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 In 1880, the Populist Party, the radical third party of the time, tapped Sutro to run for Mayor of San Francisco. His bid was successful, but his time in office short. His age, physical condition and temperament made him unsuitable. When his 2-year term came to an end…no one asked him to run again. He was relieved to be done with politics and happily turned over the duties of the office to his able successor Jams Phelan.
Adolph Sutro accomplished more in his life than most men could have accomplished in a hundred years. Born to a rich family, he had seen his own financial pendulum swing many times. He had been denied a thorough education yet never ceased reading and learning. In his life he had been a national figure, millionaire, mayor and public benefactor. Ironically, in the end, his entire life mirrored what had happened on the Comstock.
 At the age of 68, his strength was gone and senile dementia overtook Adolph Sutro. Within a year of leaving office the mind that had conceived and built the great tunnel in the Comstock was legally dead. Some say it was a blessing that he never understood so many of his accomplishments would end in ruin.
His feeble mental state led him destroy a will and important papers that in turn led to long and arduous court battles, amongst his own children over his life long projects. The City would eventually tear down his beloved Sutro Heights home and allow the gardens to deteriorate. His precious library would suffer partial destruction in the fire of 1906. His magnificent Cliff House would be lost to fire.
He had never taken time to consider anything as trivial as his own funeral and had expected his own children would have found pall-bearers among his many friends and dedicated employees. Instead, distracted by their own infighting they left that to the undertakers assistants. His funeral, however was in a setting he would have appreciated. It was a small gathering and a simple ceremony on the grounds of his beloved Sutro Heights, among the gardens he had built and with the barking of the seals in the distance as his funeral dirge.
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