Adolph Sutro

Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (April 29 1830 - 1898) was the 24th mayor and 1st Jewish mayor of San Francisco, California, serving in that office from 1894 until 1896. He is today perhaps best remembered for the various San Francisco lands and landmarks that still bear his name. Born in Prussia, Sutro arrived in the United States in 1850 and accumulated a considerable fortune through his work on a silver mining tunnel at the Comstock Lode in Nevada. His wealth was increased by large real estate investments in San Francisco, where he became an entrepreneur and public figure after returning from the Comstock in 1879. These land investments included Mount Sutro, Land's End (the area where Lincoln Park and the Cliff House are today), and Mount Davidson (which was called "blue Mountain" at the time).

Related Topics:
April 29 - 1830 - 1898 - Mayor - Jew - San Francisco, California - 1894 - 1896 - Landmark - Prussia - United States - 1850 - Nevada - San Francisco - 1879 - Cliff House

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Sutro opened his own estate to the public and was heralded as a populist for various astute acts of public munificence, such as opening an aquarium and an elaborate and beautiful, glass-enclosed entertainment complex called Sutro Baths. Though the Baths were not opened until 1896, Sutro had been developing and marketing the project for years, attempting four separate times to insulate the site from waves using sea walls, the first three of which collapsed into the Pacific.

Related Topics:
Populist - Glass - Sutro Baths - 1896 - Pacific

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The Baths were saltwater and springwater pools, heated to varying degrees, and surrounded by a concert hall and museums stocked with treasures which Sutro had collected in his travels. The baths became very popular despite their remote location, across the open dunes to the west of the populated areas of the city. This popularity was partly due to the low entry fee for visiting the Baths and riding the excursion railroad he built to reach them. The railroad grade still exists as a walking trail along the Land's End cliffs.

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Sutro managed a great increase in the value of his outlying land investments as a direct result of the development burst that his vacationers' railroad spawned. He also increased the value of his speculated lands by hiring schoolboys to plant his property at Mount Sutro with saplings of fast-growing eucalyptus. This occurred coincidentally with city supervisors' enactment of rules granting tax-free status to "forested" lands within city limits. The forest still exists, and is the location of, and property of, the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

Related Topics:
Sapling - Eucalyptus - Tax - City limits - Forest - University of California, San Francisco

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Sutro's reputation as a provider of diversions and culture for the average person led the politically weak and radical Populist Party to draft him to run for mayor on their ticket. He won on an anti-big business platform, inveighing against the tight grip that the Southern Pacific Railroad had over local businesses. Nevertheless, he was quickly considered a failed mayor, ill-suited for political work, and did not provide the popularity boost his party had hoped to achieve by association with him.

Related Topics:
Mayor - Southern Pacific Railroad

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At the time of his death, in 1898, his fortune was extensive and his legal affairs in disarray. As a result, his heirs fought bitterly over his holdings.

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Many of Sutro's gifts to the city of San Francisco still exist and bear his name, such as Mount Sutro (the location of Sutro Tower and highest point in the city), and Sutro Heights. Sutro Baths became a skating rink and then was destroyed by a fire in 1966. Today it exists only as ruins just below the Cliff House.

Related Topics:
San Francisco - Sutro Tower - Sutro Baths - 1966 - Cliff House

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