I’ve been working for some time on a couple of posts about the Happy Dog and the Gateway Arch, both on Highway 12 near Verano Ave. Obviously, you can’t talk about one without talking about the other. (Well, not so obvious to me until I started thinking bout the nature of human made landmarks). As usual, there is a lot more to know than I originally expected. I found it necessary to include Moosetta’s Deli and other buildings in the post. Progress was slow, and then, as they say, life happened. Everyone is fine, but some hospital time was experienced. So, I did not finish either post.
Next month!
Here is a teaser.
Above is from the archive of photos I created in 2008. I printed two copies of all 477 images and gave one to the Sonoma County Library and the other to the Sonoma Valley Historical Society.The Arch in 2025, with the new advertising.Left to right, what is today the Verano Cafe, the Steve’s Auto building, and the Happy Dog. Moosetta’s was located in the first building, the Art Store in the second. Moosetta’s had at least three locations.
Hey! Why don’t you click over here and shoot some rasbuckniks to the Springs Museum? Er..donate, that is, please!
Index Tribune courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society.
The Plaza Center Building was built in stages between 1951 and 1958. The first stage was built with the graceful curve which followed the property line. The second fronted Highway 12 next to the first one. They were separated by a narrow alleyway. (The third stage was the building occupied by the Post Office today.)
Screenshot
At the north end of this alley we find a healthy looking toyon (heteromeles arbutifolia), a native plant. According toCalscape “Toyon is a prominent component of the Coastal Sage Scrub plant community, and is a part of drought-adapted Chaparral, Mixed Evergreen Forest and Oak Woodland habitats.” Also “The flowers attract butterflies and other pollinators. The berries are eaten by many birds, including Mockingbirds, American Robins, and Cedar Waxwings. Mammals including coyotes and bears also eat and disperse the berries. For humans, the berries are edible after cooking, or drying and crushing, in order to break down the small amounts of cyanogenic glycosides. Indigenous People use the berries to make cider, and a granular sugar.”
A Neighborhood Phenomenon for sure. Waste space occupied by a native plant, and one that was important to the Indigenous people of California. Located just a few feet from the original geothermal water source, probably used by local Indians, it’s healing properties well known to them, it is a link to that 10,000 year-long pre-contact history of the area. Also, anything that’s good for Cedar Waxwings is OK by me!
Immediately adjacent, some spontaneous street art, which should serve as a strong suggestion for what to do with the rest of that building, which is currently more than half empty.
The success of the resort founded by Henry and Antoinette Boyes proved to be an example to others. In 1907, a couple from Pittsburg (Emma was originally from Austria) by way of San Francisco, George and Emma Fetters, bought the old Halstead ranch just a mile north of the Boyes’ property. Robert Halstead (“a wealthy sugar planter from Hawaii” according to the Index Tribune) had bought the property from E.P. Thomson, who planted olive trees on it in the 1880s. Many of those now large trees are still there.
The Halstead property crossed the Northwest Pacific railway line and Sonoma Creek, just south of Agua Caliente. Some early post cards identify its location as Agua Caliente. The boundaries were flexible. Map courtesy of the Rumsey Collection.Courtesy Dennis O’ Rourke
George had been in the hotel business in Pittsburg. The money for the land and the ambition to open a resort were mostly Emma’s. The next year they opened Fetters Hot Springs Resort. Soon after, they leased their resort to Morris Levy, a prize fight promoter from San Francisco, who renamed it Eleda Hot Springs.
1907
The Fetters took over operation again in 1911. In 1913, apparently bearing a grudge over losing the lease to the resort, Levy testified in opposition to a liquor license being granted to Fetters. They received the license, but this would not be the first time the Fetters got into legal trouble over liquor. In 1918 they were tried for the offense of providing liquor to enlisted men (a crime under the War Emergency Act.)
Testifying in their defense were “Fred Boyngton, the well known lumber yard man, E.G. Koenig of Boyes Springs, and Lillian the “entertainer,” among others.” Despite Lillian, both Fetters were convicted, but George’s conviction was overturned on appeal. Emma’s sentence was later commuted. Both George and Emma were in and out of court many times, being sued for damages by resort guests, and once for libel.
The Fetters were constantly improving the resort, bringing in moving pictures in 1923, sidewalks in 1924,and a new dance hall in 1925. George donated the land for the Boyes Springs ball field, and at its dedication in 1940, he threw out the first ball.
According to the Index Tribune, Emma Fetters was “an energetic woman of wealth and enterprise.” The Fetters built not only the resort, with its hotel, swimming pavilion and theater, but the Fetters Depot of the Northwest Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Fetters also owned much real estate in the area, and once owned the Chauvet Hotel in Glen Ellen.
In 1923 a movie company came to town and shot some scenes in and around Fetters Resort (and that’a another story!)
The resort era continued into the 1950s and beyond. Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Library.
The notorious and beloved, by some, Juanita Musson operated her restaraunt in the hotel from 1969 to 1975. I havn’t written a post soley devoted to Juanita, yet, but more here.
The hotel burned down in 1975.
In 2009 this was all that was left of Fetters Resort. It appears to be “Bachelors Row,” shown above. I met Juanita when she lived in one of these cabins. Authors photo.
Emma Fetters died in 1922, of pneumonia. George was a prominent member of the community and continued to run the resort until he sold in 1944. He died in 1964. Interesting that the gravestone omits the S at the end of the name.
Fetters Resort is well photo-documented. A few bonus images below.
A curiosity of early 20th century postcards from the Boyes Hot Springs resort are labeled “Harmonie Ausflug.” “Harmonie Ausflug” is not the name of a specific society but of the activity: the Harmonie (singing society, choral group,) takes an outing.
“In Europe’s German-speaking states…male choir organizations started popping up around 1810 and grew in number and prominence over the next half-century. Most were open to people of different social classes and focused on the idea of educating people and spreading middle-class values-though, by the 1860s, some were specifically “workers choirs,” affiliated with socialist and labor movements.
However, for many regular German Americans, this wasn’t really the point of the festivals. They showed up to enjoy romantic or humorous folk songs, eat childhood foods, drink beer, and reminisce about the old country.” and,
“German American singing festivals included both highbrow and lowbrow features.”
The Harmonie Ausflug post cards clearly represent the choristers indulging in the “lowbrow features.”
Animal costumes were favored. Dated 1909 on front.
An actual animal.
Not just singers, but a marching band!
“My wife’s husband has gone to the country “but oh you Kid!”
Taking the waters at Boyes.
A zeppelin (invented by Ferdinand von Zeppelin, don’t ya know)? Seems to be hanging from a cable over the pool.
All photos, dated 1909, are by the prolific Charles Weidner.
“You may have heard that I am starting a new historic walking tour in your neighborhood. It is called the Agua Rica Tour. I was asked to create such a tour…that will take place solely on the grounds of the Sonoma Mission Inn….by the new general Manager Karim Ikrimah last year.
Since then, CW Bayer and I have delved deeply into the historical record….and am now good friends with Reverend Leavenworth, Capt. Boyes, and Rudy Lichtenberg. Well…except for Thaddeus Minor Leavenworth….no one could be actual friends with him….”
George and CW are well-known actors, historians and radio personalities (yes, we still have radio!) in Sonoma Valley. The tour is an absolute blast! Our history is full of great characters, and these guys really bring them to life.
The tour runs Friday through Monday, starts at 10AM, and adult admission is $25, kids free.
The Boyes Bath House entertained thousands of happy customers from the 1890s through April 17, 1969, when it burned to the ground. Many locals have fond memories of summers spent swimming in its gigantic pool. The entrance in the 1930s, above, and the 1950s, below.
This large billboard style sign pretty much lays out all the amenities offered at the Bath House in 1944. Photo courtesy of Dave Chioti.
Boyes Food Center in 2009. It was constructed in 1949. The tiled awning was torn off sometime in the 2000s.
1949, looking north on the highway. Beyond the Food Center is the Boyes Springs Resort, now a parking lot. Beyond that, the original Mary’s Pizza.
Across the highway from the Food Center, the Sierra Bank building was constructed in 1966. It now houses the offices onf Ross, Drulis, Cusenberry architects. The cross street at the corner was once called Meinke Road, but was renamed Sierra when the building was built.
The corner of Boyes Blvd. and Highway 12, known then as the Santa Rosa road, 1930s. Sonoma Mission Inn sign at left mounted on a lattice-work in the Boyes Plaza. the palm tree was in the center of the plaza. Richfield gas station sign beyond that. On the right, Jim’s Cafe “Short Orders!” The building was built after the 1923 fire of ceramic brick, by Bob Liaros, a local barber. It stood until the early 1990s.
The Liaros building, looking the opposite direction on the highway. Past the Ice House on the corner of Vallejo Ave., is Sam Agnew’s service station, now the Sonoma Eats parking lot. Agnew was a famous major league baseball player who retired to Boyes Hot Springs in the 1940s.
Along side what was once a spur street between Boyes Blvd. and the highway, stood a row of buildings dating from the 1910s or before. Uncle Patty’s was the last resident business before they were torn down in the 2000s. Below are those buildings, or some of them, in the 1950s, featuring Mendel’s Cafe and Nelson’s Deli, and a barber shop. Nathan’s Ice Cream was one of the original businesses on that row, which was called “the business section,” in the very early days.
Circa 1912. At right, behind the oak, is Graham’s Store, the original site of the Boyes Hot Springs post office.
Nathan’s is the building at far left in the photo above.
Yes, there was a branch library in the Plaza Center building in the 1970s.
Sam Ganos was prominent business man in the 1940s and 50s. The building, much modified, now hosues La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant.
Modern Plumbing was founded in Boyes Hot Springs by Ted Riboni and Ed Feranndo in the 1950s. The building still stands, on the west side of the highway, opposite Bernhard Ave.
The Greengrass Building. A pretty ordinary building with an interesting history. Clidk the link to find out!
The original location of Mary’s Pizza Shack, now a large local chain, was in this small building at the end of Arroyo Road, at the highway. Mary Fazio opened her restaurant in 1959. The rest is history, as they say. Thanks to the Albano family for the photos.
Flash forward to 2025. The unfortunate deterioration of the property continues. Neighbors are concerned enough to put up this sign on the front of the original shack. The current owner is under suspicion of fraud. We await remediation, but the wheels of County agencies turn slowly.
Both Agua Caliente and Fetters Hot Springs, just up the road, have official Caltrans place-name signs, but Boyes Hot Springs does not. Why? Who knows. The one above is my creation.
Photos by the author. Index Tribune and other photos courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society
Commercial buildings on either side of the eastern part of Boyes Blvd. 1930s. The Kramer’S Inn building is seen in the next two photos, from 2008 and 2025.Circa 20082025The Gallo brothers ran a service station and car dealership from 1949 into the 1970s. The building, immediately south of Kramer’s, is now Golden West Glass.Southwest corner of Boyes Blvd. and Highway 12, 1980s. The Big Three, as it was then known. Now part of the Sonoma Mission Inn, but no longer a public building.Earlier, taller version of the sign.The wonderful Woodleaf sign, upper right. Zan Stark photo.1950s. Before it was the Big Three, the building was the Woodleaf Store. At left is the building that had previously held Jim’s Cafe. More in Part 2. The palm tree peeking over the rooftop at right is situated in Boyes Springs Plaza, as once was. Pine Wagner’s Valley Drug was in the building at right center. Pine Wagner was perhaps the first woman to be a licensed pharmacist in California. She operated her store from 1946 until 1962. Zan Stark photo.Pine Wagner’s first location, on the highway, in Bud Castner’s building, opposite Arroyo Road. Zan Stark photo.Easter! 1970s? This commercial space was later the Church Mouse Thrift Store. Currently empty, alas.1960s. Looking north at the Boyes/Highway 12 intersection can be seen, far upper right, the Melody Club sign.Later, the old Lanning’s Resort Club/Melody Club became the offices of Lanning Construction.The Resort Club, 1951. pictured are Carla Robinson (L), and Helen Lanning (R). Photo courtesy of Lorrie Baetge Fuller, who is Carla Robinson’s daughter.The Melody Club sign circa 2009.
Photographs courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society, Stanford University Library Special Collections, and the author.
Only in Paradise: tomatoes growing from a sewer grate.Guerrilla landscaping?Grapes and “grapes.”Strawberries stake out their territory.Color escapesAgainst all odds. Standing out in a crowd.It’s Lunar New Year all over the neighborhood.Apartment dwellers find a way to grow cornCalifornia’s state flower insists on growing where it will.Tiny calendula growing from a crack in asphalt roadway.
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And while I have your attention: A show of Springs history themed art by Michael Acker is opening at Art Escape this Friday, February 28, at 5pm. SEE YOU THERE?!
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