| Sutro Heights Park | |
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  Sutro Heights Park  Sutro Heights Park  Sutro Heights Park | |
| Location | Richmond District,San Francisco,California |
| Coordinates | 37°46′42″N122°30′40″W / 37.7782632°N 122.5110838°W /37.7782632; -122.5110838[1] |
| Area | 18 acres (7.3 ha)[2] |
| Operated by | Golden Gate National Recreation Area |
Sutro Heights Park is an historic public park in the OuterRichmond District located on theWest Side ofSan Francisco,California.[3] It is within theGolden Gate National Recreation Area and the Sutro Historic District.[4]
It is located above theCliff House in theLands End area, with views of theSeal Rocks,Ocean Beach, and thePacific Ocean.
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The 18-acre (7.3-hectare) park is on the site of the former "Sutro Heights" estate ofAdolph Sutro, aComstock Lode silver baron, and a major land owner/developer in andmayor of San Francisco.[5][6]
In 1881, Adolf Sutro purchased 22 acres (8.9 ha) of undeveloped land south of Point Lobos (San Francisco) and north of Ocean Beach at the western edge of the city. It included a promontory overlooking the Pacific, with scenic views of theMarin Headlands,Mount Tamalpais, and theGolden Gate. Sutro built his mansion on a rocky ledge there, above the first Cliff House.
The grounds consisted of a spacious turreted mansion, a carriage house, and outbuildings set in expansivegardens. The estate dominated the Lands End area, with an elaborate entrance gate. He spent in excess of a million dollars to recreate anItalian style garden. It was filled with fountains, planted urns, and statues, Victorian flower beds,hedge mazes,parterres, forests of trees, a glassplant conservatory, and other garden structures. Vista points included the "observation plaza" overlooking the Cliff House, and the "Dolce far Niente Balcony," a long terrace-like structure along the cliff overlooking Ocean Beach.[5] To provide garden decorations, he imported over 200 concrete replicas of Greek and Roman statuary from Belgium, to provide examples of European culture to visitors.[7]
By 1883 Sutro opened his estate's gardens, named Sutro Heights, to the public and allowed strolling the grounds for the donation of a dime. That small fee helped to pay the 17 gardeners, machinists, and drivers he employed to maintain the grounds.[5]
Other features he developed on his land holdings in the Lands End area include: theSutro Baths (1894-1964),[8] the second and elaborateVictorian styleCliff House (1896-1907)[9] and an amusement park named Sutro Pleasure Grounds at Merrie Way (1896-1898).[10] To provide inexpensive transportation for visitors to these he built a passenger steam train from downtown San Francisco to Lands End.[11]
Adolph Sutro died in 1898, land rich but cash poor following his frustrating tenure as Mayor of San Francisco. His daughter Emma Sutro Merritt moved to the Sutro Heights estate then. As she aged she could not maintain the grounds, and the house became seriously deteriorated, though she lived there until her death in 1938.[7] Throughout the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s, people took away many of the rose garden plantings and vandalized the statues.[7][12]
The Sutro family donated the estate to the City of San Francisco in 1938. In 1939 theWorks Progress Administration (WPA) demolished the residence.[7] Remaining statuary was removed, with the exception of The Lions, copies of those in London's Trafalgar Square at the entrance gate, and a statue ofDiana the Huntress (Artemis), a concrete copy of the Louvre's Diana, itself a Roman copy of a Greek statue.[13] The 18 acres (7.3 ha) city park then opened.
Sutro Heights Park is no longer a city park, it is part of theGolden Gate National Recreation Area. It is maintained by a neighborhood group, Friends of the GGNRA, many of whom live on the surrounding streets.[7][14]
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| National | |
