People on the "Dolce far Niente" balcony, at Sutro Heights, San Francisco, CA, ca.1890

Photograph of people on the "Dolce far Niente" balcony, at Sutro Heights, San Francisco, California, ca.1890. There is a fence along the left side of the balcony with large arch-shaped openings separated by carved wooden posts; the base of these arches is a waist-high wooden fence with elaborate cut-out designs. There is a well-dressed man wearing a bowler hat leaning on the low part of the fence in the foreground. In the background is a couple, also well-dressed, looking out over the railing. The floor of the balcony is made of wooden planks, and there are several small chairs facing towards the railing; there is a woman sitting in one of them, holding an umbrella. There is a tree at the right side of the image, as well as one in the lower left corner. "Dolce far Niente" is an Italian phrase meaning "It's sweet doing nothing". The structure was build about 1881 under the direction of Adolph Sutro. It survived until the WPA demolished it in 1939. Note: Originally, the image was captioned as, "People on the balcony at San Francisco's Cliff House Restaurant, ca.1890".