Month: April 2010

WE SURELY GOT TROUBLE RIGHT HERE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Trouble, ya got trouble right here in River City Santa Rosa with a capital ‘T’ and that rhymes with ‘P’ and that stands for ‘pool.’

…And all week long, your River City youth’ll be fritterin’ away
I say, your young men’ll be fritterin’
Fritterin’ away their noontime, suppertime, choretime, too
Hit the ball in the pocket
Never mind gettin’ dandelions pulled or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded
Never mind pumpin’ any water ’til your parents are caught with a cistern empty on a Saturday night and that’s trouble
Oh, ya got lots and lots o’ trouble

I’m thinkin’ of the kids in the knickerbockers shirttails, young ones peekin’ in the pool hall window after school
Ya got trouble, folks, right here in River City
with a capital ‘T’ and that rhymes with ‘P’ and that stands for ‘pool’

Now I know all you folks are the right kind of parents
I’m gonna be perfectly frank
Would you like to know what kind of conversation goes on
while they’re loafin’ around that hall
They’ll be tryin’ out Bevo, tryin’ out Cubebs, tryin’ out tailor-mades like cigarette fiends
And braggin’ all about how they’re gonna cover up a tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen
Now one fine night they leave the pool hall headin’ for the dance at the Armory
Libertine men and scarlet women and ragtime
Shameless music that’ll grab your son, your daughter into the arms of a jungle animal instinct- massteria!
Friends, the idle brain is the devil’s playground, trouble!

– The Music Man, Meredith Wilson © Frank Music Corp. and Meredith Wilson Music

And just like in the famous lyrics from The Music Man, billiards were blamed for young people cussin’ and thievin’. Never mind that boys were welcomed at the gambling tables in Fourth St. saloon back rooms during horse racing season, or that kids were sometimes caught in opium joints on Second street. No, the pool hall is the problem, for sure. Won’t someone (partially) save the children?

WANTS MINORS RESTRICTED
Chief of Police Rushmore Suggests Ordinance Barring Lads From Entering Pool Room

Chief of Police Fred Rushmore attributes a number of cases of petty thieving in which boys have figured in this city recently to the fact that they are allowed to lounge around billiard and pool rooms.

He suggested at last night’s Council meeting that an ordinance should be passed forbidding boys under eighteen years of age entrance into pool rooms. Boys twelve and thirteen years of age are frequently found, he said, about such places, particularly, a room on Fourth street, near the corner of Fourth and Davis streets, and at times their language is objectionable.

Mayor Overton and other members of the Council suggested that the matter receive the attention asked and an ordinance will undoubtedly be drafted. Chief Rushmore, when seen after the meeting, said there was no doubt but that the young boys hanging around the places mentioned could not learn anything that would benefit them.

– Press Democrat, January 23, 1907

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KEEP YOUR CATTLE HERD OFF MY LAWN

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Why were people on Wright Street so durned upset in 1907? For all the fuss they were making about their sidewalks and lawns, you’d think that cowboys were driving herds of cattle through their front yards. Oh, wait – they were.

Santa Rosa’s stockyard and slaughterhouse was at the corner of College and Cleveland Avenues, but the cattle, pigs, and sheep arrived via train stock cars at the Southern Pacific terminal on North Street, and by a new ordinance passed in 1906, the herds could be wrangled down College Ave. Why in the world they were driving the animals towards College Avenue using narrow, residential Wright Street, which runs parallel to wider North Street, is a mystery.

Defending himself again before the City Council, stockyard owner P. H. Noonan repeated his 1906 quip that he was still looking for a breed of cow that could avoid the streets altogether by flying to the slaughterhouse (huh-yuk).

THE COMMITTEES MAKE THEIR REPORTS

…Chairman Reynolds of the street committee declared the streets were in a soft and mellow condition, whereat his conferes [sic] and the spectators smiled. The matter of driving stock through the street was brought up by Street Commissioner Decker on behalf of P. H. Noonan. It was declared the stock was being taken through Wright Street, and that they were ruining sidewalks and lawns of residents in that vicinity, who had entered a vigorous protest. It was pointed out that Mr. Noonan was strictly “up against it” in getting his stock to the slaughter house, and that he had been seeking a brand of cattle that could fly in order to obviate driving them through the streets. He had offered to make repairs to the sidewalks at his own expense and showed every disposition to be more than fair in the matter. Mr. Noonan and Street Commissioner Decker will take up with the officials of that company the matter of removing the unloading corrals of the Southern Pacific outside the city limits.

City Attorney Geary and Chairman Reynolds declared that the people in that vicinity should be protected in their property, and that cattle could not be driven through the streets without doing damage. It was suggested that as the Southern Pacific now controls the California Northwestern, the trains of cattle should be shipped around that road and taken to the Noonan side track at College avenue. This would avoid all the trouble.

– Santa Rosa Republican, January 3, 1907

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THE BACK PORCH PICKLE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Only luck and a lack of wind kept all Santa Rosa from burning down in the 1906 earthquake, so it’s a bit of a surprise that just eight months later, downtown property owners told the Fire Chief to shut his yap about fire safety.

On the agenda at that January, 1907 City Council meeting was yet another debate on the “back porch” problem, which had become one of those issues that the Council slogged through at every session with no end in sight.

In one corner of the ring was respected Fire Chief Frank Muther, who had witnessed fires spreading through the alley behind Fourth Street on the morning of April 18, 1906, and wanted the new buildings at those locations to have porches made of fireproof materials instead of the rough wood construction that might be found on a back porch. The Builders’ Exchange supported him by endorsing a solid concrete porch floor. In the opposite corner were some of the wealthiest property owners in town, who said that would be too expensive – and that the Fire Chief had too much influence in the matter.

The Council clearly took the fire danger seriously; at the same meeting, they gave Muther powers to order any rubbish removed and impose a fine if he was ignored. But money talks loudly, and once again, they listened to the sound of rich men pinching pennies. One of them suggested that the problem could be solved if they could just line porches with asbestos.

The City Council was in an awful pickle. There was no building code in Santa Rosa before the earthquake, and since then, the Council had created new rules and regs on an ad hoc basis. Since there was not yet an ordinance prohibiting the use of wood in the rear of the same properties that had earlier spread the fires, the landlords were well within their rights to build their porches out of rice paper, if so desired. And so much for the authority of the Fire Chief to make the town safe.

To break the stalemate, Mayor Overton called on architect Victor Dunkerly (also spelled, “Dunkerley”), who had designed the newly-built Overton Hotel. His solution showed political skill; use less of the expensive concrete, but build the porch out of iron, which cost about the same as wood. After a little more chew-over the following week, peace was finally declared in the back porch war.

MATTER OF PORCHES PRECIPITATES DISCUSSION

The mooted question of back porches to business blocks on Fourth street and other business streets bobbed up serenely at the meeting of the city council Tuesday evening. After considerable discussion, in which there were some lively call down for various speakers. Architect Dunkerly hit the matter a solar plexus blow in a few words, practically settled the question to the satisfaction of all and gave the council the best advice that they had received on the subject.

The Builders’ Exchange prepared an ordinance for the council for a fire proof back porch and specified that it should have a concrete floor five inches thick. This was objected to by property owners as being too expensive and they wanted something more moderate and at the same time fire proof. They did not desire to take any chances on having their structures burned through inflammable rear porches.

John F. Kinslow addressed the council, advocating a floor dressed with asphaltum, while Albert Jacobs, another property owner, was wedded to the theory of asbestos, which experience has shown cannot be burned. Contractor Kobes was worried to know why the council insisted on having a fire proof porch and still permitted the use of wooden stairways leading to the porch and said the stairs would require more lumber than the remainder of the porch. Fire Chief Muther injected a few remarks into the discussion at intervals, and to this there was strenuous objection on the part of Kinslow, ably seconded by Jacobs, when Kinslow declared the chief “tried to be the whole thing.” Contractor Rushing spoke in favor of asbestos lining for porches.

Matters were waxing exceedingly warm when Mayor Overton thrust himself into the breach in the sake of peace and harmony and asked belligerents to confine themselves to the question before the council and to refrain from indulging in personalities.

Briefly stated, Architect Dunkerly suggested that the proposed ordinance was severe on the property owners. He said that a porch could be constructed of two inch galvanized iron pipe, thoroughly put together, with slabs of concrete two or three inches in thickness, and that it would sustain almost any weight which would be put upon it. He also suggested iron stairways and in comparison with ngures [sic] for wooden stairs submitted by Mr. Kobes, it was found the iron stairs would be no more expensive than the wooden ones. The features of the mayor and council relaxed when the suggestion was made, for they saw a method of construction that would be superior to the one under consideration and they felt relieved. The matter went over one week to give the ordinance committee time to prepare an ordinance covering the architect’s suggestions. Chairman Johnston voted against postponing the matter further, saying it had been before the council for months and he believed it should be disposed of at once that builders might erect porches for their tenants.

– Santa Rosa Republican, January 16, 1907

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