Adolph Sutro

Adolph Sutro (between 1865 and 1880)

Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (born April 29, 1830 in Aachen , Prussia , † August 8, 1898 in San Francisco , California ) was an American politician and the 24th mayor of San Francisco, who ruled the city from 1895 to 1897 . Despite his short term in office, he is still considered one of its most famous mayors because numerous sights bear his name.

Life

Sutro came from a Jewish family and had to leave school at the age of 16 to take over the management of his father's company, a clothing entrepreneur. After his death in December 1847, he ran the business together with his brother Otto. As business went from bad to worse due to the revolution of 1848 , Sutro's mother decided to leave the country and go to the USA , where the family arrived in the fall of 1850. They settled in Baltimore . The California gold rush prompted Sutro to go to San Francisco shortly afterwards. He worked in a small business for nine years. In 1856 he married.

The electrification of the west coast brought new technical possibilities to ventilate the gold mines and to pump out the water that had collected in them. Sutro found out about the possibilities and was enthusiastic about the idea of ​​using the new technology. He looked for and convinced sponsors, including William Chapman Ralston , for a project, the Sutro Tunnel at Comstock Lode in Nevada. The tunnel was completed in 1878 and had cost $ 6,500,000.

The tunnel project was the commercial breakthrough for Sutro. He became a well-known and wealthy man with large estates. The Populist Party convinced him to run in the 1894 mayoral election, which he won. His tenure was marked by disputes with local companies, primarily the Southern Pacific Railroad . Sutro died in 1898, leaving behind a great fortune for which his heirs fought.

Appreciation

Sutro Cliff House

In addition to the tunnel, Sutro's names are connected to Mount Sutro , the Cliff House , the Sutro Tower and the Sutro Baths , one of the largest private baths in San Francisco. In his hometown of Aachen, a small path was named after him on the 113th anniversary of his death.

literature

• Hermann-Victor Johnen: The Sutro Tunnel Project: A chapter on the history of a German-American entrepreneur in the US West in the age of industrialization ... on economic and social history . 1st edition. Shaker, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8440-1200-2 .

Web links

Commons : Adolph Sutro  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Adolph Sutro in the nndb (English)
• Literature by and about Adolph Sutro in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography of Sutro (English)
• Street naming in Aachen