Murphy Family History

In early April 1916, Sarah Rozbaczyla accompanied one of her 10-year old chums to the Sutro Baths in San Francisco. The girlfriend, Freda Stahl, had just celebrated her birthday earlier that year, and had invited Nana to the party. This April outing extended the festivities. The woman in the car with Nana may have been Miss Stahl’s mother, or perhaps Gertrude Klotz, who might have accompanied the party as Nana’s chaperone.

The photo appears to be taken from Ocean Beach, against a backdrop of Seal Rocks and the Cliff House, but the image may have been a painted backdrop available to Sutro Baths or Cliff House visitors for souvenir photographs.

Stories in the Vallejo Evening News mention both the party and the April adventure.

Sutro Baths had only opened some 22 years before. It contained 6 saltwater pools, 1 freshwater pool, 7 water slides, 30 swinging rings, and 1 springboard.¹

1. “Sutro Baths,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Baths (19 January 2026). ↩︎