the amenities, plus the feeling of floating among the low and high fliers of the financial district.

5. Pacific Heritage Museum
Up Commercial Street from Montgomery-based United Commercial Bank (formerly Bank of Canton), this is another hidden gem. Preserved in the basement is a replica of the nation's first U.S. Branch Mint, established on this site in 1852. By 1875 a new mint had to be built, and this became the 'Subtreasury'. The'Old Mint' on Fifth and Mission survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, but has languished in limbo for many years and has been returned to the City's keeping. History was made on Commercial Street when Mark Twain sold his first story here, to Bret Harte, then an employee of the Subtreasury and editor of a local journal.

Open Monday through Saturday 10-4. Art exhibits, generally focused on the Pacific scene, are mounted here four times a year or more. Schedules and exhibition literature in the lobby, along with personal information from guides. Continuous video loops in a small theater; evocative diorama of what the Subtreasury contained, in the basement. All the conveniences; food in small eateries along the closed-off street. Just a few doors up Commercial toward Portsmouth Square is cozy Grabhorn Park, honoring the celebrated San Francisco printer.In the square are monuments to the cable car, to Robert Louis Stevenson, to the Chinese-American community and the history of this site.

6. Transamerica/Montgomery Block
Where Columbus meets Montgomery, with one foot in North Beach and another in the Financial District, in some ways this has always been the City's center. The last remaing buildings from Gold Rush days survive a block away, in Jackson Square. The Bay's waters lapped the shore here in those days: Halleck's folly, the massive 'Monkey Block' edifice, was built on redwood barges floated from Oakland. Home to artists, bon vivants, and the finest private library in the country, the Block survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire but not the wrecking ball of the late 1950s. Numerous plaques and statuary festoon the site, and thanks to its present occupant, Transamerica, the arts flourish here in rotating exhibits and music in Redwood Park out back.

The building area and its park open during normal business hours, Monday through Saturday; walk-through to Halleck Alley restricted at times. This is a different kind of museum: a blend of indoor-outdoor attractions that vary from month to month, a restful place, complete with graceful pond, a contrast of architectural styles all round. Nearby, the old Customs House, under construction at time of the great earthquake, was refurbished in recent years but is now unfortunately restricted for visiting because it is a federal building. The French Consulate and Sherman Bank buildings are accessible along Jackson, where antique stores presently hold sway. Hotaling Alley, connecting Jackson to Washington directly across from Transamerica, is quaint, but the entire area is in need of historical interpretation. Restroom facilities are limited, but there are several small lunch places between Montgomery and Sansome.

The Gold Rush Trail Foundation is a volunteer organization and receives no city, state, or federal funds. It is supported by foundations, businesses and citizens interested in furthering its mission. For further information, please write to: The Gold Rush Trail Foundation, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94104, call: (415) 981-4849, or e-mail: contact@goldrushtrail.org.