When I was young my grandpa gave me a PBS documentary on 5 historical attractions in San Francisco. One attraction that stuck in my mind was Sutro baths. Although the building is no longer there, I like to go out towards the Cliff House and Ocean Beach and walk through the ruins.
Sutro Baths were opened on March 14, 1896, offering city residents 1 fresh water pool and 6 sea salt pools. At this time, in door pluming wasn’t common and although many would visit the baths for recreational swimming they would also visit to bathe. The pools could accommodate 10,000 guest at a time and they could enter numerous ways- trampolines, diving boards, and slides. While there guest could also visit a museum, relax and sit in the bleachers that accommodates thousands or view a show on the stage. The stage attracted performances like trapeze acts, contortionists, dwarf boxing matches, magicians and high diving canines.
Sutro, the former mayor of San Francisco and one of the owners of the Cliff House, which I talked about in an earlier post, was never able to see the Baths flourish. Sutro died 2 years after the bathhouse was opened. His grandson took ownership but did not have the financial backing like Sutro. As a struggle to save the bath house the grandson changed Sutro Baths into an ice skating rink. The renovation to ice skating rink wasn’t profitable enough to save the building and the grandson sold it in 1952. The Building was left untouched until 1966 when developers were going to demolish what was left of Sutro’s Baths and put in apartments. However, on June 26, 1966 a fire put an end to the developers plans and Sutro Baths was burned to the ground and abandoned.
Sutro Baths and the Cliff House are now apart of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area and is know as Sutro District. The National Park Services completed a design plan and an environmental assessment for the Sutro District in 1993 to ensure a safe place for visitor to come view the Cliff House and what is left of Sutro Baths. After reading the History of Sutro Baths I highly recommend you go visit the ruins. It’s very powerful to stand on the cliffs and soak in the history especially on a nice day. For more history on Sutro Baths click here.
This is so amazing! I love learning about the city that I live in. I have been to Sutro baths before. I really wish that we still had it around. I could only imagine how wonderful it would be to go on a tour of it. I really enjoy looking at old buildings, so that would have been wonderful. It is so unfortunate that a fire had to take Sutro baths.
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