San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Ghosts of Cliff House’s past flicker back to life at museum
It was a dark and misty January night out by the Cliff House on the western edge of San Francisco. It was so quiet the only sound was from the cold wind and the surf just below. The old Cliff House itself was closed, boarded up and empty. A perfect night for ghosts.
And there they were, flickering like shadows of another time, pictures of people who had come to the Cliff House over the years: San Franciscans long dead come back to life in pictures and film — the women in sweeping Victorian dresses, men in derby hats, couples riding in carriages, in antique autos, even posed in fake flying machines.
They were in photos from the 1890s, and then more from the Roaring Twenties, from World War II and later. Some of the pictures move — home movies from the 1940s and ’50s, and even the ’60s, couples strolling on the beach below, walking dogs, eating ice cream, climbing down the cliffs to look at a shipwreck or two.
It’s a visual slice of the city’s past, especially on beautiful days on the ocean when thousands of people came out to have a good time. It’s like a PowerPoint presentation of another era, projected on windows not far from the closed entrance to the Cliff House.
The Cliff House was world famous practically since the day it opened in 1863, advertised as the place “where San Francisco begins.”
Almost every San Franciscan has some memory of the Cliff House, so it was a terrible shock when the Cliff House closed on the last day of 2020, done in by the coronavirus and a dispute between the Hountalas family, which leased the facility, and the National Park Service, which owns it as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Cliff House itself is closed and boarded up while the Park Service seeks another tenant.
So all that is left is a small museum in the former Cliff House gift shop and the evening show of the ghostly images of thousands of people, pictures and movies projected through the glass walls of the gift shop on the north side of the Cliff House. The museum is open by day, and the show runs every night from sunset to 10 p.m. through April. The picture show was developed by Ben Wood, a visual artist who combines old photos and film using state-of-the-art technology. He’s projected other images all over the city: on Coit Tower, on the windows of the historic Haas-Lilienthal House, and even a show on hidden 17th century murals painted by Native Americans at Mission Dolores.
“Sunset is the best time to see the Cliff House show,” he said. “The setting sun makes a light show of its own.”
The photographs in the Cliff House show come from the Western Neighborhoods Project, which has an extensive collection of material from everything west of Twin Peaks. The Western Neighborhoods group was also able to raise money to buy parts of the equipment from the Cliff House when it was auctioned off last year.
Everything was for sale: kitchen equipment, dishes, glasses, chairs, gift shop items, souvenirs — and hundreds of pictures. A lot went to private collectors, but some of what the neighborhood group bought is on display at the Cliff House’s small museum.
The movies in the nightly show came from San Francisco’s Prelinger Archives, which has a huge collection of film made by San Franciscans, including home movies. The amateur films give a family view of life in the city over the years.
The pictures and movies speak for themselves. It is surprising to see how men and women dressed up years ago to go on a Sunday outing and have fun at the Cliff House and the other attractions like the Sutro Baths and Playland-at-the-Beach.
And to look at the odd attractions the oceanside promoters used to attract the crowds: fake waterfalls, a sky tram, skating rinks, museums full of stuffed animals and dubious curiosities, including snakes, apes, mummies, mechanical games, and a camera obscura that still operates.
Five presidents of the United States and the last king of Hawaii visited the Cliff House in its prime, and so did movie stars and other celebrities. But there is not a famous person in any of the pictures Wood has put together. “I wanted to show ordinary people,” he said.
“It’s wonderful to see all those people from all those years,” said Nicole Meldahl, executive director of the Western Neighborhoods Project. “We’ve all gone to the Cliff House. It feels like coming home.”