Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CLIFF HOUSE
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As Mexico and Alta California gained independence from Spain in 1821, the door was opened for
immigrants and settlers from around the world. They came in relatively small numbers, until 1848
when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. The flood of Forty-Niners the following year precipi-
tated statehood in 1850. Miners and entrepreneurs added to the population boom.
One of these businessmen was C. C. Butler, who recognized a distinction in that customers
might want some things but had to have others. Butler gathered some partners and opened the Lone
Mountain Cemetery in 1854, certain that business would follow. They expected that there was room
there to bury all of the dead of San Francisco for the next fifty years.
In 1863, Butler teamed with John P. Buckley in another business that the public had to have.
They built the first Cliff House restaurant overlooking the beautiful shore of the Pacific Ocean.
Designed to attract the wealthy members of San Francisco's society, it also enjoyed the attention of
Mark Twain and Presidents Grant, Hayes, and Harrison.
Elsewhere, Adolph Sutro, who would later become the San Francisco mayor, arrived in San
Francisco in 1850 aboard the steamship
California
. Already possessing some wealth, he went into
business offering services to the miners. His fortunes improved dramatically when the silver boom
hit in 1859. He established a mill for the separation of silver from the mine tailings, and he invented
the Sutro tunnel to make mining more efficient and profitable.
Sutro used his wealth to buy major portions of the land in San Francisco, eventually becoming
the largest landowner. In 1881, Sutro bought the Cliff House, then had a railroad built to allow
easier access to it by the public.
On Christmas Day, 1894, the original Cliff House burned to the ground. Sutro turned the trag-
edy into opportunity by rebuilding the Cliff House in the grand style of a French chateau. His vision
produced a restaurant with eight levels, spires, and an observation tower that rose 200 feet above sea
level. He enjoyed the renewed Cliff House for only two years, and passed away in 1898 after a long
illness. He did not live to greet Buffalo Bill or Presidents McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt when they
came to see this renowned attraction.
Surprisingly, this enormous structure survived the Great Earthquake and fires of 1906, but once
again burned to the ground in 1907. Not everyone thought the French chateau style Cliff House was
attractive. At the time of its second demise, the local paper said it had been “. . . a thing of compli-
cated and amazing ugliness.”
