Cliff House History Golden Gate National Recreation Area U S. National Park Service
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Louis started working for his brother and then, in 1937, opened Louis’. “Our goal is to make this beloved icon into a place that welcomes all San Franciscans and all those who love San Francisco,” Sutro Lands End Partners states on its new website, in anticipation of meetings with the public to determine what the restaurant will look and feel like. With a name that pays homage to the long-defunct Sutro Baths nearby—San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro founded both operations in the late 1800s—Sutro Lands End Partners is clearly aiming to reinvigorate one of the city’s unique cultural entities.
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The Cliff House had two restaurants, the casual dining Bistro Restaurant and the more formal Sutro's. There was a gift shop in the building, and the historic camera obscura is on a deck overlooking the ocean. Peanut Wagon continued to manage Cliff House operations and worked with the Park Service during the extensive site restoration that was completed in 2004.
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The Cliff House was not the first of the city’s beloved restaurants to close. In fact, it follows their neighbor, Louis’ Restaurant, the only other independent restaurant remaining on that oceanfront stretch of road, in shuttering for good during the pandemic. The Cliff House, the world-famous restaurant at the western edge of San Francisco, has been vacant since 2020, and for months, the National Park Service has kept mum on the identity of the business that would replace it.
Closure of iconic Cliff House ends a remarkable era of San Francisco's history
At its height, the Cliff House was part of a bustling strip of cafes and storefronts that attracted visitors from across the country. At the bar, visitors would fight over tables with window views so they could sip on their cocktails and munch on their seafood as the sun set over the Pacific. 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. After a few years of quiet management by James M. 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. The blast was heard a hundred miles away[10] and demolished the entire north wing of the tavern.
For many years, the guest register bore the names of three U.S. presidents as well as prominent San Fran¬cisco families such as the Hearsts, the Stanfords and the Crockers. However, by the late1870s the Cliff House had declined in popularity. He had plans to re-establish the restaurant as a wholesome, family-friendly venue and for next few years, he remodeled rooms, hired new management and lured families back to the restaurant. Sutro also began construction on a railroad that would transport more people to this seaside attraction. Unfortunately, a very tragic event happened on Christmas Day, 1894 when fire destroyed the original wood-frame Cliff House. Since 1863, visitors have flocked to San Francisco’s western shore to enjoy sweeping ocean views and fine dining at the Cliff House.
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The new resort, designed specifically for dining, dancing and entertainment, had several private dining rooms, parlors, bars, and kitchens at the ground level. Private lunchrooms, a large art gallery, a gem exhibit, a photo gallery, a reception room, panoramic views from large windows and an open-air veranda were all located on the upper floors. Although this elegant building survived the 1906 earthquake, sadly, it was no less fire proof than the first Cliff House. World War I and the Great Depression took their toll on the Lands End area and the Sutro family sold the Cliff House in 1937 to other operators.
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. On weekends, there was little room at the Cliff House hitching racks for tethering the horses for the thousands of rigs. Soon, omnibus, railways and streetcar lines made it to near Lone Mountain where passengers transferred to stagecoach lines to the beach.
Up until his death in 1897, Sutro built up the area, which came to include concession stands, saloons and boarding houses, Martini said, evidence of which was all discovered after the National Park Service bought the land in 1977 and conducted an archeological study. At the place where San Francisco drops into the ocean, a door is shutting on a vibrant chapter of the city’s history. Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group—the local mini-chain that owns “fine-casual” San Francisco restaurants like the Madrigal and Trestle, as well as Mama Oakland and the considerably more upscale Vault—will consult on the famed seaside operation’s revival as well. Your support helps fight climate change and promote park sustainability—please give now. First Cliff HouseBetween the 1860s and 1880s, the Cliff House was an exclusive resort, patronized by only San Francisco’s most elite families.
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After the Gold Rush, San Francisco's population exploded and the city's downtown area got very crowded with new buildings and neighborhoods. Real estate developers, eager to make more money, saw Lands End and its unparalleled beauty as a new place to develop. They constructed the Cliff House in 1863 as a fashionable resort for the wealthy. To help people travel to this faraway place, a private company constructed a brand new road called Point Lobos Avenue. Eventually, a horse-drawn stagecoach made the trip every Sunday from downtown San Francisco out to Lands End. Because only wealthy citizens could afford to travel all the way out to the remote resort, the Cliff House was considered a very exclusive place.
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In spite of appearing in The Princess Diaries, the Cliff House had largely become incidental to San Francisco’s dining scene—the kind of place where locals would bring out-of-town relatives.
Open to the public in 1909, the Cliff House carried on the tradition of sumptuous dining rooms and elegant entertainment. The longtime proprietors of the Cliff House, a 157-year-old iconic San Francisco restaurant with breathtaking ocean views once enjoyed by Mark Twain, announced this week that they would be forced to close by the end of the year. They cited both coronavirus restrictions and their landlord, the federal government, stalling on a long-term lease, as factors in their decision.
The building was repaired, but was later completely destroyed by fire on Christmas night 1894 due to a defective flue.[9][11] Wilkins was unable to save the guest register, which included the signatures of three U.S. This incarnation of the Cliff House, with its various extensions, had lasted for 31 years. Third Cliff HouseThe Cliff House fell into disrepair after Sutro died. Though the resort survived the 1906 earthquake with only $300 in damage, it burned to the ground a year later.
After an 1894 fire destroyed the original structure, Sutro rebuilt the Cliff House as a palatial eight-story Victorian resort with art galleries, dining rooms and an observation tower. It miraculously survived the 1906 earthquake, only to be destroyed by fire the following year. The 1909 stark, neoclassical replacement built by Sutro's daughter Emma remained popular for its saloon and restaurant. It's an attractive building and the restaurants are very pleasant places to eat and enjoy the beautiful views. Today on the craggy cliffs known as Lands End, tourists and locals can get lost on trails lined with eucalyptus trees and emerge onto the ruins of Sutro Baths, a once-decadent swimming pavilion built in the late 19th century, to watch whales breach in the distance.
The restaurant is currently closed but we hope to reopen it someday soon. The concrete ruins just north of the former Cliff House are the remains of the grand Sutro Baths.You can find these historic sites on the north end of Ocean Beach, where Geary Boulevard and the Great Highway converge. Anecdotal 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[5] and built the first Cliff House. 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.[6]The Cliff House was built by Senator John Buckley and C. C. Butler, opened in 1863 and leased to Captain Junius G. Foster.[7][8][9] 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. 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.
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