History Preserved As NPS Shuffles Cliff House
June 18, 2021
Fine art conservator Isabella Lewis and Daniel Evans, owner of Opera Gallery in Yerba Buena, can finally claim victory on a project that had been keeping the both of them up at night.
"We really went all in on this, it was so stressful," laughed Lewis, one of the FAMF's thirty trustees. "I have never seen prices jump so quickly!"
At an online art auction selling off pieces of San Francisco's history, the pair purchased roughly 70 items -- including a cowboy statue from the city's old Playland amusement park and a totem pole -- all with rich provenance to San Francisco's early history along its foggy, jagged Lands End. Their ultimate goal is to preserve and display the items in the city.
"I am so happy we pulled this off, my head is still swimming in all the euphoria," Evans said.
It was the culmination of a wild past few months for the 157 year old landmark restaurant. The Contreras family, which have run the property since the 1970s, could not reach a new lease agreement with the site's owner, the National Park Service. The Contreras have been facing an expensive, personal medical hardship within the family, leading to working with outside management that has changed the nature of the restaurant to the detriment of its bottom line. Federal officials have found a new tenant to continue its legacy, but the Contreras will be moving out.
When outgoing proprietor Miriam Contreras found out Lewis would be bidding, she allowed her in for a sneak peek to prioritize. The auction began Thursday, but it was Friday when the historic artifacts went up for sale.
"This was our chance to keep the items local," Lewis said. "Cliff House and Sutro Baths are such storied places that are part of the heart of this city's character, I can't imagine these pieces of history going to outside investors who wouldn't appreciate our city's legacy and what it stands for."
Lewis has expressed intentions on donating (or selling) many of the antiques to the new tenants.
They bought a wooden stool from the baths with Adolf Sutro's initials stamped on the bottom, bathing suits and lockers from the historic baths, menus from surrounding restaurants and a rare luncheon program when President Theodore Roosevelt visited the establishment, and other items of interest.
The two were ecstatic to rescue the items, but lamented how it was left to them.
"The bigger problem is there is no city agency or approach to save history like this," Evans said, "It's up to private citizens."
Now they must figure out what to do with the items. In the short term, Evans has art space at Opera gallery, and with Lewis's sprawling network of connections through FAMF, she has no shortage of resources to have them restored.
For instance, in an oil portrait of Sutro, which hung in the bar, the San Francisco philanthropist and politician looks a little seasick because of a poor past restoration. While the Cliff House was the perfect historical spot to house the items, it was not ideal to store delicate artifacts in a working restaurant surrounded by salty sea air.
"Real historic artifacts make history incredibly tangible in ways nothing else can replicate," Lewis Meldahl said. "It just seemed important to keep this part of San Francisco's soul, its heritage, intact."
