![]() ![]() The baths included six of the large indoor swimming pools, a museum, a skating rink and other pleasure grounds. This was the same year work began on the Sutro Baths in a small cove immediately north of the restaurant. In 1896, Adolph Sutro rebuilt the Cliff House from the ground up as a seven-story Victorian chateau, called by some "the Gingerbread Palace", below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. Second Cliff House (1896–1907) Second Cliff House, c.1900 This incarnation of the Cliff House, with its various extensions, had lasted for 31 years. Presidents and dozens of world-famous visitors. ![]() Wilkins was unable to save the guest register, which included the signatures of three U.S. The building was repaired, but was later completely destroyed by fire on Christmas night 1894 due to a defective flue. The blast was heard a hundred miles away and demolished the entire north wing of the tavern. Wilkins, the Cliff House was severely damaged when the schooner Parallel, abandoned with burning oil lamps and a cargo including dynamite powder, exploded while aground at Lands End early in the morning of January 16, 1887. After a few years of quiet management by James M. In 1883, after a few years of downturn, the Cliff House was bought by Adolph Sutro, who had made a fortune in silver by solving the problems of ventilating and draining the mines of Nevada's Comstock Lode. In 1877, the toll road, now Geary Street, was purchased by the city for approximately $25,000. The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travelers, in search of meals and a look at the sea lions sunning themselves on Seal Rocks just off the cliffs, to visit the area. Soon, omnibus, railways and streetcar lines made it to near Lone Mountain where passengers transferred to stagecoach lines to the beach. On weekends, there was little room at the Cliff House hitching racks for tethering the horses for the thousands of rigs. Later the builders of the toll road constructed a two-mile speedway adjacent to it where well-to-do San Franciscans raced their horses along the way. ![]() With the opening of the privately built Point Lobos toll road a year later, the Cliff House became a Sunday destination among the carriage trade. It was a long trek on foot from the city and the restaurant hosted mostly horseback riders, small-game hunters or picnickers on day outings. Butler, opened in 1863 and leased to Captain Junius G. The Cliff House was built by Senator John Buckley and C. C. While Brannan may have constructed a building there, no historical evidence of this building exists and its role in the origin of the Cliff House remains apocryphal. 1868 James Malcolm Wilkins, proprietorĪnecdotal stories claim that in 1858 Samuel Brannan paid $1,500 for lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the rocky shore's basalt cliffs near Seal Rocks and built the first Cliff House. First Cliff House (1863–1894) First Cliff House, c. ĭozens of ships have run aground on the southern shore of the Golden Gate below the Cliff House. In December 2020, the 47-year operator of these amenities announced that it was closing, and it criticized the NPS for not having signed a new long-term lease with any operator since its own prior 20-year lease had expired in June 2018. Since 1977, these restaurants and bars have been run by a private operator under contract with the National Park Service. The Cliff House is owned by the NPS the building's terrace hosts a room-sized camera obscura.įor most of the Cliff House's history, since 1863, the building's main draw has been restaurants and bars where patrons could enjoy the Pacific Ocean views. ![]() The building overlooks the site of the Sutro Baths ruins, Seal Rocks, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service (NPS). The Cliff House is a neo-classical style building perched on the headland above the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach, in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco, California. ![]()
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