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Overview

Taking its name from San Francisco's famous Cliff House restaurant, this small, one-story tourist eatery stood near Point Fermin in Los Angeles's port neighborhood of San Pedro, c. 1910. The building had a wood frame and rectangular plan, covered by a tar-papered, compound hipped roof. A small lean-to addition jutted from the front, providing added space to the interior. A sign reading "Cliff House" stood over the front door.

A steep cliff dropped from the park to the sea, and a trail, visible in the postcard illustrated, led from the top of the cliff down to the water. This landscape proved unstable as the volcanic soil, known as Bentonite, would become saturated over time and lose resilience, causing landslides. Significant slides occurred in this area in 1929, reshaping the coastline. A number of houses fell to down the hill, creating a feature called locally the "Sunken City." These remains have caught the interest of many young people who have sustained accidental falls exploring the area.

A public park later occupied the tip of Point Fermin, and a wall erected to keep people away from the precipice. Despite the wall, a number of deaths, some unexplained, have occurred when people fell from the heights to the rocks below.

PCAD id: 21527