Sutro Baths (San Francisco)

Unidentified

A rare billboard ad for Sutro Baths in San Francisco, which had 6 pools, 517 changing rooms and had a capacity for 7,400 bathers. Text was added after the billboard was posted, each of the 4 sheets had to be carefully mounted.

This is mounted on 2 hardboard panels and will require special shipping.

In 1881, Adolph Sutro bought most of the western headlands of San Francisco foreseeing the growth of the city to the western shore. Five years later, Sutro Baths opened to a dazzled public at a cost of $250,000. Spread over three acres, the artistic detail and engineering ingenuity were impressive.

A classic Greek portal opened to a massive glass enclosure containing one fresh water tank, five salt water tanks at various temperatures and a large salt water tank at ocean temperature. Together the pools held 1,685,000 gallons of sea water and could be filled or emptied in one hour by the high or low tides. There were 20,000 bathing suits and 40,000 towels for rent as well as slides, trapezes, springboards and a high dive for up to 1,600 bathers. Balmy temperatures and abundant plants enhanced "California’s Tropical Winter Garden".

For those who worked up an appetite while swimming, three restaurants could accommodate 1,000 people at a seating. There were natural history exhibits, galleries of sculptures, paintings, tapestries and artifacts from Aztec, Mexican, Egyptian, Syrian, Chinese and Japanese cultures. An amphitheater, seating up to 3,700 people, provided a variety of stage shows. Up to 25,000 people could easily visit the facilities each day for a mere ten cents ( twenty five cents for swimming). Sutro’s dream was realized as the San Francisco populous streamed to the Baths on one of three five cent railroads connecting to the city.

For all the glamour and excitement, the success of Sutro Baths was short lived. By 1937, Adolph Sutro’s grandson realized the baths were no longer commercially successful so he converted the large tank into an ice skating rink. Sutro Baths never regained its popularity and the ice-skating revenue was not enough to maintain the enormous building. In 1966, the site was sold to land developers who began demolition so they could build high rise apartments. A fire quickly finished the demolition work and thus ended the 80 year history of Sutro Baths.