A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a photo circa 1900 of a giant Victorian style house upon a cliff. I was so intrigued by the picture I set out on the internet to try to find more information on this photo.
What I found was that this was what is known as The Cliff House. It was originally built on the cliffs north of Ocean Beach in San Francisco, California in 1863. Back then it was a very modest, one-story restaurant. It quickly became a popular destination for wealthier San Franciscans who stopped in on their way to horse racing and other recreational activities. A slight remodel was made to the building in 1868, adding a promenade and additional wings. It was following this remodel that the less wealthy and more unsavory characters started to call The Cliff House a favorite spot and the restaurant became known for the scandals that took place there. It passed through another owner and more than two decades before it was burned to the ground on Christmas 1894.
After the destruction of the original incarnation, the new owner Aldous Sutro decided to rebuild the house in a more elegant an elaborate style. It even became known during this period as The Gingerbread Palace. In 1896, The Cliff House reopened in grand fashion, remodeled after a French chateau with eight stories, four spires, and an observation deck to top it off. It again became the talk of San Francisco and a luxurious and favored destination for the wealthy and elite.
It passed through another owner following Sutro’s death in 1898 before it finally met it’s end. The Cliff House only existed for 11 years in it’s most ostentatious and memorable state. Although it survived a major earthquake in 1906, only a year later it burned to the ground from a fire that started during another remodel. It took 2 hours.
Even more than I am enthralled by the pictures of The Cliff House between 1868 and 1907, I am mesmerized by the photos of its destruction. Looking at the many photos taken as the building burned, I find myself wondering what it would have been like to be one of the spectators watching this illustrious and beloved sight’s last hours. Or to be a fireman or good citizen trying in vain to put the flames out. The first time I saw the photo, I have to admit my mind was already imagining the photos of Des and I in front of this palace. When I learned that this amazing attraction was lost to time, my heart sank a little.
The Cliff House does still exists as a restaurant and attraction, but nowhere near in the glory it once did. It was rebuilt in 1907 and went through several different owners and manifestations but has returned much to it’s original 1863 state.
Visit The Cliff House Project for more information, a detailed history, and a really great photo gallery spanning The Cliff House’s entire history.
