Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Sutro Baths #2 -- January 13, 2010


An ad for Sutro Baths from the 17-April-1897 San Francisco Call. I would like to see "Mr. Charles Cavill in his Wonderful Monte Cristo Drowning Act." I suppose he got sewn into a sack and thrown into the pool, so it was an escape act.

My grandfather took to Sutro Baths a few times before it burned in 1966. I remember playing in the back yard and watching ashes blow overhead.

It rained lightly while I took my lunchtime walk, but I didn't get very wet.

2 comments:

NowInNewYork said...

Do you remember a poem that was painted on the rocks near Sutro caves? I remember seeing it as a student in the 1980's - it resembled poems by Byron, and I remember local rumour was that Byron had painted it - although of course utterly impossible. It was painted in red, and quite long. If memory serves, eventually it was cleaned away, and there was a small article in the Chronicle naming the poet who wrote it in the 70's, who eventually died in obscurity. For the life of me I can't find any reference to the poem on google -- but I remember it clearly - very large, and in red.

Joe Thompson said...

Wow. I got down there a lot in the 1970s but not so often in the 1980s because of work and family. Do you know about the Western Neighborhood Project? I'll bet someone there would know about it.