The Lodge at the Presidio: Sleeping with San Francisco History

Perched on the former U.S. Army post overlooking the Golden Gate, The Lodge at the Presidio is one of San Francisco’s most distinctive places to stay, offering a rich sense of place and peace in the historic metropolis.

I can’t recall staying at a property in a major city anywhere in the world with a history as unique and layered as The Lodge at The Presidio. The Yelamu people of the Ramaytush Ohlone tribe were the first to live in the Presidio area of San Francisco. Next, the Spanish established the Presidio as a military outpost in 1776.

It later passed to Mexican, then American, control, and today the Lodge is a 42-room boutique hotel inside a late-19th-century military barracks. This structure sits within a beautiful 1,491-acre national park, making it feel like this storied garrison and its enviable location are your very own playgrounds during your stay. You’re not just checking into your accommodations; you’re inhabiting a unique junction of culture, nature, and history.

From Military Barracks to Boutique Hotel

The Lodge occupies Building 105, one of the Montgomery Street Barracks constructed by the U.S. Army between 1895 and 1897. The brick buildings were designed in the Colonial Revival style and represented a major improvement over the cramped wooden barracks soldiers had previously used. Building 105 initially housed artillery, infantry, and cavalry personnel.

The building later served several military functions, including a hospital ward during the Spanish-American War and accommodation for soldiers during World War I. By World War II, it housed the 30th Infantry Regiment—”San Francisco’s Own”—and the 234th Signal Operations Company, which supported Allied war efforts in the Pacific. I mention this because you may catch, as I did, a glimmer of the ghost of the American Spirit in the corridors of the Lodge. You know, that feeling of collective optimism, self-sacrifice, and self-improvement that seemed to define the nation in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Some of the memorabilia on display at The Lodge. Photos: Merryn Johns

The Presidio Trust later undertook an extensive adaptive reuse project. Planning began in 2015, followed by rehabilitation that preserved the historic structure and its environment while converting it into a hotel. The Lodge opened on June 28, 2018. Traces of the property’s former uses linger in the building’s form and proportions, appealing to groups and fostering a sense of community, noticeable especially at the complimentary buffet breakfast and happy hour. But if you’re traveling solo or with a partner, you can also find privacy and solitude.

Historic Style, Modern Comfort

The Lodge retains the barracks’ red-brick architecture, original windows, and grand staircases, while its interiors reinterpret military history in a deliberately contemporary way. The palette of blue, gray, black, and white is accented with splashes of red. The furnishings and accent pieces use leather, wood, antique brass, iron, and canvas to evoke military equipment without turning the hotel into a museum. In the common areas, historic photographs, objects, and original artwork reinforce the sense that guests are staying inside a piece of the Presidio, not a conventional city hotel.

Many rooms offer views of the Golden Gate, the Presidio forest, the Marin Headlands, the bay, or the San Francisco skyline. The interior design offers simple coastal luxury, free of clutter or fuss. The rooms are also pet-friendly and have free Wi-Fi, large-screen TVs, and bathtubs.

But chances are, you won’t spend much time inside. The great outdoors beckons, even if you choose to never leave the site! In the rear of the property are an outdoor porch, patio, and fire pit with Adirondack chairs. Guests enjoy a complimentary afternoon happy hour with a choice of wine, cheese, and charcuterie. It’s easy to make new friends around the fire pit and gaze at the view!

There is also a front porch with rocking chairs, where you can sit and look out over the vibrant green expanse of the Main Parade Lawn and its red ‘share chairs,’ another distinctive part of the setting. I liked to sip coffee on the porch while planning my day’s activities, like exploring the nearby beaches, which you must visit.

It’s a 45-minute hike from the Lodge through the park to Baker Beach, a mile-long sandy stretch of shore in the park’s southwest corner, with dramatic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands. The easy 15-minute walk brings you to Crissy Field and its two beaches, which sit right down the hill on the bayfront. Take your shoes off, walk in the sand, and marvel at your location in a thriving city, yet in the middle of nature, where pelicans soar overhead and seals pop up from the water. Take a deep breath and open your eyes. You will see everything, from hummingbirds to hawks!

Those Views, Though!

The hotel’s great advantage is its location. From the Lodge, the Golden Gate Bridge rises dramatically above the entrance to San Francisco Bay, offering an ever-changing panorama. It is especially picturesque in the early morning and evening. Fog rolling through the Golden Gate can obscure the bridge one moment and reveal it the next, while ships entering or leaving the bay provide a constantly changing backdrop, as does the play of changing light and the sunset.

Staying Inside a Landscape Older Than San Francisco

The Lodge sits in the Presidio’s Main Post area, near the Presidio Visitor Center and the broad former parade grounds. From the hotel, guests can wander in many directions, depending on their fitness level or what they’d like to see. Walk to Tunnel Tops, the park built over the Presidio Parkway tunnels, then continue to Crissy Field, the former military airfield now a waterfront recreation area with calm water, BBQ grills, and windsurfing spots. That’s quite the workout. The shoreline is great for walking, running, and cycling—with great views.

It is a very green part of San Francisco: the Presidio contains about 300 acres of historic planted forest, plus hundreds of acres of other open space. But you’re not isolated. And there are plenty of things to eat and drink. Check out your dining options here.

Be sure to take advantage of the free Presidio GO! shuttle between the Presidio Transit Center and downtown San Francisco at the Embarcadero, Union Square’s premier shopping district, the Ferry Building Marketplace with its artisan vendors, and convenient MUNI and BART connections to anywhere in the Bay Area.

But as forward-thinking and innovative as San Francisco always feels, the Presidio sits on land Indigenous peoples inhabited for thousands of years, with archaeological evidence of their presence dating to about 740 A.D. Villages existed there, and people moved seasonally through the landscape to hunt, fish, and gather. Landscape management was also integral to Indigenous life; periodic controlled burns helped create habitat for deer and elk, and generations of human stewardship shaped the landscape. Contemporary regeneration thankfully continues this theme, and the landscape remains a place shared and enjoyed by all living things.

Latest Accolades

Condé Nast Traveler recently announced the results of its annual Readers’ Choice Awards, recognizing Inn at the Presidio and Lodge at the Presidio as the Number 1 hotel(s) in San Francisco. The publication received nearly 800,000 survey responses from readers across the United States who rated their travel experiences worldwide. The Readers’ Choice Awards, the travel industry’s longest-running and among its most prestigious reader-selected honors, table the destinations and experiences travelers most eagerly anticipate revisiting.

The honor places Presidio Lodging at the top of a distinguished list of San Francisco hotels and reflects travelers’ appreciation for the properties’ historic character, personal hospitality, and extraordinary setting in the Presidio of San Francisco.

Find out more about staying at The Presidio here.