US businessman, born in Aachen, W Germany. In 1850 he arrived in New York City, the next year moving to San Francisco, where he established a trading business. In 1859 he founded a metallurgical works in Nevada, building the Sutro Tunnel for the draining and ventilation of mines in the Comstock Lode. In 1879 he returned to San Francisco, where he became a major landowner, and mayor (18946). His book collection became the Sutro Library in San Francisco.
Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (April 29, 1830 - August 8, 1898) was the 24th mayor and 2nd Jewish mayor of San Francisco, California, serving in that office from 1894 until 1896.
Born in Aachen, Prussia, Sutro, educated as an engineer, at the age of twenty arrived in the United States and in 1850, he introduced himself to William Ralston of the Bank of California and introduced his plans for de-watering and de-gassing the mine shafts of the Comstock Lode by driving a tunnel through Mount Davidson to drain the water. Sutro incorporated the Sutro Tunnel company and raised 3 million dollars, a considerable fortune through this work in Nevada. Sutro was stymied, but out of the blue came an offer from a London bank led by a banker named McClamont, who offered 650,000 in gold per year for the Comstock.
Adolph Sutro became King of the Comstock because his tunnels drained three to four million gallons of water a day, rented by mine owners at an average of 10,000 dollars a day, "all moneys acccumulated for his stockholders." These land investments included Mount Sutro, Land's End (the area where Lincoln Park and the Cliff House are today), and Mount Davidson (which was called "blue Mountain" at the time).
Sutro opened his own estate to the public and was heralded as a populist for various astute acts of public munificence, such as opening an aquarium and an elaborate and beautiful, glass-enclosed entertainment complex called Sutro Baths. Though the Baths were not opened until 1896, Sutro had been developing and marketing the project for years, attempting four separate times to insulate the site from waves using sea walls, the first three of which collapsed into the Pacific. In 1896, Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven story Victorian Chateau, called by some "the Gingerbread Palace," below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. This was the same year work began on the famous Sutro Baths, which included six of the largest indoor swimming pools north of the Restaurant that included a museum, skating rink and other pleasure grounds.
The Baths were saltwater and springwater pools, heated to varying degrees, and surrounded by a concert hall and museums stocked with treasures which Sutro had collected in his travels.
Sutro managed a great increase in the value of his outlying land investments as a direct result of the development burst that his vacationers' railroad spawned. He also increased the value of his speculated lands by hiring schoolboys to plant his property at Mount Sutro with saplings of fast-growing eucalyptus.
Sutro's reputation as a provider of diversions and culture for the average person led the politically weak and radical Populist Party to draft him to run for mayor on their ticket.
Many of Sutro's gifts to the city of San Francisco still exist and bear his name, such as Mount Sutro, originally Mount Parnassus (a lower hill nearby is the location of the Sutro Tower), and Sutro Heights. Sutro Baths became a skating rink and then was destroyed by a fire in 1966.
Sources of Historical Materials Relating to Adolph Sutro
The Western Jewish History Center, of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, in Berkeley, California has a large collection of papers relating to Adolph Sutro and his important work on the Sutro Tunnel.
Sources
Samuel Dickson, Tales of San Francisco Stanford University Press 1957
User Comments Add a comment…