Sun. Morning. & ate our breakfast & took the car for the seashore. We spent the day there. We saw the Cliff house, seal rocks, seals, the ocean, the Golden Gate & the girls wading at the beach with their dresses pulled up half way between their knees & waist & they didn’t have on any drawers at all. Came back to the City & had supper & went to church at Mission Hall.
September 7th and 8th are the first days that Jesse has ever seen or spent time on a beach. Jesse was looking at the amazing third incarnation [depending on how you count the buildings] of Cliff House that was built by former San Francisco mayor and eccentric millionaire Adolph Sutro. It sounds like they held back and did not explore Cliff House and its nearby, massive water park. If only they had gone inside! From cliffhouse.com: “Fashioned after a French chateau, the second Cliff House opened in February of 1896 and boasted eight stories, four spires, and an observation tower 200 feet above sea level. Though never a hotel, it served as an elegant site for dining, dancing, and entertainment. The third floor held a photo gallery, reception room, and multiple parlors with beautiful panoramic views. The second floor held 20 private lunchrooms, an art gallery, and a gem exhibit. At ground level, there was a large dining room, parlor, bar, numerous private dining rooms, and the kitchens.”
With Jesse standing on the beach south of Cliff House and taking in its most famous view, he likely missed seeing the Sutro Bath House on the north side. It featured pools and water slides, and a museum. All that is left today are its ruins.
Library of Congress has wonderful footage of where Jesse saw the beach. Filmed two years after this visit, it’s still easy to image any of those men wearing bowler hats looking like John Bench in his.
Cliff House burned down six years and one day after Jesse’s 1901 visit.
You can still visit the 1909 Cliff House that was built by Adolph Sutro’s daughter, Dr. Emma Merritt, and eat at one its restaurants or bars.
The Golden Gate Bridge was not built until the early 1930s. Jesse is referring to the mile-wide straight that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean.
Jesse records that he attended a Sunday service at Mission Hall. There is a Mission Street two blocks away from the Winchester Hotel, so maybe the hall was located on and named for that street.
Not that Jesse would know, but it is possible those girls were wearing petticoats and bloomers. They could easily have grabbed them with their outer dresses! Still, it would have been a novel view for this young man.
