It really is the end of an era: there’s an online auction this week of the entire contents of our 157-year-old landmark, the CLIFF HOUSE. The three-day auction is March 11th-13th, and is selling everything from the kitchen contents to vintage Sutro Baths swimsuits to lithographs and signed movie star photos. It’s such a shame to have that collection of ephemera and memorabilia scattered and bought by the highest private bidders.
The SFWeekly reports there is an effort, “spearheaded by a community history nonprofit, the Western Neighborhoods Project, and two local fine art galleries, the effort, dubbed Save the Cliff House Collection, aims to raise enough money to buy some of the collection’s most culturally valuable objects at the auction and preserve them for the public for years to come.”
You can make a tax-deductible donation that will help save some key items from the auction from disappearing into private collections, and will help “stabilize the artifacts, determine their best long-term display in the neighborhoods, and develop educational programming that keeps the memory of The Cliff House, Sutro Baths, and Playland at the Beach close.” Please take a look and spread the word.
The exterior of the Cliff House. Photo: © tablehopper.com.
