For nearly 60 years, Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum has been a staple of San Francisco's Fisherman’s Wharf, but that will soon change, as the company announced that it will close its doors by year's end.
Jim Pattison Jr., President of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! World Entertainment, announced the news on Tuesday, Sept. 22, but did not provide an exact closing date.
"We expect our final day to be sometime before the end of the year, and we’ll share the exact date once it is finalized," Pattison said. "Until then, we are open and ready to welcome guests, so there is still plenty of time to come see us, say hello, and experience a little of the unbelievable."
In a statement to SFGATE, Suzanne Smagala-Potts, a spokesperson for Ripley's, explained
that the closure didn't stem from "one single challenge or event that led to the decision,” but rather the company looked at the "changing landscape of Fisherman’s Wharf" as it made its decision to close the location.
Ripley opened its San Francisco location on February 2, 1967, and became one of the company's longest-lasting attractions, second only to Ripley’s first permanent Believe It or Not! attraction in St. Augustine.
"Nearly 60 years later, I think we delivered the odd, the unusual, and just plain weird," Pattison said in his announcement.
Over the years, Ripley's San Francisco location has welcomed icons like Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Additionally, the company operated several other attractions at Fisherman’s Wharf, like the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, which later became World of the Unexplained, and eventually became the Guinness World Records Museum.
Notably, the company plans to sell certain San Francisco-themed exhibits to guests and fans of the city. Items Ripley announced would be on sale include a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge created on the head of a pin, Joe DiMaggio’s crutches, a chicken-wire portrait of Janis Joplin, and toothpick renditions of the Golden Gate Bridge, to name a few.
"While we’re saying goodbye to this location, we’re not necessarily saying goodbye to San Francisco. With Ripley’s, you never know. We might just be back," Pattison said in his announcement.
The closure of Ripley's Fisherman's Wharf museum added to the growing number of iconic locations and signs to be removed from the area. Earlier this year, residents watched workers take down Alioto's sign, another Fisherman's Wharf staple.
The Alioto name has been associated with Fisherman's Wharf for nearly a century, after Nunzio Alioto Sr., a Sicilian immigrant, opened his fish stand in 1925.
In 1932, Alioto built the first building on Fisherman's Wharf, which would come to define his family's legacy in San Francisco for nearly 100 years
The restaurant closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. But even after its closure, the Alioto's sign remained at Fisherman's Wharf.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ripley's Believe It or Not! closing its Fisherman's Wharf museum in SF
