Boyes Hot Springs, El Verano, History, Uncategorized

The Springs Gateway Arch

The Sonoma Valley Redevelopment area was established by the board of Supervisors of Sonoma County in 1984. The area comprised a strip along Highway 12 from Agua Caliente Blvd. in the north to Verano Ave. at the south end, and parts of major intersecting streets.The main goals of the project were to remediate “blight”, to encourage commercial activity, and to facilitate construction of low-income housing. Major storm drain work and electrical undergrounding were done at the very beginning.

The wheels turned slowly, to say the least. By 1992 the final plan for the highway, a crucial element, hadn’t been decided. At that time Caltrans wanted to make it eight lanes!

In 1994 an extensive set of design guidelines were issued. Under “Corridor Desing Concept, Southern Gateway Segment,” there is a study area map showing a “monolith” on the highway at the approximate present location of the arch (see map.) A small elevation of the monolith shows a wood trellis like structure atop a stone base. Trellises and dry-stacked walls, along with trees planted in grids to mimic orchards, are also included. These were all intended to be part of the symbolic entryway to the Springs. The last of the Recommendations in the guideline’s states “Develop further detailed design studies by retaining a consultant or by holding design competitions.”

A draft of the Redevelopment plan was issued in 1996. The Pilot Project was announced. “The plans call for a pilot project to the southern gateway. It includes closing a portion of Main Street, which cuts from Highway 12 to Verano Avenue behind the McDonalds restaurant; an archway or other gateway concept, trees and light fixtures,” we learn from the Index Tribune. Landscape Architect Ron Wellander was hired to manage. “A gateway gives definition between one community and another,” explained Robert Behrens, a site-specific sculptor who worked on the planning stages of the program.” Behrens is best known in Sonoma as designer of the Veterans Memorial Park.

In July of 1997 the Index Tribune announced that “ Among the many improvements for Highway 12 between Boyes Blvd. and Agua Caliente Road will be a metal archway…the archway will consist of two posts, one at either side of the road near Boyes Boulevard, with a metal trellis extending over the road showing a welcome to drivers heading north. It was felt by the consultant (Wellander) that we need something that would announce dramatically the entrance to the springs,” (This is confusing. First, the Redevelopment area starts at Verano Ave, second, the pilot project is nowhere near Boyes Blvd.) The cost was estimated at $200,000.

In September of 1997, Caltrans informed the County that “We do not allow these type of structures to be built over highways.” End (of this part ) of the story.

Construction still had not been started by early 1999. “…the $700,000 first phase of the project…has suffered a number of setbacks. The most widely publicized of these was the proposal to buil a 20-foot-high metal trellis spanning the state highway just north of Verano Avenue (not Boyes Bldv!) While a relatively minor part of the project as a whole, the arch was widely criticized as unsightly and unnecessary.” Index Triune Feb 2, 1999. To complicate matters more, landscape architect Wellander filed for bankruptcy.

Our current gateway arch was built sometime between 2003 and 2005. The architect was Dan Nichols. According to the Houzz website, the year is 2005 and the budget was “1,000,000-1,500,000,” which seems a bit high. The budget for the entire pilot project was only $700,000. A friend who attended public meetings at the time remembers the cost as being $611,000. I have not been able to make contact with Mr. Nichols.

The original intention was to have art placed on the concrete posts and wall, which were left bare for that purpose. In 2007, ceramic artist Oliverio Quezada was “hired” to propose art. It’s unclear how he was chosen. On July 25, 2007, the Board approved redevelopment grant funds up to $35,000 to approve a Special Services Agreement between Quezada and CDC to design, manufacture, create and install an original artwork at the gateway. His proposal includes a concrete bench, a central sculpture, tile artwork on the wall, and a welcoming sign designed with the help of local school children.

However, the Advisory Committee of the Springs Redevelopment the RAC) had some questions. The tile were to be covered in text. “”I want the text and imagery to be as pure and beautiful as possible, incorporating the best of everything existing in the Spring Area’s past, present and future,” Quezada said in his written proposal, but the RAC wanted to see all of it before they would OK the total art project. However again, these objections seem to have faded away, with a new problem arising in 2008: money for maintenance of the artwork. The CDC could fund it but could not to maintain it. Other agencies like Public Works or Parks, didn’t have the money for the (continuing) job. “Kathleen Kane, executive director of the county’s Community Development Commission, told the local panel that maintenance questions and funding need to be resolved before the project can continue. “Kane said that the project could be in danger of fading away. “If we can’t get it settled to the satisfaction of public works, it could die,” she said.” Fade away it did.

Soon after, the rusticated stone cladding was applied to the bare concrete pillars.

Now we have an essentially meaningless public art work with a wine-centered advertising slogan on the steel upper part, installed by persons unknown. Inquiries have been made. None of the powers that be have an answer.

Mu contention is that the Gateway Arch could still be transformed into a real symbol of our community. We have plenty of creative talent. All we need is money. HA!

The Orland and Watsonville arches predated Caltrans. The upper right image is the corner of Verano Avenue and Highway 12 in the 1970s(?) Caltrans had no problem with hanging a traffic signal over the road.

Index Tribune courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society. Join today!

Uncategorized

Recently Added to the Springs Historic Photo Database

The database is a Filemaker Pro catalog of my collection, most of which now belongs to the Sonoma Valley Historical Society, but I’m always adding to it.

Richard O’Neil was a well-known commercial photographer in Sonoma, from the 1940s through the 1960s. He photographed many weddings, school portraits, and newspaper pieces. This weirdly green image is probably from the mid 1960s. More about the Bath House here.

B.M. Gaskill was another commercial photographer working in Sonoma county in the mid-century. There are much better photos of Little Switzerland, but I’m interested to discover this photographer, and I’m in search of more of his images.

The Palms Hotel, 1940s, later known as Rozario’s. Not sure when the name changed, but an ad in the Index Tribune in 1949 called it “Rozarios’ Palm Inn.”

1908 image of “one of the many cottages,” most of which either burned in 1923, or survived to become year-round homes today.

Beautiful design of the matchbook cover, naming Lichtenberg and later partner W.S Johnson. Probably 1950s.

Color slide wrongly naming “Lolita’s Galley!” It was actually the famous Juanita’s Galley. 1970s

Photographs courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society and author’s collection.

Uncategorized

The Happy Dog, and More

I thought I was going to write about the Springs gateway arch, but I ended up looking at the general area, which includes the old Happy Dog hamburger joint, so I thought I’d write about that. But then I started looking at the Index Tribune archives and found info on other buildings close by, which had some interest. First, that Contented Canine.

Robert Smith, a native of Canada, veteran of WWII in the Pacific, and former Real Estate Broker, looking for a career change, founded the Happy Dog in 1973. It started out as a hotdog stand, but soon added hamburgers, which became famous in the Bay Area. By 1984 they were selling 100,000 hamburgers per year. It’s fame caught the attention of the San Francisco Chronicle, which featured the restaurant in 2016 in a section they called “Cheap Thrills.” Generations of Sonoma Valley teenagers got their starts in the work-world at the Dog.

The concrete block building with the dog murals is one of three in close proximity to each other along Highway 12 in El Verano. In 1987, Terry and Bob Morris opened an art supply store in the building next door (now Steve’s Auto shop). The southern-most building (18976 Highway 12), closest to McDonalds, now the Verano Cafe, was once the home of Moosetta’s Piroshki and Pastry Shop, which opened in 1962 at a different location. The Art Store soon moved to 5^th Street West. Moosetta’s moved north to the small commercial center at 18808. That space was later the Rocket Café and is now Baker and Cook.

A good location, “Between Happy Dog and Moosettas!”

Moosetta’s original location, where the gas station is now, across from Siesta Way.

Judy and Kuoseng Chang bought the Dog in 1989 and changed nothing. Why mess with success? But running a restaurant is strenuous. In the Press Democrat in 2014, Diane Reber Hart noted “both in their early 60s, the Changs put in 12-hour workdays six days a week. Their only employee is their nephew Steve Chang, 42, who plans to take over the business whenever the couple retires.” I don’t know if this happened, but the Dog has been closed since 2021. In 2022 Kathleen Hill reported in the Index Tribune that the building had been sold, for what use was not disclosed by the buyers. Well, no use, apparently. As of January 2026 it still sits empty.

2025. The Gateway Arch can be glimpsed at the far right.

The slogan was installed some time late in 2025, who knows by whom.

The Arch is a relic of the Redevelopment Pilot Project of the late 1990s. It was designed by architect Dan Nichols and built around 2000. More on this in another post.

bonus Happy Dog images:

In 2021, as part of my Valley of the Moon Main Stem project, I thought of using the iconic Happy Dog as a grand entry arch. Why not? It would be more meaningful than what we got. The collage is 45.5″x15.”

All photos by suthor unless otherwise noted.

Index Tribune courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society. Join today! https://sonomavalleyhistory.org/donate/

Boyes Hot Springs, Collection/Obsession, nature, Trees, Uncategorized, Wonders and Marvels

Farewell to a Friend

It’s always sad when we lose a tree. I called it “the Big Euc.”

I know eucalyptus are exotic, invasive, and sometimes dangerous (they are highly flammable and may have other impacts, but the story is not only negative: see https://ucanr.edu/site/igors-urban-website/eucalyptus-california) .But they are, by now naturalized in California and in our minds. We have grown up with them. Their fragrance is embedded in our olfactory cortexes. The beauty of their variegated bark delights.

This friend grew on Vallejo Ave. near Highlands Blvd. in Boyes Hot Springs. Probably a volunteer, it may have sprouted around the time the motor court behind it was built, possible just after the 1923 fire. https://springsmuseum.org/2017/11/01/fire/

2007

I actually liked the way this tree was grinding up the concrete sidewalk, like a very slow motion wave of living wood. I have special place in my heart for the interaction of trees and the built environment.

Makes beautiful shadows.

This quince volunteer bloomed every February for Lunar New Year.

Eventually a piece of the concrete was removed for some underground plumbing repair and replaced with crushed rock.

The green concrete curb continues to be submerged in tree.

Some beauty shots.

The wet bark is even more beautiful, and the fragrance intensifies.

So limb-like, sensuous.

December 2025

Just a memory

The palm stands alone

“Bark and Bite.” Painted photo collage circa 20″x30″. 2019. Michael Acker

For an highly interesting capsule view of the trees and their impact on the California environment, see this from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources: https://ucanr.edu/site/igors-urban-website/eucalyptus-california

Architecture, Valley of the Moon Main Stem Project, Verano

The Happy Dog, the Gateway Arch, and Their Neighbors: a preview

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.

Architecture, Boyes Hot Springs, History, mid-century, People

The Plaza Center Building and A. B. Peluffo

Boyes Hot Springs, nature, Neighborhood Phenomena

Neighborhood Phenomena, Side-By-Side

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.)

At the north end of this alley we find a healthy looking toyon (heteromeles arbutifolia), a native plant. According to Calscape “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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteromeles

https://calscape.org/Heteromeles-arbutifolia-(Toyon)

Fetters Hot Springs, History, Jewish History, People, Photographs, Resorts

George and Emma Fetters and Their Resort

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.

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.

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.

The Depot: 1979, 2008 ,2016.

Boyes Hot Springs, People, Photographs, Resorts, Uncategorized, Wonders and Marvels

Harmonie Ausflug

A curiosity of early 20^th 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.

Livia Gershon in JSTOR Daily:

“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.

The JSTOR article https://daily.jstor.org/german-song-in-america/?utm_source=mcae&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jstordaily-07102025

Further reading about German American singing societies from a University of the Paicific thesis from 1955 https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2276&context=uop_etds

Boyes Hot Springs, Entertainment, History, People, Resorts

The Agua Rica Tour!

George Webber writes:

“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.

Here is the link to sign up.

springs museum

History, Art, Community

Author Archives: michaelcacker