1. Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro was a German-American engineer, politician and philanthropist who served as the 24th mayor of San Francisco from 1895 until 1897.
18 Facts About Adolph Sutro
1. 2.
Adolph Sutro spent his youth working in his father's cloth factory and at school.
3.
Adolph Sutro held a number of positions in San Francisco and eventually owned several tobacco shops.
4.
In 1860, Adolph Sutro left San Francisco for Virginia City, Nevada after silver was found in the Comstock Lode with plans to continue selling cigars.
5.
Adolph Sutro soon devised a concept for a tunnel to drain water from the mines and eliminate the threat of flooding.
6.
In 1865 Adolph Sutro incorporated the Adolph Sutro Tunnel Company and was granted an exclusive charter to build the tunnel by the US Congress in 1866.
7.
Over time, Adolph Sutro found other investors, including miners in the area.
8.
Adolph Sutro won miners's support after a disaster at the Yellow Jacket Mine on April 7,1869, allowing him to lobby the Miner's Union in support of the Adolph Sutro Tunnel and begin construction on October 19,1869.
9.
Theodore Adolph Sutro sold the Adolph Sutro Tunnel Company to Franklin Leonard, Sr.
10.
Adolph Sutro's wealth was increased by large real estate investments in San Francisco, where he became an entrepreneur and public figure after returning from the Comstock in 1879.
11.
In 1896, Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven-story Victorian Chateau, called by some, "the Gingerbread Palace", below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights.
12.
Adolph Sutro managed a great increase in the value of his outlying land investments as a direct result of the development burst that his vacationers' railroad spawned.
13.
Adolph Sutro increased the value of his lands by planting his property at Mount Sutro with saplings of fast-growing eucalyptus.
14.
The Adolph Sutro Baths were segregated in the early years of their operation.
15.
Adolph Sutro won on an anti-big business platform, inveighing against the tight grip that the Southern Pacific Railroad had over local businesses.
16.
Adolph Sutro would have won on any ticket, and he was in fact elected by a landslide.
17.
Adolph Sutro Baths became a skating rink and then was destroyed by a fire in 1966.
18.
Adolph Sutro retained attorney Van R Paterson and prevailed in securing financial support for her two children that she claimed Adolph had fathered:.