Adolph Sutro, the self-made San Francisco millionaire who designed Sutro Heights and later the second Cliff House, developed the amazing Sutro Baths in 1894. His dream for the Baths was to provide a healthy, recreational and inexpensive swimming facility for thousands of city dwellers. A classic Greek portal opened to a massive glass enclosure containing seven swimming pools at various temperatures. There were slides, trapezes, springboards and a high dive.

The power of the Pacific Ocean during high tide could fill the 1.7 million gallons of water required for all the pools in just one hour. The Baths could accommodate 10,000 people at one time and offered 20,000 bathing suits and 40,000 towels for rent.

In addition to swimming, Sutro Baths offered visitors many other attractions on the three-acre site, including band concerts, talent shows, and restaurants. With several railroads providing transportation to the area by the late 1890s, a visit to Sutro Baths crowned an all-day family excursion to Land’s End.

The Baths were extremely popular, but it was never profitable, and as the years went by, they became increasing expensive to maintain. Also, society changed, and fewer people were coming to spend their free time there. The Sutro Baths closed in 1966, and burned down in June of the same year, some say under suspicious circumstances.

The Baths are now a rough collection of pools of salt water, crumbling walls and rusting pieces of iron. The setting at the end of the Land's End cliffs, looking out over Seal Rock and the ocean, is worth a visit. It isn't maintained and can be a bit treacherous, but that adds to its mystique, as seen in the recent photograph, below, by Kenneth Leaf.

Lands End and Sutro Baths hiking/visitor information here Text from National Parks Service Info

Photo top and left, courtesy National Parks Service. Photo below, © Kenneth Leaf, courtesy San Francisco Airport Commission. Info