Sutro Baths ruins

Sutro began the works in 1894 with an ocean pool aquarium among the rocks, filled through a tunnel eight feet by 153 feet cut through the cliff, and went on to build a public bathhouse covering three acres. A classic Greek portal opened to a glass enclosure containing seven swimming pools at various temperatures, with slides, trapezes, springboards and a high dive; the front entrance held natural history exhibits and galleries of sculpture, painting, tapestry and artifacts. High tide could fill the 1.7 million gallons the pools required in one hour. The baths could take 10,000 people at one time and offered 20,000 bathing suits and 40,000 towels for rent. In 1897 John Harris, an African American, challenged the baths' whites-only policy in court and won his case. Sutro died in 1898; the baths ran under Emma Merritt and then Gustav Sutro until 1937, when part was converted to an ice rink, and were sold to the Whitneys in 1952. In 1964 developers bought the site and began demolition, and in 1966 a fire destroyed what was left.