Well, not literally, since it burned down 45 years ago, but visually, you can revisit a fabulous piece of San Francisco history on this new DVD — or give it as a gift for the holidays. Sutro’s was THE place to go for ice skating when I was a kid. Before that, for decades, it was the city’s unparalleled palace of swimming, with seven salt water pools heated to different temperatures.
But the biggest attraction for many was all the STUFF. Hundreds of photographs of old San Francisco (then meaning pre-earthquake), all sorts of oddities, like a giant attic. And the wood and glass structure was an attraction in itself.
Streetcars served Sutro’s (on the 2-Clement line!) until after World War II…using track and a terminal that Adolph Sutro himself built. It’s all captured in a documentary by the same folks who a few years ago created the memorable film about Playland (just down the hill from Sutro’s and the Cliff House).
We have both of these DVDs on sale at our San Francisco Railway Museum. We also have our exclusive narrated DVD version of the famous “Trip Down Market Street” film, shot from the front of a cable car just days before the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. So come on down to the museum (77 Steuart Street between Market and Mission; F-line Steuart Street stop; open daily except Monday, 10-6).
