8 - Fragments of the Past

Transcription of accompanying audio.
Woman's Voice.

This is stop 8.

Its right side is a waist-high, rectangular counter with a glass top. Beneath the glass are artifacts from different moments in Lands End's past.

A vertical panel tells the story. It’s titled, “Fragments of the Past: A Vanished Landscape."

The grand and glorious Sutro Baths and the Victorian-era Cliff House exist now only in memory and on film, but small reminders of these early landmarks are sometimes unearthed during construction and restoration. These historical ephemera-objects left behind or discarded because people thought they were worthless-provide us with clues about the history of Lands End and its residents.

Beneath this text, is a black and white photograph, captioned, “Sutro Baths and Cliff House, circa 1900."

Most of the center is taken up with the enormous, four-story building with a curved roof that housed the baths. It sits on rocks right at the very edge of the ocean. In the background at right, rises the old, Victorian-style Cliff House, with its lower stories jutting out over the cliff.

Below is cluster of four smaller photographs.

At left, a black and white photo shows a sculpture at Sutro Heights of three children on a tall pedestal supporting a shallow dish. Its caption is, “Children Supporting Vase at Sutro Heights, 1886”.

The photo includes a close-up of a belly button fragment from the statue.

To the right, at top, is a color photo of shards of glass, with the caption, “Glass bottle bits recovered from Merrie Way”.Beneath this, is a photo of a small enameled metal decal that says, "Improving San Francisco - Market Street Railway Company." The caption reads, “Enamel sign from the Market Street Railway station."

To the right of this is a photo of a sculpture fragment of a child.The caption is, “Statue head from Sutro Heights."

A caption below all of the photographs reads, “The origins of many of these items are obvious, but others remain a mystery. The glass-topped case is full of these known and unknown artifacts."

Now, for directions to the next stop, this is the reverse side of the vertical panel you just heard about. Step around and you'll find that the waist-high counter with the glass top is much shorter here.