Save the Cliff House Art Collection

Save The Cliff House Collection
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Help Us Conserve and Exhibit the Cliff House Collection

Together, we saved over 100 artifacts from auction on March 11-12, 2021 but the work still continues. Support our collective effort to interpret our shared heritage at the edge of the Western world.

Visit The Museum at The Cliff in the former Cliff House Gift Shop at 1090 Point Lobos Avenue, Thursdays through Sundays, 11-4pm.  

Our History

Photo. Seal Rocks and the first Cliff House as seen from Ocean Beach, c. 1872. (Cliff House Collection / WNP)

The closure of San Francisco’s iconic Cliff House restaurant in December 2020 was heartbreaking for all who loved it. The city had already lost so much during the first year of the pandemic and it was inconceivable that this landmark, which had risen from the ashes of two fires since opening in 1863, could be gone. So, three strangers decided to do something about it. 

Photo. Left to Right: John Lindsey of The Great Highway gallery, Nicole Meldahl of Western Neighborhoods Project, and Alexandra Mitchell of ACT Art Conservation (aka “The Dream Team”) at the former Cliff House Restaurant, March 2021. (Photo by Jason Corning)

In late February 2021, after learning that historic art and artifacts from the Cliff House were destined to be auctioned, Alexandra Mitchell of ACT Art Conservation approached John Lindsey of The Great Highway gallery and said, “John, we can’t let this happen, we have to save the Cliff House collection.” John agreed, “You should call Nicole Meldahl at Western Neighborhoods Project.” This is how our collective effort, Save The Cliff House Collection, was born. 

Photo. Proceeds from the sale of this watercolor by artist Doug Gorney helped us save the Cliff House Collection. Prints are still for sale on the artist’s website. (Photo by Doug Gorney). 

It took over 470 individual donors to do it, but we were able to raise more than our goal of $150,000 in just over two weeks. This was a grassroots campaign that succeeded primarily through small contributions supported by a few organizations / individuals who provided substantial donations to save our shared heritage. They include:

  • Richard Beleson in honor of Gary Kamiya
  • An anonymous donor who had their wedding reception at The Cliff House
  • The San Francisco Cable Car Museum
  • The Fleishhacker Foundation and David Fleishhacker
  • The Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People

Additional support came from Rabin Worldwide as well as Dan and Mary Hountalas, who gave us access to and helped us to prioritize which items to acquire at the auction; Minnesota Street Project (MSP) and Lawrence Fine Arts (LFA), which have provided free art handling, transport, storage and crating for large pieces in the collection; Market Street Railway, who helped us with fundraising efforts; and all of you who contributed to our campaign in so many different ways. We genuinely love each and every one of you.

Photo. Members of the Dream team and the Minnesota Street Project crew outside the former Cliff House restaurant in March 2021. (Photo by Jason Corning)

And we did it! During an online auction that we hope never to experience again, we placed winning bids on 58 lots to acquire over 100 artifacts–not everything we wanted, but a representative sample of what was once on display at The Cliff House. Now part of the Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) collection, these artifacts enable us to showcase the many layers of history, not only of the Cliff House but of the Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach. See What We Saved. [link to page about The Collection] 

Programs

Photo. Our favorite “two-fisted pup stuffer” eating Pronto Pup corn dogs in front of the former Cliff House restaurant, circa 1956. (Courtesy of a Private Collector / OpenSFHistory, wnp25.2243)

This collective effort truly illustrates how community history is a community project and that, when we work together, we can save our shared heritage. This is why we immediately staged Listening Sessions via Zoom following our acquisition to hear what the community wanted to do with these priceless artifacts we acquired as a team effort. These were recorded and are now available on WNP’s YouTube Channel: watch the Listening Session #1 and Listening Session #2. 

Photos. Historian John Martini leads a WNP Cliff House and Sutro Baths History Walk on September 30, 2021. (Photos by Nicole Meldahl / WNP)

Keeping this feedback close, we set about conserving, cataloging, and interpreting the collection. Alexandra Mitchell and her team at ACT Art Conservation LLC began treatments on the most fragile items immediately, and WNP began developing programs, like history walks with historian John Martini and lectures with the Sutro Library. We continue to add new events every month and you can watch recordings of past online programs, like the “Life and library of Adolph Sutro,” on WNP’s YouTube channel.  

Then, WNP took the reins of CliffHouseProject.com from its founder and tireless steward, Gary Stark. Now retired, Gary married the skills he acquired as a video game developer for Atari just out of college to a software developer and IT manager for a construction company with his love of Cliff House history. The website he created is an incredible resource, filled with photographs, newspaper excerpts, and more, either found by Gary or contributed by other historians and history buffs. Gary transferred CliffHouseProject.com to WNP in the Fall of 2021 and also donated historic photographs featured on the site, which are now part of our permanent collection alongside the art and artifacts acquired at the Cliff House auction. 

Exhibitions

Photo. Volunteer Pam Wright inspects our signage on opening day, October 23, 2021. (Photo by Nicole Meldahl, WNP)

But our main priority has been making the collection accessible to the public as soon as possible, and we did this by placing them on exhibition in two separate locations within six months of acquisition. See curated selections currently on view at:  

  • “Selections from the Cliff House Collection” at the WNP Office + Gallery, 1617 Balboa Street, SF, CA, 94121 (Ongoing, By Appointment Only)
  • “The Museum at The Cliff” in the former Cliff House Gift Shop, 1090 Point Lobos Avenue, SF, CA, 94121 (October 2021 – April 2022, 11-4pm, Thursdays through Sundays)

Sign up for intimate Curator’s Tours of The Museum at The Cliff today on the WNP Events Page.

We’ve also been working with local artists to create family-friendly programming in support of our exhibitions. Starting in December 2021, windows overlooking the Pacific Ocean at The Museum at The Cliff will be illuminated by a series of projected artworks by Ben Wood called “The Cliff Moving Picture Gallery.” Wood animates photographs from the OpenSFHistory archives alongside footage from the Prelinger Archives so you can experience this history like never before. You can see scenes from Cliff House days-gone-by every evening from 5:00pm to 10:00pm on a secluded deck behind The Museum. This COVID-safe activity is absolutely free and fun for all ages. 

We hold Projection Premieres to unveil new sequences every month! Join us for complimentary popcorn, beverages, and candy and enjoy extended hours in The Museum at our next premiere:

  1. Saturday, December 4, 2022 at 5:30pm – This Event Has Passed
  2. Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 5:30pm – This Event Has Passed
  3. Saturday, February 12, 2022 at 5:30pm   
  4. Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 5:30pm 
Photo. Artist Ben Wood puts the finishing touches on his projected artwork, “The Cliff Moving Picture Gallery,” from inside The Museum at The Cliff, December 2021. (Photo by Nicole Meldahl / WNP)

We’ve also partnered with Sunset District artist Thorsten Sideboard for a special kids activity book based on the life of Adolph Sutro. Inside, you’ll find a biographical comic strip, a word search, drawing challenges, a treasure map, and more! Generously funded through an education grant from the Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People, this limited-edition zine is free and available to all Junior Historians at The Museum at the Cliff from January 1st through April 10th, 2022. 

Photo. Hot off the presses! WNP Executive Director Nicole Meldahl holds the very first printing of our kids activity book, Sutro for Kids.

Again, we couldn’t have done this without the support of our community. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area has provided the former Cliff House Gift Shop to us for free, also allowing us to keep the Whitney Totem Pole in place on a yearly-renewing special use permit without charge. We’re so grateful to Marcus Koenen and John Omega of the National Park Service for all they’ve done for us. Amanda Williford of the Park Archives and Record Center and Gina Capari, alongside her entire Global Museum team, have been fearless in their flexibility (which is hard for museum professionals!) as we worked together to open The Museum at a break-neck pace. 

In addition, we’re so grateful for the countless hours of exhibition curation, preparation and installation that were also provided by Rick Bellamy, Ryan Butterfield, Jason Corning, Christina Gazi, Jennie Love, John Martini, Gillian Murdoch, Harvey Newman, Arlo Novicoff, Jamie O’Keefe Andrew Roth, Isabel Scanlon, Morgan Schlessinger, Carissa Tonner, Arnold Woods, and Cecilia Zhang. All of this would be for naught if we couldn’t keep our doors open; thank you to volunteer docents Jan and Harold Brandt, Erik Butterfield, Barbara Cannella, Joseph Grossblatt, Anne Evers Hitz, Judi Leff, Gail McGowan, Lauren O’Leary, Peter Peacock, Ken Spielman and Pam Wright. Last but most certainly not least, we need to thank Nicole Smahlik, who coordinates these volunteers and has kept us steady. 

Ongoing Work

We’ve accomplished a lot in less than a year, but this is only the beginning. Stay connected with this community effort by following our journey on Instagram and checking the Western Neighborhoods Project website for upcoming events. 

Want to read more about this wild ride? Peruse our press page for the latest coverage.

Conservation continues under the care of ACT Art Conservation LLC as an Angel Project, but some artifacts, like the porcelain muses, require extra special attention. Also, the collection keeps growing! When news of our success at the auction spread, another muse materialized in a private East Bay collection. She’s been offered to WNP but, sadly, is in pieces–having fallen over in the 1989 earthquake. We need your support to put the pieces back together and reunite these ladies. 

Photos. Minnesota Street Project crews move Sheriff C.U. Soon to the ACT Art Conservation Lab in San Mateo in September 2021, and Sutro Baths Lockers into the WNP Office + Gallery November 2021.

Minnesota Street Project has kindly been storing the larger artifacts, like Sheriff C.U. Soon from Playland at the Beach, since they were removed from the former Cliff House but they can’t live there forever. Plus, our special use permit for The Museum at The Cliff expires in April 2022. We need your help to write the next chapter for these iconic pieces of San Francisco history. 

Photo. WNP’s Chief Preparator, Harvey Newman, planning custom cases for The Museum at The Cliff in August 2021, prior to the exhibition’s. (Photo by Nicole Meldahl / WNP)

We’ll continue to make the collection accessible at the WNP Office + Gallery but our walls can only hold so much. If you have a spare building you’d like to provide for the permanent exhibition of these pieces, let us know. Don’t have that kind of real estate at your disposal? Completely understandable. We’d love to hear your ideas on other solutions. Email the Dream Team with thoughts or questions: info@savethecliffhousecollection.com.

Support This Effort

DONATE

Financial support is (obviously) also appreciated. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to support work that includes but is not limited to:

  • Conserving artifacts within the WNP collection–those that were purchased at the Cliff House auction in March, and those that have joined the collection after news of our acquisition spread.
  • Improving collections storage and purchasing archival supplies
  • Developing exhibitions and public programming for all-ages
  • Planning a permanent museum to showcase the diverse art and history of San Francisco’s west side. 
Photo. By popular demand, our effort to Save The Cliff House Collection now has custom merchandise. (Photo by Turkey & Reuben)

You can also support this effort by purchasing custom merch from Turkey & Reuben, owned and operated by Noa Schneorson and Mara Ezekiel. These Inner Sunset residents are doing a very awesome thing: supporting local history. If you buy this one-of-a-kind Sutro Seals hat or other Outside Lands inspired items from the Western Neighborhoods Project Collection, they’ll donate 10% of the sale to our nonprofit. They have hats, tote bags, sweatshirts and stickers. Shop the Collection Today!

Can’t support us financially but want to help in other ways? Awesome! We are actively seeking volunteers to do work behind-the-scenes and engage the public around this local history. Email Nicole Meldahl, Executive Director of Western Neighborhoods Project, at nicole@outsidelands.org if you’d like to join the WNP Team. 

History is happening and we are here for it. The Cliff House Collection Dream Team includes ACT Art Conservation LLC, The Great Highway Gallery, and Western Neighborhoods Project. 

Western Neighborhoods Project, a registered 501(c)3 community history nonprofit, has preserved, interpreted, and shared the diverse history and culture of San Francisco’s west side since 1999. ACT Art Conservation LLC is a fine art studio owned and founded by 4th-generation San Franciscan, Alexandra Mitchel–a fine art Conservator working to protect history and heritage for over 15 years. The Great Highway is a fine art gallery located in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset District and founded in 2011 by John Lindsey. 

savethecliffhouseart

👀☢️ a radio active Muse!! Yesterday princ 👀☢️ a radio active Muse!! 

Yesterday principal conservator of ACT Art Conservation, Alexandra Mitchell and Director of Programing for Western neighborhoods Project Chelsea Sellin, visited the secret vault of the GGNRA! Among other fantastic treasures, we visited another one of our beautiful ladies, a Sutro Bath Muse. Head over to @actartconservationsf to find out why she’s labeled as radioactive! 💛
Happy New Year! 🥳🥂 📷: (Original Captio Happy New Year! 🥳🥂 

📷: 
(Original Caption) Photo shows a waiter serving food at the French Room of The Cleft in San Francisco, California. (Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images)
Wishing you all a very happy Holiday season and a Wishing you all a very happy Holiday season and a joyful New Year from all of us at the Cliff House collection! We are so eternally grateful for you all! ❄️☃️ 

📸: 1907 antique post card
Hey everyone! Drop your questions for our conserva Hey everyone! Drop your questions for our conservation team in the comments and we will be happy to answer! 🎨 head over to @actartconservationsf  for more!
ASK A CONSERVATOR DAY NOV 4! ACT Art Conservation ASK A CONSERVATOR DAY NOV 4!

ACT Art Conservation is once again excited to be participating in #AskAConservator day! Owner and Principal conservator Alexandra Mitchell will be answering questions here on Instagram, November 4th! (We might even have some guest Q&A with the rest of ACT’s amazing conservators too!) stay tuned! 
 
Do you have questions about how we care for paintings, works on paper, books, objects and collections? Have questions about our Angel Projects? (What are they? Why do we do them?) What is that tool we use? How did the conservators of ACT Art become conservators? Why would we love to ban spray glue from the world?
Ask us anything on November 4th on #AskAConservator Day! Head over to @actartconservationsf tomorrow to participate! You can comment on our posts, message us directly, email our studio or @ us and use the #AskAConservator hashtag.

Conservators around the world answer questions about their work on Ask a Conservator Day. The next Ask a Conservator Day will take place on November 4th, 2022. We hold Ask a Conservator day in November in remembrance of the flooding of Florence on November 4th, 1966, which damaged priceless cultural heritage. However, in response to the catastrophe, incredible efforts were made—and are still being undertaken—to conserve the items impacted by the flood.

Ask a Conservator Day follows in the spirit of that international collaboration and exchange of knowledge. We acknowledge and celebrate the growth of the field inspired by the response to the flood by creating an opportunity for people to engage with conservators on social media.

🎨 #fineartconservation #bayarea #bayareaartists #newyorkartist #bayareafigurativemovement #arte #artisan #conservator #restauro #restoration #newyork #helenfrankenthaler #sanfrancisco #elmerbischoff #davidpark #nathanoliveira #richarddiebenkorn #postwar #joanbrown #waynethiebaud #manuelneri #painting #postwar #postwarart #culturalheritage #aic #historical #heritage #sutro #cliffhouse
Good morning 🌊🌅 📷: @john_t_lindsey Good morning 🌊🌅 

📷: @john_t_lindsey
Thank you @nbccalive !! Thank you @nbccalive !!
Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) and The Great Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) and The Great Highway gallery are pleased to announce that the Golden Gate National Recreation Area intends to extend The Museum at The Cliff’s permit through September 2022! 

In partnership with ACT Art Conservation and The Great Highway gallery and with support from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s Park Archives and Records Center (PARC) and the Global Museum at SF State, WNP and The Great Highway gallery opened The Museum at the Cliff’s newest exhibition, Naiad Cove, on Fourth of July weekend with an anticipated closing date of August 21, 2022. Now, with an extension in-hand, the collective has added new pieces to the collection and developed a Community Program Series. 📷: WNP CLIFF HOUSE ARCHIVE : Portrait of Adolf Sutro from A souvenir book entitled “Sutro Baths, Heights & Cliff House” published by LW Currey,inc in 1895
Thank you @nbcbayarea ! Find the segment link in o Thank you @nbcbayarea ! Find the segment link in our stories and profile! 💙🌊
Hey friends! Tune in tonight! NBC Bay Area news to Hey friends! Tune in tonight! NBC Bay Area news tonight at 6pm! Cliff House: Naiad Cove is featured with interviews from our wonderful team! Thank you @nbcbayarea !
Thank you @kalwradio for the wonderful interview Thank you @kalwradio  for the wonderful interview with Western Neighborhoods Project Director and co-curator of Naiad Cove, Nicole Meldahl! 🤍🌊🎙 tune in at @kalwradio !
Western Neighborhoods is thrilled to host a virtua Western Neighborhoods is thrilled to host a virtual author talk by Patrick Moser, who recently published “Surf & Rescue: George Freeth and the Birth of California Beach Culture” on Thursday, July 28, 2022 at 6pm via Zoom.

“Surf & Rescue” is about a mixed-race Hawaiian athlete named George Freeth who brought surfing to Venice, California in 1907. Freeth made headlines for his heroic rescues and innovative lifesaving techniques, but he also coached both male and female athletes - including Olympic swimming champion and “father of modern surfing” Duke Kahanamoku. 

Moser places Freeth’s inspiring life story against the rise of California beach culture he helped to shape and define. It contextualizes the surf history we’ve long held dear at Kelly’s Cove on Ocean Beaxh, and he also features the @opensfhistory photos seen here in the book. 

Hear how Freeth and Kahanamoku are connected to Sutro Baths and San Francisco in this hour long virtual program. 

The event is free but you do need to register in advance and donations are always appreciated to keep our nonprofit afloat! See link in profile.

#SFHistory #SanFranciscoHistory #SanFrancisco #History #Surfing #CAHistory #California #AuthorTalk #Free
We are so incredibly grateful to @sfstandard and C We are so incredibly grateful to @sfstandard and Christina Campodonico for this thoughtful article on #NaiadCove, our newest exhibition at The Museum at The Cliff. 

In it, Executive Director Nicole Meldahl explains how WNP, @thegreathighway, and @actartconservationsf have transformed the former Cliff House Restaurant into an immersive, welcoming space that has fun with history while highlighting its connection to local contemporary art. 

In particular, Christina details our ongoing work to research the artifacts we saved from the Cliff House auction in March 2021. But perhaps the best takeaway from this piece (nay, this experience) is that historians aren’t so different from bartenders. 😉

Read more by visiting the link in our profile. 

#SFHistory #SanFranciscoHistory #SanFrancisco #History #Photography #Art #Museum #Free #Exhibition
Nights at the museum 🌊🤍 #nofilterneeded 

📸: @actartconservationsf
Install day of the Muses at the Cliff House! With Install day of the Muses at the Cliff House! With @atthowefineartservices @actartconservationsf 🌊🤍
Cliff house crew 🤍🌊 they gave some city kids Cliff house crew 🤍🌊 they gave some city kids the Cliff House and we made a museum.
🌊 sometimes we all just take a deep breath of s 🌊 sometimes we all just take a deep breath of sea air and shake our heads in disbelief that our community is so incredible and has come together to keep this magical place alive. We are so honored to keep the lights on until we can all enjoy a bloody Mary and pop overs here again… 🤍 thank you San Francisco, we love you 📸:@outsidelandz
New Podcast! 🎙 Outside Lands San Francisco Podc New Podcast! 🎙 Outside Lands San Francisco Podcast Episode 463: Museum at the Cliff Reopens
The Museum at the Cliff has reopened! There's even more Cliff House and Sutro Baths ephemera on display and has expanded beyond its Gift Shop exhibit space and into former restaurant. John Lindsey of The Great Highway Gallery, joins the pod along with photographers, Dave Glass and Rob Brodman, to talk about the new photography exhibition in the Cliff House restaurant. - visit outsidelands.org to listen! @robby_broad_2.0 @daveglass_foto @savethecliffhouseart @outsidelandz @thegreathighway
Because we are a fully immersive experience, we wo Because we are a fully immersive experience, we would like to encourage a little playful selfie challenge 🌴 

Friends, let me debrief you on a top secret mission titled Operation Fake Palm. Our duty, which we chose to accept because we came up with it, was to place a palm in front of every unsightly sight in “Naiad Cove.” 

Operation Fake Palm has so far been successful, although we have no quantifiable data at present.

So here is where you come in… Find a palm, take a selfie, and post it using the following tags: #naiadcove #museumatthecliff and #palmselfie 
Don’t forget to tag us @savethecliffhouseart * just please do not violate any existing barriers or disturb the art in the process. Please and thank you! 

If you’re lucky we will repost and at the end of the month we will choose a winner to receive a little gift from us to you 🌴 

Ready…set…📸🌴
The Museum at the Cliff is excited to announce an The Museum at the Cliff is excited to announce an open call for submissions for a new after-dark projected video, onto south facing windows of the Cliff House.

This new video projection, The Cliff Moving Picture Annex at Kelly’s Cove, in collaboration with artist Ben Wood, will animate the south facing windows of the former Cliff House Restaurant with a unique after dark projected video artwork with motion pictures and photos of Kelly’s Cove.

Since December 2021, The Cliff Moving Picture Gallery animates the north facing windows of the old Cliff House gift shop every evening from sundown to 10:30pm with images and motion pictures from the Cliff House and surrounding area over the past 150 years.

What's Your Kelly’s Cove story?
Do you have photos, films or videos of your time at Kelly’s Cove or the area around it?

See your memories projected onto the windows of the Cliff House!

YOU CAN PARTICIPATE
We want to include your Kelly’s Cove photos and film in this special projected artwork!

Submissions are welcome on Instagram:
tag @outsidelandz or @benwoodstudio #mykellyscove
You may also email jpeg files to: wood.ben1@gmail.com by July 17th
–Historic and contemporary submissions welcome
–Maximum 3 entries per person, usage not guaranteed
–Digital files minimum 300 dpi preferred, JPG ok
–Video projections on view in August 2022

Photo Credits:
Kelly's Cove circa 1975, Surfer Glenn Schot with the tide hitting the Great Highway wall at Kelly's Cove.

Fort Kelly's Cove, built in the rocks below the Cliff House, 1943. (colorized)
Photographer Unknown (Courtesy of Chic Devlin family)

Volleyball at Kelly’s Cove, circa 1972, Dennis O’Rorke

Cliff House sunset, June 2022, Nicole Meldahl

Kellys Cove Group circa 1959. (colorized)
Courtesy Jim Gallagher

Frankie "Tapu" Freitas circa 1968
Photographer Unknown (Courtesy of James Gallagher)

Kelly's Cove surfers circa 1965 (colorized)
(Courtesy of Dennis O’Rorke)

Teenagers around Kelly’s Cove bonfire at Ocean Beach, 1970 (colorized)
Photographer Unknown (Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)

#artintheparks #cliffhouse #mycliffhousesf #kellyscove #oceanbeach #surfart #surfphoto #mykellyscove #artsinthepark
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