North Beach's Beat Museum is home to an extensive collection of the literary movement's memorabilia: original manuscripts, first editions, letters, and most recently, a collection of correspondence from Neal Cassady that the museum has entitled "The Monsignor's Godson."

But with that growing collection comes growing pains, and founder Jerry Cimino says it's time to find some new digs for his museum. He's hoping to purchase the former CitiBank building at 580 Green St., to give the museum a more permanent home.

North Beach was the epicenter of the Beat movement in the mid-to-late 1950s. Jack Kerouac immortalized the neighborhood in The Subterraneans, On The Road and The Dharma Bums, while Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books and City Lights Publishing continue to draw literature lovers to this day. And then there are the favorite food and beverage haunts of the Beats, including Vesuvio, Caffe Trieste and Specs. 

“Beat values became San Francisco values,” Cimino said. "[The Beat writers] were known for their inclusivity, tolerance, diversity, and everything that a young person believes to be true about the world today.”

After having spent nearly 25 years in the corporate world, Cimino “stumbled” into the museum business about 13 years ago. He and his wife Estelle were traveling through Europe when they came across the Hemp Museum in Amsterdam.

"I casually said to Estelle, 'If they can have a Hemp Museum in Amsterdam, why can't we open a Beat Museum in North Beach in San Francisco?' Estelle's instant response was, 'That's a pretty good idea.'"

Why move? 

More than a decade later, Cimino said that he's at a crossroads with the museum, “between what has been and what is going to be.” While he needs more space, he's also hoping to ensure that the museum will become a permanent fixture in a changing San Francisco, where many small businesses and nonprofits have shut down or face uncertain futures. 

He told us that he has a “magnificent” relationship with his current landlord, and would love to stay if it suited the museum. But he fears that someday, the building could be sold, or that the museum will become untenable after he is no longer around to run it.

“Everyone in San Francisco knows dozens of individuals who have been priced out of their apartments in the last number of years," he said. "Some small organizations have put their collections in storage hoping for a better future. Some have totally closed up, and some have moved to Oakland or other parts of the Bay Area,” he said.

“But the Beat Museum can't go to Oakland. The Beat Museum belongs in North Beach, and the consensus from everyone I have spoken with is that the Beat Museum needs to stay in North Beach.”

“In our current time of fast-paced change, when every organization that doesn't own its own building lives with an uncertain future, we wanted to be proactive, to ensure we can protect what the Beats left behind," he said. "The last thing I would want to see happen is for the legacy of the Beat Generation to be lost in a changing San Francisco.”

His solution: the Beat Museum needs to purchase its own building. 

The vision

The former Citibank building is ready as-is, Cimino told us, and he's already met with the realtor and surveyed the space. “It's about twice the size of what we have now,” he said. “But this is going to be a long process. So even though we have plans to build further, potentially from two stories to four stories, we would still be happy with the building as it is, prior to a remodel.”

Cimino has always wanted to incorporate some sort of performance element into the Beat Museum, which he feels would work better in a larger venue. Many years ago, a longtime supporter in Massachusetts, Michael Palumbo—who has a background in museum design—sketched some ideas that included a multi-functional stage for the museum.

Cimino said that he never had the funds to move forward, and wasn't able to incorporate it into his current layout. But once he had decided to pursue a new spot with potentially larger square footage, he reached out to Palumbo and asked him to create some new designs with even more improvements.

“We asked him to incorporate a Beat Cafe and Beat Hotel in the rendering, to show what might ultimately be possible. There actually was a Beat Hotel in Paris in the late 1950s, where Ginsberg, Burroughs, Corso, Kerouac and Harold Norse all lived," Cimino said.

Palumbo returned a possible building rendering (shown above) in a single day, Cimino said. If all goes according to plan, the building would ultimately house a Beat cafe on the first floor, museum space on the second and third floors, and a boutique hotel on the fourth.

The campaign

So far, the design for the new building is preliminary, and Cimino has no timeline for making the move. He told us that his plans are fluid, and he invites input from the North Beach community as to what residents would like to see.

He sees the project as moving forward in three phases: the building purchase, building enhancements, and an endowment for the future.

With the property at 580 Green St. available now, Cimino has set up a building fund at Bank of the West, and is asking the community for its financial support. “We’re seeking the support of like-minded people who believe in the ideals of the Beat Generation," he said. 

If you're interested in supporting this new endeavor, visit the Beat Museum Campaign website for more information.