The Springs Museum website is ten years old! I’ve posted monthly for almost the entire time, so that’s around 120 posts. It’s a collection of historical info, natural historical musings, observations and appreciations of the place we live, with occasional wider scope. It’s been cited by historians, journalists, planners and architects.
I’m still working on getting a brick and mortal existence for the Museum. You can help by clicking the Donate button, and/or spreading the word. Thank you!
On Vallejo Ave. near the corner of Calle del Monte, in Boyes Hot Springs, there stood a prime example of the ongoing interaction between trees and the built environment: A garage was built next to an oak, the oak grew, humans adapted the structure to accommodate the native tree. This was a lovely thing to see.
Prior to 2009 when I first photographed it, the structure had been so dilapidated that I was sure they were going to tear it down. But they restored it and did a neat job of cutting the roof overhang around the mighty Quercus.
Flash forward to 2024. The tree is gone, its pleasant pool of shade just a memory. In the last two photos you can see that another tree, in the background, has also been removed (see the first photo), for fire safety, they say. Whether necessary or not, we always mourn the loss of a tree.
Below are photos of a mound of earth and wood chips next to the stump. It is absolutely covered in oak seedlings. Nature continues!
Relatively speaking, the photo archive of the Springs is small. My database currently has 957 photographs, brochures, maps, and other ephemeral. I realize that this is not anywhere near all that exists, but I envy historians like Amy O’Hair who produces the wonderful Sunnyside History Project because she has access to the archives of San Francisco, which are profound. (Also see and the Western Neighborhoods Project).
Occasionally someone will contact me with photos such as Mr. Chiotti’s. I’m deeply grateful to him and other donors.
The old Lanning Resort Club/Melody club sign, 1980s. Lanning Structures used the building for offices at that time. It was located on the east side of the Highway, across from the Boyes Springs Plaza, at Boyes Blvd. It’s now a perpetual construction site. The photo is from the Redevelopment Design Guidelines handbook from 1989.
Louise, Ernie, and David Chiotti, 1944. I’m not sure where the sign was, possibly at the Boyes Springs ball field, adjacent to the Bath House. Note the sign indicating the Oakland Oaks Springs training camp.
The Oak Grove Resort was “at Verano,” according to the brochure published by the Northwest Pacific Railroad in the 1920s. This could be the site of the later Paul’s Resort near the corner of Verano Blvd. and Highway 12.
Paradise Grove, near the corner of Riverside and Boyes Blvd, 1950s. Obviously, they sold beer. I know I have readers who have memories of this place, which I would love to hear.
Photos courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society, Dave Chiotti, and author’s collection
A sampler of Christmas from the Index Tribune, one hundred years ago.
Sonoma was in the grip of movie fever. Actor/producer/director/swindler Harold Binney had arrived to set up his studio. Local were recruited to be extras in the “Account of the No Account Count.” Alas, Binney absconded having written bad checks, and Sonoma as Hollywood North never materialized.
See you at the Union Hotel for Christmas dinner? Oh, that’s right. They tore it down and built an unlovely Bank of America! However, they were considerate enough to erect a bronze plaque commemorating what they had destroyed.
Directors included Sam Sebastiani, and Frank Wedekind.
Sweet!
I wonder how Mr. Abbott came by the molds. Spoils of war?
In 1923 it did not take much to produce contentment, apparently!
“Bring along your rifle!”
By 1923 the railroads had significant competition from bus lines. The egg laying contest had thirty six entries, eleven of them from outside California! The IOOF building is still there and in great shape.
Sonoma Index Tribune courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society
Along with Marion Greene, Emma Fetters, and Mary Fazio, Pine Wagner was one of the important 20th century entrepreneurs in The Springs who happened to be women. Although the California Board of Pharmacy does not keep old records (shamefully!) Pine Wagner must have been one of the first women to be licensed as a pharmacist in the state.
She graduated from the University of Creighton school of pharmacy, in Omaha, Nebraska in 1917, eventually making her way to Bakersfield, then Sonoma Valley around 1944.
She established Valley Drug in 1946, originally in a building on the highway owned by L.E. “Bud” Castner. Castner, once a chicken farmer, had opted to join the less fragrant and more profitable insurance business of a Mr. Mouyer, in the 1940s. After acquiring the building from Mouyer, according to an article in the Index Tribune in 1977, “Some of the space in the building Castner leased out. In this way he brought the first doctor, the first dentist and the first drugstore to Boyes Springs. They were Dr. Michael Mikita, the medico, Dr. Holly Christensen and Miss Pine Wagner.” Judge William Downey also held court in the building.
In 1951, Wagner moved her pharmacy to the new Plaza Center building, which had just been enlarged. It was built on the site of the old Boyes Springs Plaza and railroad depot. It now houses the Boyes Hot Springs post office. (Below)
Wagner owned a duplex on 4th Avenue in Boyes Springs. We know this because the Index Tribune published notices of building permits and noted hers, for $1200 worth of termite repairs, in 1966.
4th avenue house once owned by Pine Wagner, in 2023.
She sold the business in 1962. Valley Drug stayed in business into the 1980s.
She died in 1975 at the age of 80. She had been a pharmacist for 58 years.
In 1923 a huge fire destroyed much of Boyes Hot Springs. Community spirit was strong, however, and rebuilding began immediately. One property owner, Bob Liaros, rebuilt on the highway.
The Liaros building at left. Next to it is the ice house. Across Vallejo St. we can see Sam Agnew’s service station. Agnew was an ex-major leaguer who was famous for catching Babe Ruth in the 1918 World Series.
According to the Index Tribune, “Bob Liaros owns one of the finest and most substantial buildings on the highway in Boyes Springs. After the fire, Mr. Liaros took the slogan, “a bigger and better Boyes Springs” at its full value and proceeded to show that he, for one, meant to build bigger and better than before. In place of the frame building and barber shop which was located next to the original post office at Boyes, the enterprising business man let the contract for a handsome hollow tile type building, with concrete floors and fireproof throughout. The exterior is most attractive with its tile trim and plate glass front. The building is divided into two stores, in one of which Mr. Liaros has his beautifully appointed barber shop with its mirrors, three chairs and finest plumbing. He does bobbing for the ladies and has a competent assistant barber. Liaros has leased the store and living rooms in his building for an ice cream parlor and refreshment stand.” IT 1925.
Jim Nichols opened his Jim’s Lunch restaurant on Napa St. in Sonoma, “at the entrance of the ball park,” in 1933. In 1937 Jim sold to Marie Tarrens and moved to Oregon. But, in 1938, “Jim Nicholas, who sold out and left Sonoma for Oregon, only to return convinced that there is no place like the Valley of the Moon, is opening up a coffee shop and café at Boyes Springs in the Bob Liaros building. In 1939, Evelyn Frank and Alice Jones applied for a liquor license under the name of Jim’s Lucnh Room. Not sure where Frank and Jones went but in 1941 Alice Norrbom bought the establishment from Katherine Ewert Jorgensen. I believe the two photographs of Jim’s date from Mrs. Norrbom’s ownership. In 1944 she sold to Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Reynolds and I think they were the last owners of Jim’s.
Menu from the WWII era.Photo by Zan Stark, 1950s
In the 1950s the Liaros building housed the Boyes Variety Store and Polidori’s store. Kelly’s Deli was there in the 1980s’90s. The building was torn down in 1992. The site now houses the Sonoma Mission Inn employee parking lot, alas.
Photo dated 1992
ADDENDUM
In 1931 Bob Liaros bought “Lot Number 1, Woodleaf Park, being a part of Rancho Agua Caliente, T. 5 N., R. 6 W, M.D.M.,” (The letter-number combinations are Township and Range. MDM stands for Mount Diablo Meridian, a baseline used by the Public Land Survey System.)
The sign at the left of the arch advertises “J.W. Minges desirable summer and winter cottages.”
First Avenue became Vallejo Avenue, so this would be the corner of Vallejo and Hwy 12 (“Santa Rosa and Sonoma Road”.)
Thanks to the Sonoma Valley Historical Society for the Index Tribune and many photographs, Lloyd Cripps for the arch photo, Phil Danskin for the map, and Stanford University Library, Special Collections for the Zan Stark photo.
In 2020 I photographed every street sign in my immediate neighborhood with the intention of creating a database of intersections. Why? Obsessiveness. Completeness. The desire to record and collect (see website introduction.) Future use. It’s history. Because it might all burn down, and no one would remember what it looked like. (And, I really like databases and consider them an art medium.) I have also included photographs of the Neighborhood Phenomena in the vicinity of the intersections, such as, the tree growing through the fence above.
In addition to my photographs, I have included older (“historic”) ones, where they exist, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera. I know of no older photographs of intersections other than the ones at Highway 12, which were made primarily for commercial purposes.
There are 107 records in the database (I probably missed some), one for each intersection in the Boyes Springs A and B subdivisions. The fields include “Generation of Sign” because three distinct styles of sign exist. Time permitting, the database would be expanded to include the surrounding subdivisions (more here) Sonoma Highlands, Woodleaf Park, etc.
The corner of Maldonado, 4th, and Vallejo had three of the oldest style signs on one pole until recently. I realize I misspelled Maldonado in the db.
The Thomson and Highway 12 entry features a photo from 1958 and a matchbook cover.
Las Lomas and Arroyo shows the stonework built by the Larson family, in 2020 and the 1940s, with family members.
The map is still under development (ie, my Filemaker skills need improving.)
Public art grows in fits and starts hereabouts but we are starting to build up a nice stock of murals. Here we look at four of them.
The mural on the front of the Sonoma Valley Grange building, located at 18627 Sonoma Highway. The Grange has owned the building, which was probably originally a dance hall, since 1934. See (https://springsmuseum.org/2022/06/28/the-sonoma-valley-grange-traditionchange-and-renewal/) for more about the Grange. Through the Redevelopment Façade Improvement project, the Grange got funding for the mural in 2010. It was designed by Michael Acker and painted in collaboration with Randy Sue Collins. It depicts a bit of Boyes Hot Springs and Grange history. It being on the west facing wall, it takes a terrific beating from the sun, and has been restored twice.
The Republic of Thrift building at 17496 Sonoma Highway has two murals sponsored by the Monarch Project (https://www.socoimm.org/) along with others. On the west facing wall is the giant Monarch butterfly, completed in June 2020. According to the Index Tribune, “Artist Rima Makaryan, just 17 years old, painted a Monarch butterfly as part of “The Monarch Project,” a Sonoma County nonprofit organization working to tell the stories of immigrants and empower the community.” “We are working to have a conversation about immigration through art,” said Makaryan. “Oftentimes immigrants are labeled aliens or talked about negatively. The goal of the Monarch Project is to find beauty in the subject.” The mural, painted on the west-facing wall of the thrift store, features a Monarch butterfly filled with words describing the immigrant experience, such as resilience, hope, amor, sacrifice and fear. Makaryan noted, “The words are meant to embody the journey and diversity of all migrants. It’s all about the beauty of the topic, good and bad.”
On the east wall a fantastical spray-paint mural by the artist Chor Boogie (https://chorboogie.com/), along with a crew of high school students was painted in 2018. the Led by Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, community partners were Artescape and La luz Center. Co-sponsors were the California Arts Council, the NEA, and the Bank of Marin.
The building at 17400 Sonoma Highway displays yet another Monarch Project mural. Completed in June 2021, it features an image of Dmitra Smith, “…a powerful force fighting against racism in Sonoma County,” according to their website. “Ms. Smith is the former Chair of the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights, and was the program manager for the Junior Commission, having mentored over 100 Sonoma County students between 2013- 2020. Smith is a co-founder of the essential workers’ mutual aid collective Food for All – Comida para Todos.”
At the time the mural was painted, the building was the home of Sonoma Originals skate shop. Sadly, it is now empty.
We actually have a lot of art in the Springs, some of it “official,” as the above are, some harder to find, personal expressions, often ephemeral, but worth noting, as we will do in future posts
Index Tribune courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society
springs museum 