Ripley's Believe It or Not! is packing up its oddities collection for good, with plans to close its Fisherman's Wharf location at the end of 2026 after 60 years in San Francisco. The announcement comes from company president Jim Pattison Jr., who confirmed the closure without spelling out why the attraction is shutting its doors.
Pattison issued a letter about the closure on Tuesday, according to KTVU, though the station reports he did not state the exact reason behind the decision or lock in a precise permanent shuttering date beyond the end-of-2026 timeline. The San Francisco outpost has sat at Fisherman's Wharf for six decades.
A Brand Built on a Century-Old Cartoon
Ripley's Believe It or Not! traces its roots to a daily newspaper cartoon that began in 1918 and, remarkably, remains in print today. That strip became the foundation for the sprawling entertainment company the Ripley's name now represents, one that stretches far beyond a single wharf-side museum of the strange and unusual.
The company behind the San Francisco attraction, Ripley's Believe It or Not! World Entertainment, now counts more than 100 attractions across nine countries. Its holdings include Ripley's Aquariums, wax museums, mirror mazes, miniature golf courses and traveling shows, along with bigger-footprint properties like Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Hawaiian Falls waterparks and Guinness World Records attractions, according to the same KTVU report.
What Happens to the Wharf Space Remains Unclear
No details have emerged yet about what becomes of the Fisherman's Wharf building once Ripley's clears out, and the company has not addressed employee impacts, lease terms or ticket refunds tied to the closure. For now, the only confirmed piece of the puzzle is the timeline Pattison laid out: the doors close at the end of 2026, ending a run that began generations ago along San Francisco's tourist-heavy waterfront.
The closure lands at a moment when Fisherman's Wharf itself has already been the subject of major redevelopment chatter. SFGate reported last year that the Wharf was facing a sweeping overhaul that would include demolishing a near-century-old landmark in the area, though it is not established whether that project connects in any way to Ripley's decision to leave.
For decades, the Ripley's building has been a fixture at Fisherman's Wharf, its odd curiosities pulling in visitors curious enough to see whether the stories inside really were, as the brand insists, worth believing. With the end-of-2026 closure now confirmed, that stretch of the waterfront is set to lose one of its more unusual anchors.
