Wish You Were Here: Postcard Greetings from Sutro Baths

Sutro Baths & Cliff House - postcard

Entrance to Sutro Baths, 1909 - postcard (publisher Edward H. Mitchell)

There are over 5,000 postcards and photo postcards of San Francisco views, buildings, bridges, hotels, streets and other popular locations in the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection. Here are a few favorites of Sutro Baths to entice you to attend Outside Lands at the Main tomorrow - Saturday, August 25.




The mini-festival begins at noon in Latino/Hispanic B with Sunset historian Lorri Ungaretti introducing her new book, Stories in the Sand: San Francisco’s Sunset District, 1847–1964. In a cross between a book reading and a visual presentation, Ungaretti will describe how the city’s Sunset District grew from what was considered uninhabitable sand dunes to a thriving neighborhood. Pictures, stories, and quotations from people who contributed to the area’s growth will make the history of the Sunset come alive.  

Interior of Sutro Baths - postcard (photographer Charles Weidner)

Outside Lands at the Main continues at 2:00 PM with the screening of Sutro: The Palace at Land's End in the Koret Auditorium. Tom Wyrsch, the filmmaker, presents his documentary on the history of the Sutro Baths and amusement park / museum complex at Land's End near the Cliff House, from the late 1800s to the 1960s. There will be a Q&A after the screening.

  

  

Sutro Baths; largest bathing establishment in the world - postcard (printed by Britton & Rey)

To view the San Francisco History Center Postcard Collection, please visit during the open hours of the Photo Desk. 

Your official invitation to tomorrow's program!