Cliff House San Francisco, California Attractions
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Generations of San Franciscans and countless visitors have dined at the Cliff House and enjoyed the gorgeous ocean views. 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. 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 owned by the NPS; the building's terrace hosts a room-sized camera obscura. It was around this time that the most recent Cliff House proprietors – and the family of Tom Hontalas, the owner of Louis’ – entered the scene. In its place, Adolph Sutro built a Victorian palace, an eight-story structure crowned with fanciful turrets and towers and occupied by galleries, lunch rooms, and shops.
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Famous guests included Oscar Wilde, Andrew Carnegie, and two American presidents. The new tenant has a 20-year lease and plans to do significant remodeling. The building will reopen with several restaurants inside, similar to what was there before. The ruins of the Sutro Baths remained, giving this place of magnificent beauty a haunting, ephemeral quality. After the National Park Service purchased the land, they would hold public meetings about what to do with the space. More often than not, people called for leaving the ruins as is, Martini said.
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Later years attracted a less-rarified clientele, one more interested in gambling and debauchery than fine cuisine. The Cliff House is at the end of Point Lobos Avenue, just below the parking lot for the Visitor's Center at Point Lobos and 48th Avenue. Yes, even though the Cliff House is closed, you can still get into the camera. The building is still there, but the sign is gone because the previous tenants owned the name. The Victorian Cliff House survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but burned down a year later. The Cliff House was badly damaged in 1887 when a ship carrying dynamite ran aground nearby and blew up.
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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. In 1877, the toll road, now Geary Street, was purchased by the city for approximately $25,000. Today's world-famous Cliff House, part of the Sutro Historic Landscape District, is the latest in three incarnations of this destination for locals and tourists.
The Camera Obscura
The Cliff House is positioned in a spectacular locale for visitors to enjoy hiking along the amazing Lands End trails or Ocean Beach. Explore the famous Sutro Baths ruins or visit historic Sutro Heights Park. The National Park Service remains committed to providing an exceptional experience for residents and visitors to the Bay Area and looks forward to welcoming the public back to the Cliff House in the future. Within six months of the devastating fire, Sutro had plans for a new Cliff House and after spending $75,000, he proudly opened the second Cliff House in 1896. The new building was a grand, eight-story tall castle-like structure with turrets, decorative spires, fanciful roof dormers and an observation tower.
Architects added an adjacent Sutro Wing to improve access to ocean views, allowing diners and visitors alike to continue the long tradition of enjoying the magnificent Pacific from the Cliff House high above Seal Rocks. After Sutro's death in 1898, his properties were managed by his daughter Emma Sutro Merritt. A year after the destruction of the second Cliff House, Mrs. Merritt obtained approval to construct a third Cliff House. Because so many of the city's wood-frame buildings burned after the 1906 earthquake, builders began to construct San Francisco's new buildings in fireproof steel-reinforced concrete. The third Cliff House, constructed in concrete, was designed in a streamline, classically inspired architectural style; the building settled into the landscape rather than dominating the ocean view.
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History
This time, Sutro carried out an elaborate construction plan and created a marvelous Victorian confection on the cliff, which included a ballroom, several restaurants, museums, etc. The first Cliff House was built in 1863 and became a place for the wealthy residents of SF to come out to the ocean in their carriages and dine. Sutro Lands End Partners, LLC, has reached an agreement to lease the former Cliff House from the National Park Service, which administers the land where the building is located.
By the time Adolph Sutro, elected mayor of San Francisco in 1895, bought it in 1890, along with the surrounding areas, the clientele was no longer so elite. Sutro built his own steam train line to the Cliff House, and then another street car line to the Sutro Baths – the elaborate, glass-domed swimming pool – when the fare doubled on the original steam train line. A wild and beautiful hiking trail from the Cliff House towards the Golden Gate.
Sutro’s daughter rebuilt a neoclassical concrete Cliff House and the National Park Service acquired this building in 1977. Today, the Bistro restaurant is located in the 1909 structure and serves classic San Francisco fare (walk-ins only). The upscale restaurant Sutro's, in the 2004 addition, has two-story floor-to-ceiling windows providing sweeping views (reservations recommended). Perched over the Pacific above rocks populated by lounging seals, this San Francisco landmark has had many lives since it first opened in 1863. Promenade nearby to the glorious ruins of Sutro Baths, then head out to the world-famous panormas of Lands End.
There have been a whole series of Cliff Houses over the years, the style changing with the times. So whatever is coming next won't be called the "Cliff House", unless the current negotiations are successful in selling the name to the new operators. The long-time tenants took the name, "Cliff House", and even the sign, with them when they left. The Cliff House was closing, permanently, largely due to the difficulty of operating a restaurant during the Covid closures. Hontalas’ grandfather, Louis, immigrated from Greece in 1906 at 11 years old. His older brother, who arrived before he did, opened a restaurant called the Cliff Cafe.
Sutro fixed up the building again, only to have it burn down in 1894. Adolph Sutro, creator of the Sutro Baths and Sutro Heights Park, bought the Cliff House in 1883 with the idea of pulling it out of a slump and making it family-friendly again. Apparently it had gotten a bad reputation for riffraff and scandalous behavior. The SS Ohioan, a cargo ship, ended up on the rocks near the Cliff House on a dark night in 1936. The Cliff House sits at Point Lobos, right at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. This was a prime spot for shipwrecks before radar; strong currents, rocks and dense fog made for a lethal combination, especially at night.
The vast beach stretching along the entire western edge of San Francisco. I've listed a number of other places to eat in the area since the Cliff House isn't available. Adolph Sutro's gardens above the Cliff House, with amazing views of the coast. This odd camera-shaped building sitting next to the Cliff House is a remnant of the amusement park that used to be just down the hill along Ocean Beach. It burned down twice, and was closed during Prohibition, but the Cliff House survived (until now), and it's been a wonderful place to come and have a meal and admire the view. As Mark Twain pointed out, it’s cold out there – and with cars more readily available and roads better after the war, San Franciscans found other beaches to go to instead of the cliff.
During the 1940s and 1950s, the owners modified the Cliff House several times. In 1977, the National Park Service acquired the property to become part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The National Park Service rehabilitated the historic Cliff House in 2005 to return it to its original neoclassical design.
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