San Francisco’s Ocean Beach: The Early History
One of the things I love about where I live is the proximity to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, which is at the western edge of the city and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Although it’s an urban beach (and thus not always the cleanest), it’s wide and has gorgeous views of the Marin Headlands to the north and the Pacifica bluffs to the south. There are also a couple cool bird sculptures, and there is a vibrant array of graffiti on the beach seawall.
Due to its geography, the beach has a constant set of waves crashing on the shore, which results in a steady hum, not unlike traffic or TV static. It’s often windy, and the water is quite cold and dangerous, with a strong undertow. Even so, it’s a popular beach for surfers, walkers, kids, joggers, and people walking their dogs. On a sunny day, it’s a lovely place to stroll or sit. Even on cool and/or foggy days, it’s a great place to walk, if you don’t mind the chill.
Ocean Beach has a varied and interesting history. And, if you’ve read any of my other historical blog posts, you know I love to include old photos, so get ready for a bunch of them here (I mean A BUNCH)!
Early History
The San Francisco peninsula was occupied by the Ramaytush Ohlone people. The Yelamu group was a subset of Ramaytush Ohlone who lived in what is now San Francisco. There were probably just 150 to 300 of them in the 1770s. According to anthropologists, the Yelamu and other Ohlone groups arrived in the area between 4000 and 6000 years ago. While one of the Yelamu villages may have spent part of the year in what is now Land’s End (just north of Ocean Beach), it’s unclear if any lived around what is now Ocean Beach.
The arrival of Spanish explorers and missionaries in the late 1700s threatened the Ohlones’ existence and culture as a result of forced cultural and religious assimilation, exposure to European diseases, and harsh and unsanitary living conditions. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, there were about 1500 Ramaytush Ohlone across the Bay Area, but by the end the Mission Period, only a few families had survived. Tragically, after the Mexican-American war, when California became part of the Union in 1850, the state government sanctioned the mass genocide of Indigenous people by local militia, further decimating the population.
Early European Settler History
Due in part to its sometimes inhospitable weather (high winds, cold weather, and fog), San Francisco’s western lands, later called the “Outside Lands,” were largely undeveloped by white settlers and Gold Rush “’49ers” in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The area was mostly sand dunes, with a few houses scattered here and there, and a few roads. Local beachgoers and hunters would take day trips to the beach and to the area now known as Land’s End (just north of Ocean Beach) on horseback or by carriage.
The Mid to Late 1800s
The Ocean Beach area gradually drew more visitors as San Francisco grew. Senator John Buckley and C. C. Butler built the first Cliff House restaurant in 1863, just north of Ocean Beach on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. (There were rumors of an earlier building on that site, but there is no official record, and there are no photos of one.) In 1864, the privately built Point Lobos toll road (which later became Geary Street) made it easier to get to Ocean Beach and the Cliff House, which became very popular. However, by the early 1880s, the Cliff House was not doing as well and was bought by local silver baron Adolph Sutro. Sutro was responsible for many of the area’s attractions, as I’ll describe later.
In addition to the area’s natural beauty and attractions like restaurants, occasional unexpected events also drew crowds. For example, there were several shipwrecks off Ocean Beach, and locals and tourists alike came to gawk. One early wreck was in January 1878, when the King Philip, a three-masted clipper ship, drifted onto Ocean Beach and was destroyed. The Atlantic had a similar fate in 1886 and the Beebe in 1894. The Neptune met its end on Ocean Beach in 1900, the same year the Olga grounded but was able to be set free by tugboats. There were other shipwrecks as well.
The construction of Golden Gate Park, just east of Ocean Beach, and a steam train line to the area in the late 1800s brought more visitors and development. In the 1880s, Ocean Beach boasted a gravity-powered roller coaster and a pavilion for concerts and dancing. Sutro built a large estate overlooking the Cliff House in the 1880s, with grounds he later made into a public park. He also began work on the Sutro Baths, which opened in 1896, and the Merrie Way Pleasure Grounds, which had a Firth Wheel (similar to a Ferris Wheel), mirror maze, and other attractions. By 1890, there was trolley service to the region, allowing easier access from other parts of the city and spurring the development of a “trolley park,” a picnic and recreation area at the end of the line.
In December 1883, the area near the trolley park that would later become the Chutes at the Beach amusement park (later named Playland), saw a short-lived squatter’s settlement sprout up. It consisted of shanties, tents, and lean-tos, and its residents sold coffee, donuts, pie, and liquor to tourists as a way to make money. The San Francisco Park Commission, which had jurisdiction over the beach, asked the squatters, led by Connor “Con” Mooney and anti-capitalist (and anti-immigrant) activist Dennis Kearney, to leave. The residents of “Mooneysville-by-the-Sea” refused, but by the end of January 1884, a band of park employees and police were able to get the shantytown residents to vacate and dismantle their makeshift structures.
Another unconventional settlement was built near Ocean Beach in the late 1800s: an impromptu development of buildings made from old horse-drawn streetcars that the city sold after cable cars and electric streetcars became the norm. People could buy a retired streetcar for $20 (less if the seats were removed). Some used them for children’s playhouses, offices, and shops, and others, for homes. Sutro (who was then the mayor of San Francisco) owned the largely undeveloped dunes by the north end of Ocean Beach. He rented a lot with a repurposed streetcar to entrepreneur Colonel Charles Dailey and his wife, who opened a coffee shop. The cafe became the nucleus for “Carville,” a colony of former cars. Some people lived in or ran businesses from single cars, and others grouped or stacked two or more cars to form larger structures.
Carville attracted low-income people in search of a cheap place to live, as well as Bohemians. One Carville clubhouse was frequented by writer Jack London, among others. Another club, La Bohème, hosted touring visitors from New York’s Metropolitan Opera. By 1900, the estimated population of Carville was 2000. There was also the Falcons Women’s Bicycling Club, capitalizing on the hot trend of the times: “safety bicycles.”
As the land in the area became more valuable and desirable in the 1910s and ’20s, Carville was dismantled. A few former streetcar structures remain, but most are unrecognizable because they were added on to.
Another ship-related disaster occurred in 1887: The Cliff House was badly damaged by the massive off-shore explosion of the schooner Parallel. Although the restaurant was repaired, it was later completely destroyed in a fire on Christmas 1894. In 1896, Sutro built a new Cliff House, an elaborate seven-story Victorian chateau, called by some “the Gingerbread Palace.”
1900 to the 1930s
The good times at the beach continued as the twentieth century began, but so did maritime tragedy: Another shipwreck occurred at Ocean Beach in 1902. This time, a ship called the Reporter, ran aground; the captain and crew were rescued, but locals stole a lot of the ship’s cargo of lumber. Like past shipwrecks, the Reporter‘s wreckage drew large crowds.
Although I could not find any photographic evidence, apparently Ocean Beach, like many parts of San Francisco, housed a refugee camp for locals displaced by the devastating 1906 earthquake and fires. With the exception of that period, the beach was primarily a tourist attraction and getaway for local residents wanting a day of fun by the ocean.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Olympic Club, a male-only athletic club, hosted an annual New Year’s Day member run and plunge on Ocean Beach. The noncompetitive, festive event featured the men running through Golden Gate Park from Baker Street, changing into bathing suits, and jumping in the brisk ocean. Afterwards, participants usually headed to the Cliff House or one of the other beachside cafes for lunch and drinks. From what I hear, the tradition continued until this past year, when it could not be officially held due to the COVID pandemic.
After surviving the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires, the second Cliff House burned down in September 1907. Dr. Emma Merritt, Sutro’s daughter (he had died in 1898), had the restaurant rebuilt in 1909, in a simpler style.
Ocean Beach had a few brushes with fame: John “Black Jack” Johnson was an African American boxer who trained at the Seal Rock Inn at Ocean Beach when he had matches in the Bay Area, between 1901 and 1909. He had become the World Colored Heavyweight Champ in 1903 and later became the first Black boxer to hold the World Heavyweight Boxing title (1908–1915). He encountered racism throughout his life and was considered controversial for being outspoken and for dating and marrying several white women. He was said to have beaten his first wife, who later killed herself. Muhammed Ali called Johnson an inspiration and hero for his bravery in defying the racial inequalities of his time.
In the 1910s, the trolley park expanded, with private business people opening rides, attractions, and food and drink stands. One water ride called Shoot-the-Chutes inspired the first official name for the amusement area, Chutes at the Beach. In 1926, George Whitney became general manager of the growing complex of seaside attractions and changed the name to Playland-at-the-Beach. By the 1930s, Playland took up 3 blocks. Whitney purchased the land the amusement park sat on, as well as the vacant Cliff House restaurant, which he remodeled to turn into a roadhouse.
The 1920s and ’30s saw the construction of the Great Highway (opened in 1929) and an explosion of home building in the Sunset and Richmond districts of the city, bordering Ocean Beach. In 1925, the Beach Chalet opened as a city-run restaurant and included changing rooms for beach visitors. However, the prosperous 1920s gave way to the struggles of the Great Depression. Although the ’30s brought the construction of both the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge, times were tough across the city, including for the businesses on and around Ocean Beach. Yet, they survived, and locals and tourists continued to enjoy the fun of the area.
I’ll leave you with one of the most surprising photos I found. One might assume it never snows in San Francisco, but you’d be wrong! It is rare, but there have been a few reported snowfalls. One occurred in December 1932. Below, you can see snow on the roofs of businesses at Ocean Beach.
Signing Off
There is so much more history I could write about, and there are so many more interesting old photos I could share, but I fear this post is already way too long for most readers. I get carried away when I start researching local history. I find it so fascinating and especially love finding historic images.
It’s likely I’ll write a “part 2” with Ocean Beach history from the 1940s onward. Stay tuned!
