Cliff House Project
A Program of Western Neighborhoods Project

Chambers ] CC Butler Purchase ] Samuel Tetlow ] 1863 ] Mark Twain ] Wreck of the Ann Parry ] James Cook ] Wreck of the Elizabeth Owens ] Jack Lee ] Rosa Celeste ] 1868 ] Brignardello Wreck ] George Francis Train ] Ralph Waldo Emerson ] Josephine Wilcutt Wreck ] King Kalakaua ] General Sherman ] King Philip Wreck ] Grant ] Ben Butler ] Hayes ] [ Sutro Visits Lands End ] Sutro Purchase ] Ocean & Park RR ] Foster Leaves ] Adelina Patti ] Bridge Collapse ] OB Pavilion ] Sutro Heights Opens ] Baldwin Tightrope ] Boyton ] Atlantic Wreck ] Baldwin ] Parallel Wreck ] Aquarium ] Ferries and Cliff House RR ] Davison Bros ] Capt Jack Williams ] John Williams ] balloon ] Bullet hits Cliff House ] Harrison ] Boxers ] Millie Lavelle ] Sutro Baths Opening ] Andrew Carnegie ] Storm 1892 ] Leland Stanford ] Balloon Crash ] Sutro fights with Southern Pacific ] Burglary 1894 ] Sutro Elected Mayor ] Xmas fire ] 1895 ] Caroline Miskell ] 1896 ] Storm 1896 ] Sutro Railroad ] Vanderbilt ] Olcott ] Airship ] Mayor Phelan ] William Jennings Bryan ] High Dive ] Sutro Illness ] John Harris ] Sutro Death ] Post Office Branch ] Rockefeller ] Train wreck ] Dive Cancelled ] Wireless ] CSAA ] Storm 1900 ] Storm 1901 ] Shriners Visit 1901 ] McKinley ] Henri Turot ] Moonlight Run ] Reporter Wreck ] Shriners Visit 1902 ] Buffalo Bill ] Political Banners 1902 ] Pacific Cable ] Roosevelt ] Union Strike ] Coast to Coast ] Debt ] Storm 1904 ] Storm 1904 Sept ] Storm 1905 ] Knights of Columbus ] Reopens ] Cliff Line ] Radio ] Storm 1905 Dec ] Storm 1906 Jan ] Earthquake ] Minor Fire ] Storm 1906 ] Remodel ] Fire ] Atlantic Fleet ] 1908 ] 1909 ] Fannie Brice ] Taft ] Telegraph Tower ] Landslide 1916 ] War Takeover Threat ] Rudolph Valentino ] Sarah Bernhardt ] Closes 1918 ] Reopens 1920 ] Remodel 1922 ] DPW Roadwork ] Shriners 1922 ] Prohibition Bust 1923 ] Prohibition Bust, 1925 ] Landslide ] Faux Rock ] Coffee Shop Opens ] Closes 1925 ] Storm 1926 ] Ohioan Wreck ] Charles Sutro Death ] Whitney Purchase ] 1949 Remodel ] Sutro Baths Sold ] Skytram ] Sold 1964 ] Baths Fire ] Blue Cliff House ] 2003 Remodel ] Closed 2021 ]

 

Adolph Sutro & daughter Emma
first visit Outside Lands
March 2 1881

 


San Francisco Chronicle - 11/19/1933
Adolph Sutro's daughter Emma Merritt describes their first visit.
The date she provided in this newspaper clipping is later corrected (see below).

 

From the 1962 biography of Adolph by the Stewarts:

“On the second of March , 1881, he and his daughter Emma rode out past the western edge of the city… they found a small white cottage they had never seen before. … The house and its plot of about one and one-half acres belonged to Samuel Tetlow, proprietor of the Bella Union, whose business had declined in recent years. The two Sutros found Mr. Tetlow at home and Adolph immediately entered into an agreement to purchase the house and land for fifteen thousand dollars.”
(p 173-174)

And then on p 226:
“His [Adolph’s] discovery of Sutro Heights is based on various accounts including a newspaper interview of Emma in the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 19, 1933, p. 6. The date in the latter has been corrected to 1881 win accordance with the agreement between A. Sutro and S. Tetlow dated March 2, 1881, in Adolph Sutro, Safe Book, Agreements, p. 51 in ‘Stanford Univ. MSS’.”

So the Stewarts used Emma’s interview, but discounted her 1879 date and instead used the March 1881 date from a document apparently at Stanford.

 


"The Argonaut"