Mayor Ed Lee’s body to lie in state in SF City Hall rotunda

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee looks on during a tour of the new Asian Art Museum exhibit Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee looks on during a tour of the new Asian Art Museum exhibit Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012. Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 65 Caption Close Mayor Ed Lee’s body to lie in state in SF City Hall rotunda 1 / 65 Back to Gallery

A memorial celebration for Mayor Ed Lee will take place Sunday afternoon in the San Francisco City Hall rotunda, just down the grand stone staircase from the second-floor office where he governed the city for six years.

The service, which begins at 3 p.m., is open to the public “as building capacity allows,” according to an announcement on Wednesday from the mayor’s office. City Hall insiders say that means arrive early.

The mayor, who died of a heart attack on Tuesday, will lie in state in the rotunda from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday.

Details of the Sunday service, including eulogists and officiants, have not been announced.

City protocol director Charlotte Mailliard Shultz said there will be about 900 seats set up in the rotunda and there will be space for hundreds of additional standees throughout the building for the Sunday service.

“It’s a beautiful space, with balconies, and it can hold a lot of people,” Shultz said.

City Hall doors will open at 2 p.m. Sunday, she said. Additional mourners will be invited to view a live broadcast of the service at the San Francisco Public Library, across Civic Center Plaza.

The rotunda of City Hall — a building that stands 9 feet higher than the U.S. Capitol — was the site of lying-in-state observances for Mayor George Christopher, who died in 2000, and for Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were assassinated in 1978. City Hall was also the site of a memorial celebration in 1981 for Ella Hill Hutch, the city’s first African American female supervisor.

According to protocol, Lee’s coffin will be attended by an honor guard and mourners will be allowed to file past on Friday and sign a condolence book, according to City Hall historian Ellen Schumer.

Mourners should allow extra time to pass through metal detectors at City Hall entrances.

One of the duties of the honor guard, which will consist of police officers and sheriff’s deputies, will be to make sure the line keeps moving.

“I would hope that a mourner remembers that he is not the only person waiting in line,” Schumer said.

City Hall is normally closed Sundays, the day of the memorial service. But it will be open to the public as usual Friday, during Mayor Lee’s lying in state. Persons seeking to conduct normal City Hall business on Friday should be prepared for crowds and might consider postponing the visit.

Schumer said that lying in state in the rotunda is an honor rarely afforded, and that not every mayor has lain in state. Mayor Joseph Alioto, who died in 1998, was honored with a service in the foyer of the War Memorial Opera House, across Van Ness Avenue from City Hall. At the time, City Hall was closed for seismic renovations.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com