The Sutro Library is a branch of the California State Library located in San Francisco on the campus of San Francisco State University. The foundation of the library's collection was assembled by former San Francisco mayor, engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Adolph Sutro. The library was deeded to the State of California by Sutro's heirs with the stipulation that it never leave the city limits of San Francisco, filling his desire to provide the city with a public research library. It was formally given to California State Library in 1913, and opened to the public in 1917. Notably, half of the Sutro collection survived the "Great Fire" after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Collection highlights include 125,000 rare books, antiquarian maps, and archival collections, as well as a genealogical library.
Background
Adolph Sutro (1830-1898) came to San Francisco in 1850 at the height of the Gold Rush. He made his money as a mining engineer in Virginia City, Nevada - where the Comstock Lode was discovered and where he built an eponymous tunnel. He came back to San Francisco in 1879 and began purchasing land - eventually owning around 1/8th of the real property in the city.
Sutro wanted to provide San Francisco with a public research collection. To this end, Sutro began collecting items for his library in the late 1870s and by the time of his death in 1898 had amassed a collection of 300,000 to 500,000 rare books including 4,000 incunabula (the first printed books), which according to contemporary news accounts was the seventh largest in the world. The works in the collection cover science and engineering, religion, natural history, philosophy, British history, Mexican history, and theater. When Sutro realized the magnitude of the task of building a research collection, he hired German and British experts to go to auctions and other book sales to make acquisitions.
History of the Library
The Sutro Library didn't have a permanent location until 2012 when it moved to the fifth and sixth floors of the J. Paul Leonard Library – Sutro Library, located on the campus of San Francisco State University. The library existed in many different locations throughout San Francisco. In 1895 Sutro who held negotiations with the University of California Regents to propose the library site be on the campus of “Affiliated Colleges” of the University of California in San Francisco. However, the same year Sutro became mayor of San Francisco, diverting his attention to politics. That, coupled with his declining health, prevented him from erecting a building to house the library.
When Sutro passed away in 1898, the collection remained in limbo, housed in two warehouses in downtown San Francisco – one in the Montgomery Block and the other at Pine and Battery Street. It took a little over a decade for Sutro's family to settle the estate,- and it was during this period when the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake destroyed approximately two thirds of the original collection. In 1913, the family and the State of California came to a final agreement which “was to the effect that the library be given to the State, providing the State took it over at once. It was also provided that a large oil painting of Adolph Sutro – a painting now at Sutro Heights –be kept and exhibited with the books, and that the whole be thrown open to the public not later than January 1, 1917.” The Sutro Library was officially deeded to the State of California in 1913 by Sutro's heirs with the stipulation that it never leave the city limits of San Francisco.
Since its donation in 1913, and because Sutro Library is required to remain within the city limits of San Francisco, it has been housed in several locations. After it was accepted by the State of California, the California State legislature passed a bill which appropriated $70,000 for its maintenance. In October 1913, California State Librarian J.L. Gillis leased the third floor of Stanford's Lane Medical Department, located in San Francisco at the time, to house the Sutro Library. It opened to the public in 1917. During the first year, the collection increased by 12,000 volumes, mainly through gifts. In 1917 the California Genealogical Society's collection merged with Sutro's.