Vintage Photograph at Sutro Baths on the San Francisco Beach. Shows six bathing beauties looking at a kneeling man in front of some parked cars with large advertisements for the Sutro Baths in their glory days. 

Overall: 16 1/4 X 20 1/2 in. 

Sight: 14 X 18 1/4 in. 

#2773 . 

On March 14th, 1896 the Sutro Baths were opened to the California public, making it the world’s largest saltwater indoor swimming pool establishment. The baths were built on the western side of San Francisco in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District, with construction starting two years earlier by wealthy entrepreneur and former San Francisco mayor Adolph Sutro. Sparing no expense, Sutro was an accomplished engineer who poured much of his own time and expertise into the project. During high tides, water would flow directly into the pools from the nearby ocean, recycling two million gallons of water in about an hour. During low tides, a powerful turbine water pump, built inside a faux cave at sea level, could be switched on from a control room and would fill the tanks at a rate of six thousand gallons a minute, recycling all the water in five hours. There was also a museum displaying an extensive collection of stuffed and mounted animals, historic artifacts, and artwork which Sutro acquired from the Woodward Gardens estate sale in 1894, as well as a 2,700-seat amphitheater and club rooms with capacity for 1,100. Additionally, over 500 private dressing rooms for swimmers and performers were available, with constantly rotating water shows and events booked sometimes years in advance. The baths survived the 1906 Earthquake almost completely unscathed and became a symbol of the city’s resilience, but struggled financially for years, mostly due to the very high operating and maintenance costs. Sutro was personally sued in 1897 for the segregationist policies of the baths by a black man named John Harris, who won in the San Francisco Superior Court. Eventually, the southernmost part of the baths was converted into an ice skating rink, with a wall separating it from the dilapidated swimming pools, until 1964 when the property was sold to developers for a planned high-rise apartment complex. A fire in 1966 burnt the entire facility down to its concrete foundation while it was in the process of being demolished. All that remained of the site were a few walls, blocked-off stairs and passageways, and a tunnel with a deep crevice in the middle. The cause of the fire was determined to be arson, and shortly afterwards the developers fled San Francisco once they had claimed the insurance money. Today the iconic ruins are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Sutro Historic District.