The Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) is thrilled to announce that the Cliff House name has been formally donated to the community history nonprofit by Demosthenis (Dan) and Mary Hountalas.
The Outer Richmond has always had its fog-soaked icons – the Cliff House, Ocean Beach, the bones of Sutro Baths. But ask longtime neighbors where they actually ate breakfast with their parents, or dragged visiting cousins before going to the Zoo, and one name comes up with the affection of an old drinking buddy: Seal Rock Inn Restaurant.
Comparison photos of Lurline Pier and Cliff House 125 years apart.
Almost three years after the Cliff House restaurant at Lands End became another business casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Park Service (NPS) announced a new lease has been signed by Sutro Lands End Partners LLC to operate a restaurant in that building.
Comparing photos of the Cliff House from 1900 with 2022.
Naiad Cove, named after the Greek demigoddesses, has been a labor of love and hard work to preserve the treasures, memories and history of Lands End, the Cliff House, Sutro Heights and Ocean Beach.
A classic shot looking up Point Lobos Avenue near the Great Highway around 1947.
When the 157-year-old Cliff House restaurant closed its doors in December 2020, it was “another blow to lose an iconic restaurant in San Francisco,” said Nicole Meldahl, executive director of the Western Neighborhoods Project. Nevertheless, as one door closes, a window opens.
An after dark projected artwork animating
windows of the former Cliff House now on display.
Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP), a community history nonprofit, will open a temporary museum in the former Cliff House Gift Shop in partnership with ACT Art Conservation and The Great Highway gallery with support from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s Park Archives and Records Center (PARC) and the Global Museum at SF State.
When Alexandra Mitchell, the owner and principal fine art conservator at ACT Art Conservation, learned that the Cliff House’s art works and memorabilia were slated to be auctioned off in mid-March, she knew something had to be done.
This picture from photographer A.J. McDonald shows the view looking north from the roof of the first Cliff House towards Cliff Cottage and Point Lobos, circa 1880s. The Cliff Cottage was badly damaged when the schooner Parallel exploded in January 1887, and this site went on to become home to the Sutro Baths. Photo courtesy of a private collector/Western Neighborhoods Project/OpenSFHistory.
The Cliff House, one of San Francisco’s iconic and enduring landmarks and eateries, closed on Dec. 31.
A series of restaurant closures in the Outer Richmond District has left the northwestern edge of San Francisco without several of its beloved dining spots.
On Sept. 5, the Cliff House continued the 42-year-old tradition with a private reception and luncheon in the Terrace Room that features the same sweeping view of part of the Coast Guard’s territory; the Pacific Ocean and Seal Rock, the scene of the rescue over four decades ago.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 