The Cliff House’s giant glass windows present visitors with a direct view of the Pacific horizon. It’s the perfect place, as one historian put it, “to confront nature from the comfort of an armchair.”

Former San Francisco mayor Adolph Sutro built the Cliff House at the city’s northwestern tip, an area of rugged coastal geography that now shares his name. Miles of dunes and rough terrain once separated the Cliff House from the fledgling city of San Francisco to the east.

The Cliff House was remodeled several times before the National Park Service acquired it in 1977. Today the Cliff House is preserved as part of the Golden Gate National Parks.

CLIFF HOUSE HISTORY

Scandalous Casino
Between the 1860s and 1880s, the Cliff House was an exclusive resort with fancy parlors and gambling casinos. At first, only San Francisco’s most elite families patronized the resort. Later years attracted a less-rarified clientele, one more interested in gambling and debauchery than fine cuisine.

Victorian Palace
The original Cliff House burned down in 1894. In its place, Sutro built a Victorian palace, an eight-story structure crowned with fanciful turrets and towers. The new Cliff House had twenty private lunch rooms, numerous art galleries, several shops, and even an elevator. Many famous guests visited Sutro’s cliff top chateau, including Oscar Wilde, Andrew Carnegie, and two American presidents.

Modern Seaside Restaurant
The Cliff House fell into disrepair after Sutro died. Though the resort survived the 1906 earthquake with only $300 in damage, it burned to the ground a year later. Sutro’s daughter rebuilt a neoclassical concrete Cliff House and the National Park Service acquired this building in 1977. Today, the Cliff House continues to delight patrons who can enjoy dinner and a sunset over the Pacific Ocean.