Cliff House

Visitors walking by the entrance to the Cliff House.

Will Elder NPS

Quick Facts

Amenities

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Scenic View/Photo Spot

Today's world-famous Cliff House, part of the Sutro Historic Landscape District, is the latest in three incarnations of this destination for locals and tourists. The Cliff House is positioned in a spectacular locale for visitors to enjoy hiking along the amazing Lands End trails or Ocean Beach. Explore the famous Sutro Baths ruins or visit historic Sutro Heights Park. Visitors also enjoy spectacular sunsets from inside the restaurant, bird watching, and the "green flash" that occasionally occurs during sunset.

While there is a long tradition of dining while enjoying the magnificent Pacific from the Cliff House, there is no current operator for a Cliff House restaurant. The National Park Service remains committed to providing an exceptional experience for residents and visitors to the Bay Area and looks forward to welcoming the public back to the Cliff House in the future.

A House on the Water

Lands End became a destination for wealthy vacationers who were able to afford the long trip by horse and stay at the Cliff House, a resort built right on the water in 1863. Despite initial popularity, the Cliff House failed to hold people's attention into the 1870s. The management introduced a new strategy: the tried and true combo of booze and gambling. The rather obvious ploy backfired, and the Cliff House sank further into disfavor.

That is, until 1881, when the property was bought by self-made millionaire, philanthropist and one-day Mayor of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro. He reimagined the Cliff House closer to its original vision of a family-oriented place for wholesome entertainment.

Sutro was a man with a plan, seemingly in all endeavors. To help facilitate his business at the Cliff House, he bankrolled the construction of a railroad that would take people from San Francisco to Lands End, greatly increasing the number of people who could travel to the coast at a reasonable price. Everything was going smoothly until a fire burned the wood-frame Cliff House to the ground on Christmas Day, 1894.

But Sutro was a lemons-to-lemonade kind of guy, and two years later, opened a new 8-story castle-inspired Cliff House, complete with art galleries, a gem exhibit, ballrooms, bars and restaurants. Tragically, in 1907, fire again destroyed the second Cliff House. By that year, Sutro had died. His daughter, Emma Sutro Merritt, devised plans to build a third, less grandiose Cliff House, made of fire-proof concrete and steel, which remains to this day.