Photo from Cliff House Project
Next Wednesday night, the Richmond District branch library will host Mary Germain Hountalas, author of the book “The San Francisco Cliff House”. The book is a rich, pictorial history of one of the city’s best known landmarks.
Hountalas has been operating the Cliff House in partnership with her husband, Dan Hountalas, since 1973. Over the years, she has become a serious historian of the building and its environs and a dedicated collector of countless artifacts associated with it, including vintage photographs, postcards, menus, and other memorabilia from every era.
The building has had more than its fair share of drama through the decades, and plenty of rebirths. The first Cliff House was a modest structure built in 1863 that was a popular roadhouse, sometimes reviled for the scandalous behavior of some of its patrons. In 1887, the Cliff House was severely damaged when the schooner Parallel, abandoned and loaded with dynamite, ran aground on the rocks below. A chimney fire later destroyed it on Christmas day in 1894.
Some might say the Cliff House is cursed – it would be rebuilt and destroyed two more times in 1896 and 1909. More on Cliff House history.
The free talk will be held from 6:30pm until 7:30pm at the Richmond District branch library, 461 9th Avenue.
Sarah B.
I’ll have to remember my fancy hat next time I head to Ocean Beach!