Contents Of San Francisco’s Iconic Cliff House To Be Auctioned

February 17, 2021,

Life is about change. Transition. Past verses future.

We understand that.

Sometimes we love the change. Sometimes we resist.

San Francisco has been going through a massive transition, right before our eyes.

There is the present.

As of 2020, San Francisco has the highest salaries, disposable income, and median home prices in the world at $1.7 million.

San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co., Gap Inc., Fitbit, Salesforce.com, Dropbox, Reddit, Square, Inc., Dolby, Airbnb, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation and Craigslist.

There is the past.

San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time.

Always a popular tourist attraction, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, mystical fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman's Wharf, and its Chinatown district.

One of her most iconic landmarks, the Cliff House will be no more.

As reported at sfgate.com on December 15, 2020, “San Francisco's Cliff House, the iconic restaurant that has overlooked the Pacific Ocean at the north end of Ocean Beach since the Civil War, announced it will be closing its doors permanently on Dec. 31.”

That is an extremely sad news item.

The Cliff House is a building perched on the headland above the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach, in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The building overlooks the site of the former Sutro Baths and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service (NPS). The Cliff House is owned by the NPS; the building's terrace hosts a room-sized camera obscura.

For most of the Cliff House's 157-year history, the building's main draw has been restaurants and bars where patrons could enjoy the Pacific Ocean views.

It can be the ultimate dining experience.

The area immediately around Cliff House is part of the setting of Jack London's novel The Scarlet Plague (1912). Jack London also sets the meeting of Maud Sangster and Pat Glendon Jr. here in The Abysmal Brute (1913).

An image of the third Cliff House was used on the cover of the album Imaginos by Blue Öyster Cult. The Cliff House appears in a scene in the movie "Race Street" starring George Raft from 1948, although the interior scene was no doubt a studio set recreation. The Cliff House is featured in the Ubisoft video game, Watch Dogs 2.

Since 1977, these restaurants and bars have been run by a private operator under contract with the National Park Service. In December 2020, the 47-year operator of these amenities announced that it was closing.

The leadership at cliffhouse.com add, “Visited by five U.S. presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, as well as many other famous citizens of the world, The Cliff House remained a favorite of the local population.”

One of our members grew up in Daly City, a suburb south of San Francisco, and has many memories of driving by and seeing the Cliff House on endless Pacific Ocean beach outings.

The sand, the ocean air and timeless views of the Cliff House.

Though it is permanently closed, you can still have a piece of history.

Here is how.

Entire Contents of San Francisco Landmark Restaurant The Cliff House to be Offered at Auction by Rabin Worldwide on March 4 and March 5, 2021

News provided by

Rabin Worldwide

Feb 03, 2021, 06:18 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bidders will have a chance to own a piece of San Francisco history when Rabin Worldwide conducts a public auction of the memorabilia and restaurant furnishings from the famed Cliff House on March 4 and March 5, 2021.

The iconic landmark, which has overlooked Ocean Beach from high atop a precipice for 157 years, closed its doors for good on the last day of 2020. Proprietors Dan and Mary Hountalas had been locked in a contract renewal with the National Parks Department – who own the building and land - since 2018. When the last contract expired the Cliff House saw what could be its final day as an operating restaurant.

The Hountalas couple lovingly oversaw operations since 1973. The décor was a testament to the bygone era of the establishment, as well as to relics of San Francisco landmarks of yesteryear: the Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach. The outgoing proprietors have hired San Francisco Bay Area auction house, Rabin Worldwide, to sell all collectibles, furnishings and restaurant equipment from the historic building. The two-day online auction will feature one-of-a-kind Playland pieces, including a 10-foot cowboy statue and carved wood carousel horse. Other notable pieces are a redwood bear and towering carved wood bar fixture from the 1890 Paris World's Fair. Collectibles from the Sutro Baths include a pair of muse reliefs commissioned by Adolph Sutro (circa 1890), original swim suits, a bank of bathhouse lockers, and vintage posters. Additional treasures on the block will include nautical items, commissioned pieces, original artwork, as well as hundreds of smaller mementos such as vintage menus, postcards and autographed movie star photos.

Along with the collectible items, the entire contents of the two full-service kitchens, dining room and bars will be available for bidding. Thousands of assorted beer, champagne, wine and martini glasses; hundreds of decorative chairs and tables; vintage and custom lighting fixtures; alcohol and wine (to licensed resellers only); plus, silver flatware, dinnerware and serving utensils can be had by the highest bidder.

All bidding will be online at rabin.com, March 4 and 5, 2021. All inquiries should be sent to cliffhouseauction@rabin.com

Further details of the sale can be found at https://rabin.com/Overview/Auction/the-cliff-house/

SOURCE Rabin Worldwide

OPENING PHOTO fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, Cliff_House_from_Ocean_Beach-By-Brocken-Inaglory-Own-work-dylan.

Related Links

https://rabin.com/

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/entire-contents-of-san-francisco-landmark-restaurant-the-cliff-house-to-be-offered-at-auction-by-rabin-worldwide-on-march-4-and-march-5-2021-301220893.html 

https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/The-Cliff-House-shut-its-doors-this-week-Here-s-15427223.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco

https://cliffhouse.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_House,_San_Francisco

https://femcompetitor.com/

https://grapplingstars.com/

https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/

https://fciwomenswrestling.com/