Cliff House

The first Cliff House (Cliff House #1) opened in 1863. It was expanded in 1874 to become Cliff House #2 (in the numbering I prefer), purchased by Adolph Sutro in 1883. After it was destroyed by fire on Christmas Day of 1894, Sutro replaced it with the much larger Victorian Cliff House #3. Cliff House #3 survived the 1906 earthquake and fire without major damage but burned to the ground in 1907. Cliff House #4 opened on the same site in 1909 and still stands in 2020.

Cliff House #3 as seen from Sutro Heights.

• Mitchell 55, private mailing card postmarked SF 12/03/1901.
• Mitchell, multiview private mailing card dated 12/30/1901.
• American Souvenir 12, multiview postmarked SF 10/18/1904.
• Britton & Rey 521, postmarked SF 5/24/1905.

Cliff House #3 as seen from Ocean Beach (b+w).

• Mitchell 50, private mailing card.
• Goeggel & Weidner 19, embossed; ca. 1903.
• Goeggel & Weidner 55, ca. 1903.
• Souvenir Post Card 4625, with post-quake caption.

• Unknown publisher 24, postmarked SF 8/01/1902. The image is left/right reversed.
• Rieder 626, postmarked SF 10/06/1903.
• Britton & Rey 401.
• Britton & Rey 497.

• Mitchell 40. Cliff House from Ocean Beach shows other Mitchell 40 cards with different Cliff House images.
• Weidner 164, postmarked Benicia 4/12/1907.
• Britton & Rey 1035, later divided back.
• Newman V101.

• Scheff, novelty card with foldout, ca. 1907.

Cliff House #3 burned to the ground on 9/07/1907.

• Pacific Novelty, postmarked Oakland 11/18/1907, about two months after the fire.
• Cardinell-Vincent 5007, written SF 9/26/1908, with a few onlookers on the beach and an inset pre-quake image.
• Britton & Rey 1030, postmarked 10/11/1909, shows more onlookers on the beach, including the same woman and bicyclist shown in the preceding; I'm guessing that it's the same original image, with people added by the postcard artist.
• Britton & Rey 1031, postmarked SF 11/04/1909, looking down from the Sutro Heights parapet.

Pages Cliff House from Ocean Beach and Cliff House from Sutro Baths show more views of Cliff House #3.

Cliff House #4 opened on the same site in 1909.

• Pacific Novelty 231, postmarked SF 9/12/1909, caption "The New Cliff House".
• Unknown publisher.
• Cardinell-Vincent 400.
• Cliff House.

• Unknown publisher: Studio RPPC with Cliff House and Seal Rocks backdrop, including a biplane flying above Cliff House. "Incorpolated" on the car door is presumably just a misspelling.
• Pacific Novelty 341.
• Zan 1115 (RPPC).

Steve's SF postcard pages:

• Next: Seal Rocks
• Postcard catalog
• Postcard pages
• Postcard slideshows