Adventurous Former Mayor Had Big Impact on Western Lands

courtesy photo

Adolph Sutro.

By Judith Kahn

Adolph Sutro, the son of a prosperous European cloth manufacturer, was a man of indomitable energy, keen foresight and insatiable curiosity. 

Born in Prussia in 1830, he attended a polytechnic school until 1847. Upon his father's death, he managed the family's factory in Prussia until 1848, when revolutions and rebellions permeated Europe.

Sutro's mother decided their best hope was to close the factory and liquidate their assets.  Sutro then established a cloth plant on the Baltic Sea in 1849.

In 1850, Sutro received a letter from his mother demanding that he buy cloth for his brother's store in the United States, before returning home to the Baltic Sea. Upon his arrival home, he was to purchase passage on steam ship for himself and his family for a trip that would end up in Baltimore.  Adolph complied. At 20 years of age he and his family sailed for New York on the first leg of the journey.

In New York, he heeded the advice of Horace Greeley's call to  "Go west young man."

Sutro talked his mother into allowing him to take the goods (that had been purchased for his brother's store) to California to make his fortune. He would return to the East Coast and share the profits with his mother.

On Oct. 29, full of hope, he left the New York docks.

After he arrived in California, he sold the goods and sent a portion of the proceeds to his mother. He then went into business on the waterfront, where he worked for nine years doing various trades and selling products. 

In 1859, when the Comstock Lode silver mines made headlines, he was attracted to mining.  Sutro established a mill in Dayton, Nevada, which extracted valuable ore.

Sutro's polytechnic background and innovative mind served him and the mining industry well. 

When Sutro built the Sutro Tunnel, he did it after conducting a survey. He noticed that claims were entered from above the tunnels, exposing them to wind and inclement weather. He figured out that to insure proper drainage and ventilation, a tunnel should have an entrance below the main shafts of the mine.

Sutro was aware that he had to overcome many legal and financial obstacles to construct the tunnel. Procuring a franchise from the Nevada legislature was an uphill battle. In 1865, he contracted with adjoining companies for a royalty of $2 on every ton of ore.

The tunnel was completed July 8, 1878 and cost  $5 million. Upon completion of the tunnel, Sutro reportedly sold some or all of his stock and returned to San Francisco, where he made large investments in real estate in the western part of the city as well as some very valuable property in the heart of San Francisco. At one point, his real estate holdings amounted to one tenth of the city's entire acreage.

In 1895 Sutro was elected mayor of San Francisco. His term was punctuated by continual fighting with the Board of Supervisors over the best way to achieve the aims of the City.

Sutro was known for his generosity and interest in the welfare of the public.  He opened the gardens of his home (located where Sutro Heights Park is today, where Geary Boulevard dead ends into 48th Avenue) to the people and allowed them to stroll the grounds for a dime donation. The fee helped to pay the 15 gardeners he employed to maintain the grounds.

He also created the Sutro Baths at Lands End. The baths accommodated as many as 10,000 people at one time.  There were swim meets, diving exhibitions and concerts. The entrance displayed stuffed birds, Egyptian mummies and other objects of interest.

Sutro wanted to provide "wholesome entertainment for the masses" and affordable transportation to his Richmond District locations.

For those who could afford it, there were carriages. But, a round trip from downtown cost 20 cents when a clerk earned  $12 a week. So he invested $40,000 on a longer street railway system. It was designed to ensure a single fare from the ferries to the Cliff House by means of transfer to one or more lines.

In 1887, Congress passed an act granting Seal Rocks to the city and county of San Francisco,  "to entrust for the people of the United States." Sutro had a fondness for aquatic animals and led a movement to protect them.

He also had a compulsive interest in books and would travel from country to country to buy them. He owned the finest private library in America, which included 200,000 books, 20,000 pamphlets and rare Hebrew manuscripts.

By the terms of Sutro's will, the Sutro Library was presented to the state, which now forms the San Francisco branch of the state library.