A HATED CORNER OF COURTHOUSE SQUARE

March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

What does a town do after suffering a traumatic event? Try to quickly forget or make an effort to remember? It was mid-December 1920, after the sheriff was murdered and his killers were lynched. Santa Rosa seemed to want to move on; Christmas was two weeks away and most everyone had better things to do than stew over those horrific events.

Yet there were some who couldn’t let it pass. Sheriff James “Sunny Jim” Petray was extremely popular throughout Sonoma County, known as a cheerful guy with a big heart. He deserved to be remembered and honored – a monument dedicated to him, maybe.

This is the surprising epilogue to the series “THERE WILL BE PRICES PAID” about the aftermath of the 1920 lynching in Santa Rosa. It’s surprising because some were very upset over the design and setting of the memorial to Petray. It’s also surprising because in more than a century we haven’t heard about them getting so worked up – I stumbled across this forgotten history while researching something completely different.

Our story picks up four days after the sheriff’s funeral. The concept of building a Petray Memorial Fund quickly turned to organizing a benefit baseball game between Santa Rosa’s home team Rosebuds and a pickup team of major league professionals spending the winter in San Francisco. Included were indeed some celebrities of the time: “Lefty” O’Doul, “Duster” Mails and “Duffy” Lewis. (I know nothing about baseball so anyone who wants to argue about them pls. squabble elsewhere.) The Press Democrat claimed Babe Ruth might play, which was never likely.

With only two months to organize (game day was February 22) the community came together and pulled it off with remarkable ease. Extra streetcars and buses were scheduled. They formed committees galore; one prepped the grounds at Recreation Park (right behind our present high school) and extended the bleachers; others managed ticket sales by districts. A brass band of forty local musicians formed to play at the courthouse before the game, with Lee Brothers’ freight trucks prepared to cart them over to the baseball field so they could toot more tunes between innings.

The Governor sent his regrets for not being able to attend but the Lieutenant Governor threw out the first pitch, the band entertained and comics performed a warmup show. The “Salient Six” all-stars beat the Rosebuds 2-1.

At $1.00 each, tickets were “going like hot cakes at Davis’ Rotisserie” (per Santa Rosa Republican). The Farm Bureau bought a block so they could attend together, as did the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. The sheriff’s office in Eureka ordered 100 and the San Francisco sheriff took 500. Another 700 were sold at the gate. The final attendance was not recorded, but estimated up to 3,000. The total receipts ended up being over $2700, with a net profit of $2400 – over $80k today.

They had expected to raise about $800 so getting 3x as much was quite a windfall. Original memorial plans were modest – just a drinking fountain in front of the sheriff’s office (on Hinton Ave. across from Courthouse Square). But now that there were fistfuls of money available, ideas on how it should be spent rolled in. The Sonoma County Federation of Women’s Clubs lobbied for a double row of trees planted along Redwood Highway, which the Santa Rosa Republican was quick to shoot down:

…to all those who suggest the planting of trees etc it must be remembered that those who paid their money for the tickets to see the game and the players themselves did so with the understanding that the memorial was to be in the form of a shaft [water fountain] or monument and in no other form and their wishes most certainly must be respected above all others no matter how worthy they may seem.

A committee of three was formed to make a decision; it was headed by Judge Seawell and included a representative from Petaluma and Healdsburg. By the end of the year it was announced they had commissioned J. W. Dolliver, architect of the beautiful courthouse, to construct a memorial on the northeast corner of Courthouse Square.

The design would be a kind of proscenium stage, raised a couple of steps above the sidewalk and 24 feet wide, with a drinking fountain on each side. The back was curved and at the top was carved, “Noble Life Crowned With Heroic Death Rises Above Self and Outlives the Pride and Pomp and Glory of the Mightiest Empire of The Earth.” (It was from an 1868 speech by future president Garfield at the first Memorial Day celebration.)

But this was to be no empty stage – a San Francisco artist was separately commissioned to create a statue. “The main figure in the design is the Goddess of Justice, seated, with sword and wreath upon her knee. The whole is to be eight feet high and constructed of artificial stone,” wrote the Healdsburg Tribune. It was so large that sculptor Henry von Sabern used three tons of clay just to build the model.

It was hoped the memorial would be finished in time to dedicate it on the 1922 California Admission Day (Sept. 9) but the sculpture wasn’t quite ready. But by the end of that month it was en route to Santa Rosa, even though it was so weighty von Sabern had to cut it into sixty pieces for shipping.

Within days of its arrival, furor erupted. Critics from Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Healdsburg dumped on both the monument’s design and location. The Argus-Courier said there was broad feeling it was “…out of harmony with the setting, and from its appearance and the inscription it bears will be a constant reminder of a deplorable incident in the city’s history that many believe should be forgotten…the inscription is said to be one in which death is glorified.”

An anti-memorial committee was formed. Lawyers got involved. As construction was underway to build Dolliver’s setting for the statue, an injunction to stop work was considered, but it had already halted.

Proposals were made for a less conspicuous spot. The Healdsburg cemetery where Petray was buried or that town’s plaza, perhaps. Or maybe Burbank Park (the future location of Santa Rosa Junior College). And why not Petaluma? “We have lots of nice parks,” wrote a resident there.

Members of the original memorial committee and their supporters were gobsmacked by the sudden opposition. A model of the design had been on display for months and no one had raised objections. Harold Rosenberg, the Healdsburg representative said firmly there was no Plan B to modify the design or change location.

About a dozen of the anti’s met with the memorial committee and it became clear nearly all of the protest was coming from Santa Rosa. “One speaker stated that a majority of the people of Santa Rosa were in opposition to having the fountain erected on the court house grounds, but, according to Mr. Rosenberg, the committee believes this statement to be far-fetched and not based on fact,” reported the Healdsburg Tribune.

Judge Seawell said at the hearing “he believed the objections made so far had not disclosed the real reasons why some of the citizens do not want the memorial at the court house.”

It really shouldn’t have been a surprise. Exactly six months earlier, the new president of the Rural Cemetery Association had the lynching tree be cut down. She was backed by members of the Saturday Afternoon Club who signed a statement the tree was “a reminder of an episode which it were best for our community that we and the world [to] quickly forget.” About half of the identified people at the hearing for the memorial were clubwomen whose names were also on that statement. Blocking the Petray monument was just another try to make their feelings of shame go away.

Another hearing was held. Months passed. It was May, 1923 and all deferred to Judge Seawell – who was now on the state Supreme Court – to decide what should be done.

Meanwhile, Santa Rosa held a Prune Festival (!) which happened to reveal the issue was causing bad blood between Santa Rosa and Healdsburg. Architect Dolliver’s platform was mostly finished before the work stoppage and the city was using it as an official information booth, but a rumor spread in Healdsburg that hot dogs were being sold on the site. The Tribune editor demanded “a full and honorable apology” be made: “We here in Healdsburg feel that the spot where the Petray memorial fountain was to have been erected long before this but for the selfishness of a few Santa Rosans, is entitled to at least common decency in its treatment by the grasping county seaters…”

More months passed. Seawell and the other two members of the committee met in August to make a final decision but, darn it, they forgot to tell the “ten or 12 local clubwomen who have interested themselves in the matter” that the time of the meeting was changed.

Several newsworthy items came out at the meeting. It was revealed the anti’s were mainly upset about von Sabern’s statue, not the idea of a memorial to Petray. No, they didn’t like the Courthouse Square location, but weren’t motivated enough to put in the effort to find a different place for it. “Although their leaders had been communicated with repeatedly,” the judge was quoted in the Press Democrat, “…they have never come forward with a suggestion for solving the problem.”

But the big news was that the committee had received warnings the monument would be dynamited if built at that location. While such threats would merit a speedy phone call to the FBI today, in 1923 nobody – including local police – was very concerned. Or at least, didn’t seem to be, judging by the papers.

The committee’s final decision was worthy of King Solomon. A memorial would be built on the corner of Courthouse Square as planned. But if the anti’s could come up with $500 – presumably the commission paid to von Sabern – the statue would be eliminated. They had ten days to raise the money.

That was a lot to quickly fundraise ($9,000+ today) in a small town just to have something not done, and the Healdsburg Tribune crowed the opposition “has simmered down to one or two individuals.” An anonymous letter was sent around pleading for donations so the site could be used as a visitor kiosk that included a public restroom.

Thus sometime in October 1923, construction of the memorial was finished, complete with statue – but there was no dedication ceremony or other acknowledgement of the work being done. Perhaps there was more concern about the mad dynamiter showing up than anyone wanted to admit.

–

YOU ARE A FAMOUS SCULPTOR, RIGHT?

It seemed like a win-win. The Petray Memorial Committee commissioned a well-known San Francisco artist to create a dignified sculpture to honor our fallen sheriff. For Henry von Sabern it was an opportunity to create something grand, a masterpiece with such artistic merit it would cement his reputation as a California sculptor of renown.

Von Sabern (1883-1947) said he was the son of a high-ranking German military governor (uh, nope) and told people he was formally Count Henry Albert Maria von Sabern. He supposedly studied at Oxford and Brussels University, winning the Prix de Rome scholarship at age eighteen. His monuments and sculptures were found throughout Europe and he was considered the best portrait sculptor in Belgium. There is no evidence any of his claimed achievements were true. No examples or descriptions of any actual artwork can be found prior to the Petray commission.

In the early 1920s he appeared in Bay Area newspapers because he offered reporters erudite (and sometimes gossipy) opinions about art and other artists. He also hosted a popular weekly salon at his studio in San Francisco’s Chinatown where he held forth on all topics regarding the arts. His name was often dropped into articles about his famous friends, particularly writers George Sterling and Theodore Dreiser. (In a 1921 diary entry, Dreiser commented he found Henry “aggressive and a little boring.”)

We know he came to America c. 1910 and traveled between San Francisco and the Midwest; sculptor Heinrich Von Sabern showed up in the 1912 SF city directory. He met an heiress in Chicago who owned a historic farm in Nebraska City (south of Omaha) which included a 52 room mansion. Despite having no apparent knowledge of agriculture and livestock, he worked there as farm manager for several years. After the U.S. entered World War I he was suspected of conducting some sort of “experiments” as a German spy – a common fear even found in Sonoma County and elsewhere at the time.

Even though the Petray monument was a significant commission, he was unable to find meaningful assignments afterwards. In a 1923 profile he complained of being reduced to sculpting mannequins, modeling heads for hat shops and making backgrounds for store display windows.

At least five photographs of various portrait busts from the mid-1920s can be found in newspapers including his model of Dreiser, which is so cringeworthy it’s hard to believe it was made by someone who peddled himself as a great artiste. Perhaps the unspoken reason why our Santa Rosa ancestors were so unhappy with the Petray sculpture was because they were embarrassed to have spent so much money on a supposed famous sculptor who was all talk and no chisel.

ABOVE: The real Theodore Dreiser. BELOW: Henry von Sabern’s bust of Dreiser. Sculpture image from San Francisco Examiner, August 24 1924

What was so objectionable about the sculpture? All we really know is the seated woman was larger than life-sized and holding a sword and laurel wreath. It was placed in front of our county courthouse and there are scads of Lady Justice statues to be found outside of court buildings across the country.

Although all local newspapers referred to it as the Goddess of Justice, it’s more likely von Sabern intended to represent Lady Columbia, which was then enjoying a post-WWI revival. No mention described the statue holding scales or wearing a blindfold, as usual for Justice figures. Columbia usually holds a sword, laurel wreath and olive branch. She’s mostly forgotten today except as the woman in the Columbia Pictures logo who looks vaguely like young Hillary Clinton. (Come here for local history but stick around for the odd bits of trivia.)

There are no photos or drawings to be found, which may seem curious since it was a major work from an artist regarded as significant. As discussed in the sidebar, that wasn’t unusual – no views of any von Sabern sculptures can be found until years later. Yet while Courthouse Square was always a photographer’s favorite, there’s not a single image I can find that includes the statue, even shown partially or in the background to a street scene. That’s quite hard to explain.

Let’s now shift forward 8½ years, to 1932. Santa Rosa’s 20-30 Club took up the statue issue, showing those who didn’t like it weren’t just clubwomen from the lynching era. A Press Democrat article remarked it had been “the center of controversy and objection for years” and later that it “was often subject to ridicule.”

The PD further let drop an astonishing fact – the Petray memorial didn’t mention Petray anywhere. “There is nothing on the memorial now to explain that it is dedicated to the memory of an officer who was slain in pursuance of his duty.” The Supervisors granted permission for the club to remove the statue and replace it with a plaque. Also to be added were concrete benches.

To help raise the $350 estimated to remodel the monument, the club hosted a “Midnight Whoopee Show” at the California Theater. Dance music was provided by Brick Morse’s Collegians “who are famous.” There was also community singing, confetti and streamers, a “singing ball” (huh?) plus a showing of the latest Laurel & Hardy laff riot followed by a comedy about WWI doughboys starring young Spencer Tracy. You would have hated yourself the next morning if you missed all that fun. Swing it, Brick!

“The Concrete Lady” (as it was nicknamed, according to the Santa Rosa Republican) was removed June 21, 1932. What happened to it was never explained. As the job was done in a single day by a local contractor, I doubt it was carefully disassembled into its original sixty parts. Most likely a couple of guys fell upon it with sledgehammers.

The two concrete benches were made and the bronze plaque was mounted on Dolliver’s wall. The inscription said it was in memory of Sheriff James A. Petray: “His was a Sacrifice of Self for Law, Liberty and Home.” And so things peacefully remained for more than thirty years.

Our tale ends in 1966, when they demolished the courthouse and the memorial along with it. In a Sunday feature on court history the Press Democrat included a last look. The benches appear too filthy to sit upon, and it looks like a corner has been knocked off one of them. Whatever greenery they had climbing over it was untended and either dormant or dead. All in all, the thing was the sort of shambles you might spot in the background of a scene from The Munsters.

The Petray plaque was preserved, and now is mounted in the lobby of the sheriff’s office.

Post-1932 postcard of Courthouse Square. Image courtesy Denise Hill

Petray memorial with light snowfall, 1947. Image courtesy Sonoma County Library

Admission Day, 1947. Image courtesy Sonoma County Library

BIG LEAGUE BASEBALL GAME PLAN STARTED HERE TO GET FUNDS FOR JIM PETRAY MEMORIAL MONUMENT

Citizens of Santa Rosa and Sonoma county have expressed themselves in favor of erecting a fitting monument to the memory of its martyred sheriff, James A. Petray, and while the movement has not as yet been organized, plans are now being made to form such an organization. The Republican has had several letters on this subject and the writer of one of these letters who refused to disclose his name sent in $5 last week to start the movement for a monument to be erected in the memory of the late sheriff.

Yesterday Duffy Lewis, of Boyes Springs, who was a great admirer of Petray called on Walter Nagle. While Nagle and Lewis were talking over some their mutual friends in the major leagues, and talking on general topics of the day, the conversation veered to Sonoma county’s sheriff.

MONUMENT NEEDED

“They should erect a monument to such a glorious man to perpetuate his name,” said Lewis.

“Just the thing,” said Walter Nagle, “and I believe a good way to do it would be to play a ball game some fine Sunday here and donate the proceeds to a monument fund.”

“Great” said Lewis, “and I’ll you what do I’ll do; I’ll not only play in such a game, but I’ll bring up a team of big leaguers to play your team, and we should be able to put it over. I can get ‘Lefty’ O’Doul, of the New York Highlanders, Sammy Bohne and a fine assortment of players, and I believe Jack McCarthy, one of greatest umpires that ever wore a mask, and a former Santa Rosa ball player would volunteer his services as one of the umpires…

…Nagle agreed with Lewis and even elaborated on the idea or a fitting monument for Sonoma county’s martyred sheriff. He said that if a fund committee was organized properly that he felt it would not be a difficult thing to get a local theater to help out, secure excellent talent and give a “Petray monument” performance some afternoon…

– Santa Rosa Republican, December 18 1920<

BABE RUTH MAY PLAY BALL HERE

Plans Going Forward for All-Star Game to Start the Petray Memorial Fund.

Details of the plans for the proposed Petray Memorial ball game will be worked out within the next few days. “Duffy” Lewis, one of the most prominent figures in baseball, was in Santa Rosa yesterday to confer with Manager Walter Nagle of the Rosebuds. Lewis reports that he has a team of big league stars that he will bring up here to play the Rosebuds any Sunday Nagle says the word. He says that the ball players and newspaper writers around the bay are all anxious to help.

The team that will appear here will be under the management of Harry Wolverton of Coast League fame.

If satisfactory arrangements can be made with the Petray family the matter will be taken up with the board of supervisors.

Among some of the stars that it is planned to bring here are Roy Corhan, Justin Fitzgerald, “Lefty” O’Doul and Sammy Bohne. It is possible that Babe Ruth may also appear.

– Press Democrat, December 30 1920

MONEY POURS IN FOR PETRAY GAME TUESDAY

– Press Democrat, February 19 1921

And to all those who suggest the planting of trees etc it must be remembered that those who paid their money for the tickets to see the game and the players themselves did so with the understanding that the memorial was to be in the form of a shaft or monument and in no other form and their wishes most certainly must be respected above all others no matter how worthy they may seem.

– Santa Rosa Republican, February 26 1921

JUDGE SEAWELL TO HEAD PETRAY MEMORIAL BOARD

…The meeting was held in the office of Sheriff John M. Boyes, and was presided over by Walter H. Nagle. It was deemed advisable to name a committee of three members instead of a large committee. Nagle stated Monday evening that $2400 had been raised by the benefit ball game played here on Washington’s birthday. This is the net total after paying all expenses. There are several persons that still have tickets out and have not sent in an accounting. The committee requests that these people make a report immediately, as they wish to wind up the financial affairs of the tickets as soon as possible. This showing of $2400 is especially gratifying, as at first it was expected to raise only about $800, the final expectation before the game was $2000.

– Press Democrat, March 29 1921

SELECTED MEMORIAL FOR LATE SHERIFF

With a beautiful and appropriate design selected by the committee in charge work will begin immediately on the Petray memorial to be placed in Santa Rosa in honor of the memory of James A. Petray of Healdsburg, former sheriff of Sonoma county, killed in the discharge of his duty as an officer a year ago. Selection of a design and material was made by the committee, consisting of Judge Emmet Seawell, H. B. Rosenberg of Healdsburg and Dr. Thos. Maclay of Petaluma during a visit to San Francisco early this week.

This will be in the form of a crescent, placed across the northeast corner of the county courthouse grounds. The curve of the crescent, forming the back of the memorial, will be 24 feet long and on it will be seated a statue of the Goddess of Justice. The statue will be eight feet high.

Within the curve will be a slightly raised floor of stone, and at either end will be placed a drinking fountain. The whole will be made of pressed stone, a composition [sic: composite] material capable of high finish and said by the committee to be attractive in statuary work.

The committee has approximately $2400 to devote to the memorial, the money having been raised several months ago.

– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, December 3 1921

PETRAY MEMORIAL MODEL INSPECTED

The plaster model of the James Petray memorial seat, to be erected in Santa Rosa, was inspected on Monday by H. B. Rosenberg, Judge Emmet Seawell and Dr. Thomas Maclay of Petaluma, who went to San Francisco to see the model by Sculptor Von Sabern, who has the contract for the memorial. The main figure in the design is the Goddess of Justice, seated, with sword and wreath upon her knee. The whole is to be eight feet high and constructed of artificial stone.

– Healdsburg Tribune, February 16 1922

PETRAY MEMORIAL ARRIVES AT SANTA ROSA

All parts of the beautiful James Petray Memorial monument have arrived in Santa Rosa and are awaiting the completion of the foundation before being erected. The work of laying the concrete at the northwestern corner of the courthouse grounds is progressing rapidly and it is stated that the actual erection of the magnificent sandstone monument will be started the latter part of next week.

The monument, which was transported to Santa Rosa in sixty pieces because of its great weight, is being stored in the basement of the courthouse.

– Petaluma Argus-Courier September 27 1922

OPPOSITION TO LOCATION OF THE PETRAY MEMORIAL

Opposition to the proposed erection of the Petray memorial in front of the court house, which has been growing ever since the big statue arrived here in sections from San Francisco, has reached a point were injunction proceedings are to be sought with the idea of delaying further work until the matter can be more fully considered. Attorneys are to be consulted today regarding the best method of procedure, it was announced last night, following a conference of those interested in preserving the present sightly appearance of court square.

Opposition to the erection ot the memorial at the corner of Fourth street and Hinton avenue almost directly in front of the court house, is said to be based principally upon the fact that its character and general appearance will be out of harmony with the setting, and from its appearance and the inscription it bears will be a constant reminder of a deplorable incident in the city’s history that many believe should be forgotten. As a counter suggestion, it is proposed that the statue be erected in the Healdsburg cemetery, where brave Sheriff Petray lies buried, or in Burbank Park, recently acquired by the City of Santa Rosa.

Since its arrival here the memorial has been stored in the basement of the court house, awaiting the completion of the foundation, work upon which is now under way. The memorial, which was shipped in sections, is made of some sort of composition resembling red sandstone and will stand 10 or 12 feet in height and is nearly as wide as it is high. Resting upon a broad pedestal is the upper section of a woman’s figure representing Justice, and the inscription is said to be one in which death is glorified.

– Petaluma Argus-Courier September 28 1922

THE PETRAY MEMORIAL

It is doubtless through complete misunderstanding of the basic idea and the carrying of it out which rules certain people who feel it their duty to instruct the committee and the people at large who are raising the memorial fountain on court house square in memory of Sheriff Petray, who was killed in line of duty.

Civic pride is more than a decorative ideal. More than anything else it stands for the performance of the public duty intrusted to him by every man however obscure or humble. Our sheriff here fell in the simple carrying out this part of the protection of the public entrusted to his charge. He fell like the Unknown Soldier without a word and bravely as a man can die.

In Sonoma county there was among the people a sentiment calling for some memorial of this man. The money was raised and the memorial was wrought through the energy and judgment of the committee headed by Judge Seawell, and now the work is ready to be set in its place on a corner of the court house square.

The memorial statue is a seated figure of Justice with sword and wreath with a fountain at each side of the enclosing wall so placed as to be easily reached by the passers-by. There is beauty as well as utility in this fountain and the judge and committeemen should be congratulated upon the success they have been enabled to achieve with no great sum of money.

There is a small model of the memorial which is to bear a brief inscription to James A. Petray and all who desire to see it should be at the meeting called in Judge Seawell’s court room Friday afternoon of this week at half-past two o’clock.

There is need in this time of confusion for anything to urge on the public mind the duty of honoring the law and obeying it. The Petray memorial fountain will speak for law and order and at the same time adorn and beautify the green before the court house. It is certain that the true benefit of the people will be conserved by this statue and that those who now at the last moment obstruct further action to put the memorial in place will upon reflection see things in a more broad and patriotic light.

– Santa Rosa Republican, November 23 1922

OPPOSE ALTERATION PETRAY MEMORIAL

The difficulty over the erection of the Petray Memorial on the court house grounds in Santa Rosa is having a reflex action among Healdsburg people, which is not conductive to furthering of wholesome relations between the two cities. Healdsburg people feel that the action by those who are opposing the continuance of the plan of erecting a memorial fountain at the northwest corner of the court house lawn is not based on a broadminded foundation, and a resentment is felt at what is considered a slur on the memory of the departed sheriff, whose demise in the line of duty was so tragic. While a beligerent protest is not being made by local people, there is considerable feeling over the objections coming from the county seat. The committee selected to erect the memorial acted entirely in the open. They considered many plans and locations, finally deciding and having a model made of the selected fountain, which was on display for many months. Harold Rosenberg, local member of the committee, does not feel that any change in the plans should be made, and he is opposed to any alteration unless something decidedly better is proposed, which he feels is unlikely, as the committee exhausted every effort in attempting to get the best memorial and location.

– Healdsburg Tribune November 23 1922

PETRAY MEMORIAL ‘KICKS’ HEARD BY COMMITTEE AT MEETING IN SANTA ROSA

A dozen persons, more or less, told the Petray memorial committee, meeting in Santa Rosa Friday afternoon, that their reasons for objecting to the placing of a memorial to Sonoma County’s martyred sheriff, James Petray, on the court house lawn. One person spoke in favor of the proposed site.

The reasons stated by the protestants ranged from the artistic — that the memorial statue would ruin the symmetry of the court house square — to morbid — that it would recall a gruesome incident in the county’s history, the slaying of the sheriff and the subsequent lynching of the men responsible.

The committee, consisting of Judge Emmet Seawell, Dr. Thomas Maclay of Petaluma, and Harold B. Rosenberg of Healdsburg, heard the various remarks, and then announced that the matter would be taken under advisement. Judge Seawell is to prepare a written proposition to be offered to will be given out next week.

According to the local member of the committee, Harold B. Rosenberg, the objectors offered no substitute plan whatever. One speaker stated that a majority of the people of Santa Rosa were in opposition to having the fountain erected on the court house grounds, but, according to Mr. Rosenberg, the committee believes this statement to be far-fetched and not based on fact.

Those who spoke against the location included Carl Bundschu, Dr. J. H. McLeod, Mrs. Chas. H. Kellogg, Dr. F. O. Pryor, J. K. Babcock, representing the men’s Bible class of the Christian church, Mrs. Clara Lemon, Miss Pauline Hahman and Mrs. James Gray.

Miss Ada C. Sweet, who spoke for the court house location, characterized the objections as far-fetched. She praised the monument as a work of art, and eulogized the heroism of the late sheriff as reasons for going ahead with the original plan.

Judge Seawell said in his introductory remarks that he did not believe the morbid viewpoint of the memorial project should be allowed to develop. He intimated that he believed the objections made so far had not disclosed the real reasons why some of the citizens do not want the memorial at the court house. He declared that after many months of work on the memorial during which there was no protest, efforts were being made now to “disrupt the plans by eleventh hour objections.”

Mrs. Clara Lemon suggested that the proper place for the monument is in the Plaza at Healdsburg, and Mr. Rosenberg said that he believed the people of that city would be happy to have it there.

“However,” Mr. Rosenberg said, “I consider this protest, coming late as it does, as untimely and unfortunate. I know that there is no man of Sonoma county who is held In higher regard in Healdsburg than Jim Petray.”

– Healdsburg Tribune, November 30 1922

PETRAY MEMORIAL PLAN RESTS WITH JUSTICE SEAWELL
NOTHING HEARD FROM PLAN, HELD UP BY SANTA ROSA OBJECTORS

The erection of the Petray Memorial, or abandonment of the plan to honor the memory of former Sheriff James A. Petray, who died in performance of the duties for the county, still rests in the hands of Associate Justice Emmet Seawell, chairman of the committee to which was entrusted the placing of the memorial on the lawn of the court house in Santa Rosa.

The base of the memorial group stands on one corner of the lawn of the court house square: the figure is in Santa Rosa ready to be put in place; all money raised for the purpose of erecting a permanent monument to the county officer who was shot dead when he and other officers went to arrest members of the notorious Howard street gang in connection with the San Francisco assault case. But at present nothing is being done, so far as can be learned, to either place the memorial as planned or to give up the project and remove the base already put in place.

…Not until the committee had decided upon the location, had selected the memorial and contracted for its construction. and the base had been put in place, did opposition to the project arise. Then a group arose to make loud and lingering protest against it.

After two hearings, in which the question was aired pro and con, Judge Seawell took the matter under consideration, with the announcement that he would, within a week or two make a decision one way or another. That was some months ago, but since that time nothing has been done and nothing has been heard from the now associate Justice of the State Supreme Court.

Among both groups, the group favorable to the memorial and that which opposes it, the matter seems to have been forgotten. But there are still some who are asking, day after day, what is to be done.

– Healdsburg Tribune, May 24 1923

COMMITTEE AT SECRET MEETING TAKES FINAL ACTION ON MONUMENT; MAY ELIMINATE FIGURE OF JUSTICE

Final decision to complete the Petray Memorial monument on the northeastern corner of the courthouse lawn, but without the figure of justice if that part of the memorial can be eliminated within the available funds, was reached yesterday afternoon at an executive session of the committee, which is composed of Justice Emmet Seawell of the State supreme court, Captain Thomas Maclay of Petaluma, and Harold Rosenberg of Healdsburg. No one attended the meeting but members of the committee and J. W. Dolliver, the designer of the monument. Newspapermen and one or two others present to hear the deliberations were asked to retire before the committee took action. The meeting was held in the afternoon, in a room of the Occidental hotel.

The meeting had been called for 11 o’clock in the morning, but late Thursday afternoon was postponed. However, members of the committee forgot to tell anybody about the postponement, with the result that a group of ten or 12 local clubwomen who have interested themselves in the matter presented themselves at the hotel in the morning, only to be told that the meeting had been postponed.

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED

The women did not appear at the afternoon session. Following is the resolution adopted by the committee after some two and a half hours’ discussion: “Whereas, The placing in the courthouse square of a memorial to the memory of the late James A. Petray, former sheriff of Sonoma county, has been opposed by certain citizens as an inappropriate place therefore; and “Whereas, None of the objections now made were made to this committee or any member thereof until after the material and labor for the construction of said memorial had been contracted for, and its construction partially completed, the cost of which corresponded to the entire amount subscribed for its construction; and Whereas the placing of said memorial has long been delayed with a view to changing the place of its location provided another suitable location should be furnished by those who opposed its location in the courthouse square and Whereas, No location or place has been offered or tendered to this committee by those who opposed the construction of said memorial upon the courthouse square; Now Therefore, it is the sense of this committee that it is its imperative duty, after notice that it would meet on this day, to finally dispose of, and determine said matters; Therefore, said committee now in session, by resolution has passed, instructs its chairman and its architect, J. W. Dolliver, to begin and press to a completion the construction of said memorial originally planned upon the place originally selected; It is further provided, that it the statue of justice which occupies a place in said memorial, and to which certain objections have been made may be eliminated therefrom and the same appropriately completed within the funds subscribed and pledged and for the purpose for which contributions were made, or further in the event said change shall exceed the amount so subscribed, and additional contributions should be made to meet the excess expense necessary to make said change said chairman and architect are authorized to eliminate said figure from the memorial as now designed. The chairman and architect are directed to begin the work of finally completing said memorial at the expiration of ten (10) days from this date and prosecute the same to speedy completion regardless of whether or not the change herein contemplated shall be provided for.”

– Press Democrat, August 25 1923

PETRAY MEMORIAL TO BE DYNAMITED SAY LETTERS RECEIVED BY PETALUMAN

Letters stating that the Petray memorial monument will be dynamited if erected on the court-house lawn were received some time ago by Captain Thomas Maclay of Petaluma, a member of the memorial committee, he revealed here yesterday at the committee meeting, called for final decision on the matter of a site for the monument.

Despite these warnings, the committee decided unanimously to go ahead with the monument as planned, with the provision that if the figure of Justice can be eliminated within the funds available or subscribed within the next ten days this change will be made.

Captain Maclay declared that he had received several intimations that the monument will be destroyed. Other members of the committee also said they had received criticisms of the proposed monument, but none which went as far us to threaten radical measures.

All members of the committee spoke of the fact that in the year elapsed since the last public meeting there had been no constructive suggestions on the part of those opposed to the placing of the monument on the court-house grounds, although their leaders had been communicated with repeatedly.

“Some people see the viciousness and sordidness in things, but never the ideals or the other beautiful phases,” Judge Seaweil said. “I would not for anything wound the feelings of people among whom I have lived most of my life, but after this matter was decided upon and the work started a few people worked themselves up to hysteria, and I cannot but believe they adopted the wrong mental viewpoint.

The women of the State were up in arms over the gangster outrages which preceded Sheriff Petray’s death, and at the time he was shot it was recognized that he lost his life at the hands of men who had attacked that which womenkind holds highest, virtue. Then, after the work was contracted for and started a few of our citizens saw red and raised vociferous objection, but to my knowledge they have never come forward with a suggestion for solving the problem.”

Walter H. Nagle, the only one at the meeting except committeemen and newspapermen, reported that one of the objectors had agreed to raise $500 to pay the [cost] of taking the monument away altogether, but committee members declared that this would not reimburse those who had contributed toward the monument.

Mr. Dolliver said that owing to the delay in constructing the monument some of the cement and other materials had become worthless, so that it will now cost more to complete the memorial than it would have at first. I. F. Lippo, the contractor, is to receive a second $500 payment immediately, and the balance of his contract will be paid upon completion of the work. This second payment will bring the amount expended from the committee funds up to $1500, and will leave $1,047.45 for other expenses.

– Press Democrat, August 25 1923

BELIEVE WORK WILL START ON PETRAY MEMORIAL REST BENCH HERE NEXT TUESDAY

According to the terms of the resolution passed at the meeting here a week ago by the Petray Memorial Committee the 10 days allowed by the committee men for the subscribing of a fund to remove the statue from the monument at the corner of the courthouse lawn will be up Monday and it is believed work on the erection of the rest bench will start the folowing Tuesday or at some date very soon thereafter.

Word was received from Judge Seawell chairman of the committee this morning that he has heard nothing from the objectors since the posing of the resolution and although it is not definitely known it is generally believed that the contingent “knocking” the memorial has not succeeded in raising the necessary fund for the alterations.

An anonymous circular letter containing a copy of a letter sent by Judge Seawell to Carl Bundschu regarding the proposed change of the statue for ornamental designs marked “Special and Confidential” has been broadcasted recently in an effort to raise the $500 stated in Judge Seawell’s letter as necessary to omit the figure of Justice.

A footnote to this letter reads as follows, “The Festival Week showed it (the memorial foundation) was an ideal location for a rest room and information booth. Those and the ice water privileges would be worth a great deal to people in the city residents and visitors.”

– Santa Rosa Republican, September 1 1923

The Tribune is glad to see that the opposition to the Petray Memorial in the courthouse lawn in Santa Rosa, has simmered down to one or two individuals and that the fountain will be erected as planned. We hardly thought that the opposition amounted to anything, despite the frantic efforts of the Santa Rosa morning newspaper some time ago to create the impression that the whole city was rising up in protest.

– Healdsburg Tribune, September 6 1923

PETRAY MEMORIAL WORK IS STARTED-ORIGINAL PLAN, INCLUDING STATUE, IS USED.

– Santa Rosa Republican, September 13 1923

SHOW FUNDS TO BE USED TO REBUILD PETRAY MEMORIAL

The proceeds of the midnight frolic held tonight at the California theater is dedicated to Sheriff James A. Petray will be turned over to the 20-30 Club to be used in remodeling the Petray memorial on the courthouse lawn – a lasting tribute to the memory of a county officer who died in performance of his duty.

Authority was given the Santa Rosa 20-30 Club at a recent meeting of the Sonoma county board of supervisors to remove the figure of Justice, central piece of the stone memorial, and to replace it with a bronze plaque, set in a concrete background of approximately the same height as the figure. Concrete benches will be placed against the stone wall that forms a half circle facing the northeast corner of Fourth street and Hinton Avenue and the whole will be colored to match the original stone.

In addition to the alterations in design, the memorial under the 20-30 Club’s plan, will when remodeled explain what the memorial is for. There is nothing on the memorial now to explain that it is dedicated to the memory of an officer who was slain in pursuance of his duty.

The plaque to be placed by the club will tell that the monument Petray, give the dates of his birth and death, and conclude, “His was a sacrifice of life for law, liberty and home.”

William Herbert, local architect, has given the memorial considerable attention and study, with the result that a design was worked out by him which will be followed by the Club in their remodeling work.

The re-building of the Petray Memorial has been one of the major programs of the local club, and while the organization has been considering the plans for some time, no definite announcement was made until every detail had been planned.

Associate Justice Emmet Sewell of the supreme court, Thomas Maclay, Pelaluma capitalist, and Harold Rosenberg, Healdsburg merchant, who composed the original memorial committee were first consulted before the plans were announced. Each of these men have endorsed the proposed change.

– Press Democrat, March 5 1932

PETRAY MEMORIAL PROJECT STARTED

“The Concrete Lady” which for several years has been the central feature of the Sheriff Petray memorial on the northeast lawn of the courthouse was removed today by William Brown, preparatory to remodeling the memorial as a project of Santa Rosa Twenty-Thirty Club…The contract was let some months ago to Brown who will install the plaque which was cast at a foundry here. Concrete work to match the stonework of the memorial base will support the plaque and will form two ornamental benches on either side of the bronze…

– Santa Rosa Republican June 21 1932

THE YEARS OF DRIVING DANGEROUSLY

April 29, 2023April 29, 2023 Jeff Elliott 1 Comment

April 1, 1916 was a grand day in Santa Rosa as an estimated 20,000 visitors – “one of the largest [crowds] ever seen here,” boasted the Press Democrat – joined residents to cheer a parade of autos two miles long. No, it wasn’t the Rose Carnival (there wasn’t one that year) but “Safety First Day” organized by town bigwigs. Hyped as being the kickoff of a new national semi-holiday, six newsreel camera crews were on hand to record the doings.

There were all manner of safety-related demonstrations. Firemen extinguished a mock fire on the roof of the Santa Rosa Savings Bank, although there was a delay because a car was illegally parked in front of the hydrant. A PG&E lineman faked electrocution (!) and was given aid by a doctor and nurse who were part of the act, which was performed so convincingly that two doctors in the audience rushed up to help. The parade included two boys carrying an enormous model of a safety pin which was a real crowd-pleaser for some reason, and the Petaluma contingent included children dressed as chickens (of course).

–

MORE FROM THE ANNALS OF BAD DRIVING

10 MPH is Fast Enough, Mr. Speed Burner (1908)

Get Off the Sidewalk, I’m Driving Here (1909)

The Rules of the Road are Relative (1911)

Driving Like a Santa Rosan (1912)

When We Began Driving Like Maniacs (1913)

But the main focus of Safety First Day was “instructing people in the rules of the road and operating of automobiles to prevent accidents.” Earlier the San Francisco Examiner promoted the event with promises that “expert drivers of motor cars will give exhibitions of the right and wrong way of driving in the city streets…drivers will give an actual demonstration how automobiles should be operated to comply with the laws” and not to be left out, “pedestrians will also be taught how to cross the streets. Dummies will be used to show how the drivers of cars have to avoid the average pedestrian who never looks up or down the street before crossing.”

Luther Burbank and his new Willys-Knight five-passenger touring car were at the front of the parade, and afterwards the Examiner quoted his enthusiastic endorsement of the event. “Such a demonstration as this is amazing…if adopted nationally it would be one of the greatest benefits to humanity. I had no idea that it would be as good as this.”

Unfortunately, a few months later our Luther was involved in a safety mishap which could have ended tragically. He and Elizabeth were driving to the movies when he confused the accelerator with the brake pedal. The big car lurched over the curb, narrowly missed a pedestrian, then crashed through the display window of the White House department store at Fourth and B streets. Burbank parked and called store owner Bill Carithers (did Burbank just walk through the broken window to use their phone?) before he and his wife proceeded with their plans to watch a romantic melodrama and a British documentary on WWI combat.

Gentle Reader might expect the most famous guy in town crashing through a plate glass window of the most popular store in town would merit more than a 200 word item on page eight of the PD. But despite the enthusiasm shown on 1916’s Safety First Day, in the following years even serious accidents became so commonplace they became back page fillers – it was rare to open the paper and not find reports of drivers and passengers being hurled out of their seats, a car “turning turtle” (flipping over) or a pedestrian being struck.

In the same issue with Burbank’s broken window there were two other major incidents reported. A driver lost his front teeth when his face smashed into the steering wheel in a collision, and a man who had been charged three days earlier for drunk driving demolished his car after it plunged over a 100-foot embankment on the Rincon Grade.

If the Press Democrat and other newspapers seemed cavalier about reckless driving and serious auto accidents, it could be they were only taking cues from the courts. In Sonoma County traffic complaints were handled by Justice Marvin Vaughan, who was on the bench 1915-1931. But until 1922, apparently no one brought before him served jail time, no matter how terrible the offense. Fines usually ranged from $5 to $100, the determining factors seeming to be whether the driver was from out of town and/or drunk. (For reference, $10 in 1920 was worth about $150 today.) Here’s an example of his lenient sentencing:

In a head-on collision on Santa Rosa Ave one of the cars flipped over, pinning Santa Rosa’s Gnesa sisters inside. (Maybe it was a family curse – four years earlier, their brother was likewise a passenger in an accident that ended with the auto upside down.) The young women were not seriously injured which the crowd that gathered thought was something of a miracle, considering both cars were pretty well trashed.

But that wasn’t the only lucky surprise that Friday night. While people were gawking at the wreckage, a car driven by Julius Momsen of Petaluma sped through the crowd, somehow managing to not hit anyone. A high-speed chase by police ended with Momsen finally stopped on the outskirts of Petaluma.

Charged with driving recklessly through the crowd and speeding, Momsen was fined all of $20. While he might have also spent a month behind bars, Justice Vaughan allowed him to have his auto “jailed” for thirty days instead.

Judge Vaughan heard all sorts of cases besides traffic (my new favorite headline: “Youth Who Stole Tinfoil Released”) and while trials were sometimes held in his courtroom, few reckless drivers faced a jury. A rare exception was when George Hedrick was charged with nearly killing Hilda Brockelman; she was walking “several feet” off the side of the road when she was struck by his car. Her neck was broken and the trial delayed for several weeks as they waited for a special neck brace to arrive so she could leave the hospital to testify. The jury couldn’t decide (the split was 10-2, with two voting for acquittal) and Hedrick – whose only defense was that he had been blinded by oncoming headlights – was not retried.

Although this article just covers dangerous driving in the six years following Safety First Day, looking farther down the road it can be seen that serious accidents were ever increasing at an alarming rate. To get a rough idea of how it progressed, I searched the Press Democrat digital archives for “reckless driving”. From 86 hits in the 1910s it jumped to 1,314 during the 1920s.

References to "reckless driving" in the Press Democrat, 1915-1929 — References to “reckless driving” in the Press Democrat, 1915-1929

While there are no official statistics for Sonoma County, we can be sure the true numbers were actually much higher. Those figures are inaccurate mainly because some combination of those two words appeared in less than half of the PD articles on the topic – recklessness was usually not mentioned because it was implied by the scenario. Also, lots of references were missed because the OCR text of the archive is mediocre, at best; in one case, it translated the headline “RECKLESS AUTOMOBILE DRIVING” into “BfiS JUTiIBBILE DRIVING” (go figure).

Driving too fast was always the main reason for accidents; state traffic law c. 1920 put the speed limit at 35, and then only when a thoroughfare was clear. A man near modern-day Rohnert Park clocked autos on the highway going 50-60 MPH but before you presume that’s still a reasonable speed, remember that cars a century ago were clunky. They were like cumbersome little tractors and keeping them on course was a constant physical fight with the steering wheel. They had no power brakes or power anything else and their pneumatic tires were forever blowing out.

Another frequent cause was not using lights after dark. Cars and trucks a century ago had carbide lamps, which had to be lit by hand and powered by a small acetylene gas tank usually mounted on the running board. Many articles about accidents mentioned a factor was having no tail light or just one working headlight, presumably to save acetylene fuel. In a 1920 incident a pair of brothers were headed home to Todd Road when their lights failed. Figuring they were close enough to make it the rest of the way by the moon they continued driving, only to have a head-on collision with another car driving in the dark.

Also mentioned by the PD were accidents caused by unskilled drivers cutting in (“if you are traveling 30 miles an hour, no other car has the right to pass you,” the paper reminded) and parents letting children under sixteen drive unsupervised. In my survey of the 1917-1922 local newspapers I didn’t find any mention of either causing an accident, but the PD and District Attorney cited these as serious problems.

Riffling through those old Press Democrats will turn up more than a few crazy stories that border Believe-it-or-Not! territory. In 1920 a Santa Rosa taxi driver and another fellow raced down the Sonoma Valley road while shooting at each other. The cabbie received “slight gunshot wounds” while the other man was taken to Judge Vaughan’s courtroom. The fine for driving too fast while blasting away at someone on a public highway was $50.

And remember the driver who crashed his car on the Rincon Grade the same day as Luther Burbank’s accident? His drunk driving arrest three days earlier was for trying to knock a streetcar off the tracks at Fourth and E streets.

There was also an alarming uptick in hit-and-run incidents starting in 1920, which I suspect was related to the enactment of Prohibition. Drunk driving was likewise on the increase and a year earlier the state had made it a felony. While Justice Vaughan can be found reducing intoxication charges to merely careless driving, no judge would be lenient with drunken yahoos who run over people. Sure, some might have been so snockered as to not realize a person had been hit, but it seems more likely many were hoping to get away without being caught in bad shape at the scene. (Fun fact: “Drunken yahoos” dates back to 1810 England and coined to mock the king’s counsellors.)

It grew so bad by 1922 even Vaughan started handling out jail time. After a hit-and-run driver struck 9 year-old Virginia Bufford while walking home from the Todd district elementary school, the judge sentenced him to a week in the county jail. Not much, but he said his decision was mitigated by the child not being seriously injured and the driver giving $55 to her family.

But the number of serious accidents kept escalating through the year, culminating in four deaths during the autumn including a Civil War vet killed as he was crossing the street in Healdsburg. One of the other victims died via a hit-and-run. There were four other hit-and-run injuries around the same time.

Following those incidents, in December 1922 District Attorney Hoyle published an unusual open letter in the Press Democrat calling for the county courts to crackdown on dangerous drivers:

“In practically every one of these cases the cause is traceable to carelessness, and in almost even case of such carelessness the person knew he was violating the law…Small fines amount to nothing. It is an indirect way of licensing these violations of the law…I shall therefore ask the magistrates of the county in all cases of these more serious violations of the Motor Vehicle act to impose prison sentences instead of fines…”

These problems were by no means unique to us; reckless driving had become a nationwide crisis and nobody had a solution. Officials like DA Hoyle said the answer was stiffer laws; preachers said it was a morality problem spurred by Demon Rum; pundits were inching their way towards calling the young people who were usually the culprits as the Roaring 20s “Lost Generation.” But in the meantime, many cities experimented with shaming the offenders.

Cartoon appearing in the October 28, 1922 Press Democrat

The PD and other papers ran articles and photo spreads of Detroit drivers being taken to hospital wards of children who had been hit. Speedsters in Cleveland were escorted to a 7 year-old girl’s burial under police guard and Los Angeles offenders scrubbed jail floors by hand. Did any of this slow down the increase in reckless driving? Look again at the chart above.

I decided to cut this horrific driving survey off at the end of 1922 because it was a watershed moment when some actually believed this problem could be solved. There may someday be a “Years of Driving Dangerously II” that continues this series but frankly, I’m not sure I have the stomach for all that mayhem.

(1921 title photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection)

SANTA ROSA HAS 1ST SAFETY 1ST DAY IN STATE
What Stuart Gayness, Automobile Editor of The Examiner, Has to Say of Tomorrow’s Big Event
(By Stuart Gayness)

Big preparations are being made for the “Safety First” day celebration which will be observed Saturday at Santa Rosa.

The City of Roses will give over the entire day to practical demonstrations of the safety first rules for motorists, pedestrians and drivers of horse-drawn vehicles. This will be the first event of its kind ever held in California, and because of the possibilities it offers for the education of the public in the safety first campaign it will probably be followed by similar events in other cities throughout the country.

Expert drivers of motor cars will give exhibitions of the right and wrong way of driving in the city streets. They will show how each driver of a machine should obey the State and city traffic laws. How the drivers should stop and let passengers alight on the sidewalks, how close to drive to a street car and when to stop for other vehicles. In fact, the drivers will give an actual demonstration how automobiles should be operated to comply with the laws and at the same time co-operate with the safety first campaign.

Pedestrians will also be taught how to cross the streets. Dummies will be used to show how the drivers of cars have to avoid the average pedestrian who never looks up or down the street before crossing. It is hoped by the Santa Rosa authorities to impress the public so strongly with the necessity of obeying the traffic laws that the safety first day will be a big factor in reducing the number of accidents in that city.

Because it places before the drivers of vehicles and the pedestrian an unusual opportunity of realizing how they endanger their lives, the safety first day would be a good idea for all cities. If every city in the country would hold an annual safety first day, at which time drivers of cars and horse-drawn vehicles and pedestrians would be shown how to follow the safety first rules, it would be a most important step in the elimination of accidents.

– Press Democrat, March 31 1916

RECKLESS DRIVE ACROSS STREETS
Collision of Cars at Fifth and B Streets — The Law Should Be Better Observed.

Fast driving at street intersections resulted in an auto accident at Fifth and B streets Thursday afternoon, shortly before 5 o’clock when Will Harris, driving a Ford truck, collided with John Keith of San Francisco, driving a small roadster, as the latter was crossing Fifth.

Harris’ car was turned completely around and an elderly gentleman, riding with Harris, was thrown out but the occupants of both cars escaped injury. What was still strange is the fact that neither car was damaged other than slight dents on the fenders.

The accident was witnessed by a number of people and a crowd quickly gathered. Mr. Harris admitted he was driving at a speed which made it impossible for him to stop when he saw Keith who had the right of way come into sight, despite the fact that he made every effort to do so.

The law is being generally ignored in Santa Rosa relative to street in intersections and it is marvelous that more serious accidents do not occur. Some one is going to be killed or maimed for life and then there will be something done to stop the unlawful speed used by auto drivers at practically every street corner.

The law is plain and distinct in giving the man to your right the right of way and it is the duty of all drivers to watch their right side and see that they keep clear of all cars coming from that direction while on the road as well as to reduce speed to ten miles per hour at intersections.

– Press Democrat, June 29 1917

DRIVES AUTO INTO AN ELECTRIC CAR
D. C. Hoffman, While Intoxicated, Tears Step off Street Car and Rips off the Side of His Automobile When He Endeavors to Bump Bigger Machine off the Track Saturday Night — Man Arrested.

D. C. Hoffman was arrested by Police Officers William Shaffer and George W. Matthews on Saturday night, charged with driving an automobile while in an intoxicated condition.

Hoffman, who had two other men with him, tried to bump the outgoing electric train at Fourth and E streets off the track. The motormän saw a reckless driver was approaching and stopped his car so as to avoid accident. Hoffman drove his auto into the electric car. tore off one of the side steps and ripped off the side of his automobile.

The charge of operating an automobile while in an intoxicated condition is a very serious one.

– Press Democrat, November 11 1917

AUTO JUMPS INTO A BIG WINDOW
Luther Burbank Puts Foot on What He Thought Was the Brake—Instead It Was “More Gas,” and Car Goes Through White House Window.

Luther Burbank accidentally drove his auto into one of the plate glass windows on the B street front of the White House shortly after 7 o’clock Wednesday evening. The big glass was shattered but beyond that no damage was done.

Mr. Burbank with his wife had driven down town to attend the Cline to see the British tanks in operation. As he drove up to the curb to park his machine he placed his foot on the brake pedal as he supposed, and when the curb was reached jammed it down hard.

The result was far from his expectations. Instead of it being the foot brake he had placed his foot on the accelerator lever and when ready to stop had given the engine a full charge of gasoline causing it to jump forward, mount the curb and dash into the window.

The error was quickly corrected but the damage was done. A man passing narrowly escaped being caught in the wild jump of the car. Both Mr. and Mrs. Burbank sat and quietly surveyed the wreck and then, without a word of comment, Mr. Burbank reversed the machine and backed it out and off the sidewalk to its place in the street at the curb. Both alighted and went to the theatre after notifying W. R. Carithers of the accident.

– Press Democrat, November 15 1917

Pays Fine of $25 for Reckless Auto Driving

Earl Ronshimer of Penngrove, charged with reckless driving when he visited Occidental last week, when a companion shot up the town, paid a fine of $25 in Justice Vaughan’s court yesterday.

– Press Democrat, January 5 1918

AUTO OWNERS IGNORE LAWS
Speeding, Head and Tail Lights, Children Driving Cars, Are Some of the More Common Infractions Which May Result in Arrest and Fines.

An auto driver was fined $5 Thursday for speeding on Humboldt avenue. He was caught, but many others escape the fine because officers cannot be everywhere at once.

Many auto owners are violating the laws by running at night with only one light in front. The law calls for two as well as a tail light. Officers will arrest all caught ignoring the law relative to lights.

Much complaint is made regarding the practice of owners allowing young children to drive their cars. Boys and girls under 16 are frequently seen driving about town and country without an older person on the front seat with them, which is unsafe and against the state law.

– Press Democrat, September 6 1918

Suggested Remedy for Reckless Auto Driving

A contributor to a San Francisco daily makes a practical suggestion for the prevention of reckless and careless driving of autos which might be put into effect with good results. He says:

To insure sobriety and carefulness, it might be advisable to revive a perfectly good law that was enforced in Athens The edict provided that a ferryman or other person engaged in transportation. who put in jeopardy the life of a Greek, such person, after being adequately punished, was forbidden ever again to ply his trade, under penalty of death. To deprive these drunken yahoos of their autos would be just and would be to them a more severe punishment than hanging.

– Press Democrat, September 19 1918

The Supervisors deprecated the dismissal of some cases in which speed violators had been allowed by certain magistrates to go with a warning when in the opinion of witnesses the punishment should have been severe. It is planned to put a check upon reckless driving, specially on the state highway, and this matter had better be understood by motorists. The two traffic officers have been cautioned to be vigilant and there is no mistake that they are.

– Press Democrat, September 21 1918

TAXI AND AUTOMOBILE IN COLLISION YESTERDAY

Reckless driving of machines in the streets of Santa Rosa is a common sight, and despite many arrests and fines in the past the practice is maintained by certain drivers, who appear to have no regard for their own safety or that of others.

Yesterday afternoon, what was described a racing taxi, crashed into the Ford auto of Richard Davis at Humboldt as the taxi was racing for the S. P. depot, upset the Ford and smashed it into a mass of ruins, narrowly escaping killing Mr. and Mrs. Davis and their three children.

The top was entirely torn to pieces, the glass windshield was crushed into fragments, a case of eggs was scattered and crushed over the car and inmates, while the occupants were buried under the car and debris. For a time it was believed a babe had been killed owing to the cries of the frightened and bruised mother, but this proved untrue.

The family was taken into the home of Justice and Mrs. M. T. Vaughan and a physician summoned, who quieted the shocked family and found that no bones had been broken. Mr. Davis appeared to be the worst injured, but it is believed he escaped any serious injury, although all suffered a terrible nervous shock. Every one who witnessed the accident agrees that the taxicab was driving at a reckless gait and was unable to stop when it was seen that an accident would occur.

– Press Democrat, December 25 1918

SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST DRIVER
James Aquistapace Arrested for Driving While Intoxicated — Narrowly Escaped Injuring Machine Loaded With Family When He Ran on to Sidewalk on Mendocino Avenue.

James Aquistapace was arrested Sunday afternoon charged with operating an automobile while intoxicated. Witnesses who saw him drive up Fifth street declare that he would undoubtedly killed Mr. Meacham, wife and baby, who were driving out Mendocino street, had he not hit the iron policeman in the street, which deflected his course sufficient to make him hit the Meacham car a glancing blow. Aquistapace went on down Mendocino avenue on the sidewalk to Fourth street before getting his car stopped.

Traffic officers placed the man under arrest and Monday he was taken before Justice Vaughan and arraigned. He asked for time to secure an attorney. Later he returned represented by Attorney Fulwider and his hearing was set for Friday morning at 10 o’clock. Aquistapace refused to answer any questions propounded by the Judge until they had been explained by one of his countrymen in his own language.

– Press Democrat, March 18 1919

JUDGE ‘UP TREE’ AS TO DISPOSITION OF AUTO HE SEIZED

After relieving J. Momsen of Petaluma of the use of his automobile for thirty days Monday, Judge Vaughan is now in a quandary as to what to do with the machine.

He has no garage of his own in which to keep the car and he could not pay storage bill at a garage out of the fine money collected. On last reports he has about decided to pass the buck to Sheriff Petray and place the machine in his charge for safekeeping for the time.

Momsen was fined $20 and relieved of his machine on two charges, one exceeding the speed limit and another of reckless driving preferred against him by Traffic Officer Long.

His arrest grew out of his driving recklessly through the crowd gathered about the accident south of town Friday evening and the subsequent chase he gave the traffic officer, who caught him on the outskirts of Petaluma.

In line with the policy of increasing severity of fines the judge decided to try jailing the machine rather than the defendant. However, in the case Momsen was given the choice of going to jail himself for relinquishing his machine for the period and he chose the latter.

– Press Democrat, March 30, 1920

SPEEDERS TO BE CURBED HERE BY MOTOR OFFICER
Council Votes Month’s Trial in Effort to Stop Reckless Driving

The city council at the mid-month meeting last night authorized Chief of Police Matthews to appoint a traffic officer with a motorcycle to watch autoists and see that the laws of city and state were better obeyed within the city limits.

The action was taken on the request of the Chief, who declared it was impossible for a policeman on foot or a bicycle to catch an autoist, and with the greatly increased traffic of the sumner months such an officer was badly needed.

The Mayor and several of the councilmen endorsed the plan and it was declared that such an officer would more than earn his salary in restricting careless and reckless drivers on the city streets. When asked if he could get a man the Chief said he had a man in view who understood his business. It was decided to try the plan out for a month and if it proved successful to keep him on all summer.

– Press Democrat, May 19 1920

TWO SPEEDING AUTO DUELISTS TO FACE COURT

Warrants for reckless driving have been sworn out in the Sonoma justice court against Constantino (Scotty) Maggiori of Santa Rosa and George F. Blanco of Vallejo, who figured in a sensational racing and shooting episode last week on the road near El Verano.

The warriors have been placed in the hands of Constable Jack Murray, with instructions to see that both men are brought into court. Indignation in the Sonoma valley has been running high since the two men took turns in passing each other at high speed and in exchanging shots on a public highway.

Maggiori, a Santa Rosa taxi-cab driver, suffered slight gunshot wounds, while his opponent in the racing and shooting was fined $50 in the Santa Rosa Justice court.

– Press Democrat, August 3 1920

BOY’S LEG BROKEN IN AUTO ACCIDENT

Raymond King, 13-year-old son of Mrs. R. King of Rincon Valley, was run down by a Ford truck on the Rincon valley road Friday morning and suffered a broken leg, and the officers are looking for B. H. Cook, who was charged with reckless driving and striking the child and failing to stop and give assistance.

The boy was brought into Santa Rosa and taken to a hospital following the accident. George M. Hansen, county traffic officer, made some inquiries into the accident and then swore to the complaint against Cook, and the warrant was issued in justice court by Judge Marvin T. Vaughan.

– Press Democrat, October 9 1920

LIGHTLESS CARS COLLIDE IN DARK
Callisa Brothers Injured Saturday Night in Collision Near Kenwood, One in Hospital

Joseph Callisa was taken to the General hospital Saturday evening, with a broken knee cap, as the result of an automobile accident which occurred near Kenwwood after dark. Louis Callisa, a brother also suffered several cuts on the nose and over his left eyebrow as a result of the collision.

The two brothers have been working at Vallejo and were on their way to the Todd District to visit their parents. Shorty after dark their lights went out for some inexplicable cause and they thought they could manage the rest of the distance, it being only about ten miles farther to their destination, without lights.

When about seven miles from Santa Rosa they collided with another machine in the dark. The second lightless machine was said to have been owned by a resident of Kenwood. Both machines were badly damaged in the smash but the occupants of the second car escaped injury.

Louis Callisa was able to proceed home after having his cuts attended by a Santa Rosa physician. His brother will be confined to the hospital for several days.

– Press Democrat, October 10 1920

Washington, Dec 8 – A total of 3,808 persons were killed in automobile accidents, or died as a result of injuries therefrom during the last year, the census bureau announced today in a statement offering suggestions for traffic improvement automobile accident death rate of 14.1 out of every 100,000 population was reported in 1919, an increase over every year since 1915 when the rate was 8.0 and an increase of 245 in the total number of deaths of 1918.

A SANTA ROSA MAN timed several automobiles traveling between 50 and 60 miles an hour at a point between Wilfred and Cotati Sunday afternoon. He secured the numbers of eight machines, one right after the other, traveling at least 15 miles an hour over the legal rate of speed…

– Press Democrat, February 17 1921

WOMAN WITH NECK BROKEN FAILS TO CONVINCE JURORS

The jury hearing the case of G. W. Hedrick, charged with reckless driving, tried in the Justice court before Judge Marvin T. Vaughan, disagreed and was discharged Thursday. The jury stood 10 for conviction and two for acquittal at the time it was discharged.

The case will come up for new trial soon Judge Vaughan stated Thursday.

Hedrick is charged with reckless driving on the highway between this city and Bellevue. The complaint states that he ran down Mrs. Hilda Brockelman who was walking south on the highway. Mrs. Brockelman’s neck was broken in the accident. She claims that at the time she was struck she was walking several feet to one side of the highway.

Hedrick claims that the lights of the car that he passed just before he hit Mrs. Brockelman blinded him and he did not see her. Mrs. Brockelman, who has been in a local hospital since the accident, was one of the witnesses for the prosecution Thursday, appearing in court with a special brace on her neck.

– Press Democrat, July 8 1921

Our Careless Pedestrians

Most of the criticism directed against reckless driving is just, and most accidents are the result of carelessness in driving. But it is absurd to make assumption that the driver is always responsible when he bumps into a pedestrian.

It has been seriously proposed in one city that killing of a pedestrian by an automobile should lead automatically to the punishment of the driver for murder. That would be as tragic a travesty on justice as to apply the same rule to railroad accidents, and always sentence the engineer for murder without hearing the evidence.

Every pedestrian knows that the community is full of careless drivers, and every motorist knows that the community is full of careless walkers. The driver of a car has the superior obligation to look out for the other fellow, because in case of a collision it is the other fellow who is likely to get hurt. But the pedestrian certainly shares the responsibility for avoiding a collision. It is up to him to take reasonable precautions for his own safety, and also to realize that even a citizen driving an automobile has traffic rights which a fellow-citizen on foot ought to respect.

– Press Democrat, December 28 1921

FRATES PLEADS HIS INNOCENCE
Man Accused of Running Down Little Girl Released on Bail of $250.

Frank Frates, who was arrested on a complaint of Miss Irene Sink, school teacher in the Todd district, charged with reckless driving and with running down little Virginia Bufford a few days ago, pleaded not guilty when brought before Judge Marvin T. Vaughan yesterday.

Frates was released on $250 bonds and is to appear in court again this morning to have a date set for the trial.

The little girl was at first thought to have been seriously injured, but it later developed that she was only slightly injured, and will soon be over her injuries.

The Bufford girl was returning from school to her home, walking along the highway when struck by a passing automobile, which did not stop. The license of the car, as taken by witnesses, is said to have corresponded with one issued to Frates.

– Press Democrat, February 1 1922

Jail Sentence for Reckless Driver

SANTA ROSA, Feb. 9. Frank Frates, accused of reckless driving, resulting in injuring a small girl near the Todd school, recently pleaded guilty to the charge before Justice M. T. Vaughan in the Justice court today and was sentenced to seven days in the county jail.

Frates had given the parents of the girl $55 and the court took into consideration his attitude to the parents in basing a decision. The court stated, however, that the reimbursing of the parents did not wholly satisfy the penalty for a criminal complaint.

Judge Vaughan stated following the trial, that the sentence was in line with the court’s policy to attempt to stock [sp] reckless automobile driving in the county.

– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, February 10 1922

Santa Rosa Youths In Petaluma Trouble

PETALUMA. April 8. Two Santa Rosa youths, said to have been drinking, were brought to town under arrest last night by Jack H. Kreitler, the well known highway official, and taken before Justice J. P. Gallagher, who fined them $50 each.

The youths were driving an auto in a reckless manner and drove through the barricades erected where repairs are under way, smashing lantern and barriers. One lantern still clung to their car when it reached this city.

They did not know how they got here or what they had been doing and both were very penitent and admitted their great wrong. They were allowed to return home, but not to drive their car. This is declared to be their first offense. Both are members of prominent families of Santa Rosa and both have good reputations, hence their names were withheld from publication.

– Press Democrat, April 9 1922

RECKLESSNESS MUST HALT

To The Press Democrat: Please grant me a little space in your valuable paper upon a very important subject.

Life is short at best, yet many a life is snuffed out prematurely either through the carelessness of himself or others. Within the last two weeks many automobile accidents have occurred in this county and people have been maimed and killed. In practically every one of these cases the cause is traceable to carelessness, and in almost even case of such carelessness the person knew he was violating the law. The automobile is here to stay, but the time has certainly arrived when there must be a more rigid enforcement of the law.

From reports received by me, speeding is not an uncommon thing; cutting-in about as common and much more dangerous, while headlights are not infrequent. These last three have caused many deaths, many cripples and the loss of much property in this county, and the time has come to call a halt. Small fines amount to nothing. It is an indirect way of licensing these violations of the law.

For the protection of life and property in the county I shall therefore ask the magistrates of the county in all cases of these more serious violations of the Motor Vehicle act to impose prison sentences instead of fines, as it seems to me to be the only way of correcting these existing conditions. The lives of our citizens are more important to the public than the occasional withdrawl of a man from society for a few days, weeks or months, while he is learning the lesson that he must respect the law and the rights of his fellow citizens. G. W. HOYLE District Attorney.

– Press Democrat, December 7 1922

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GOODBYE, GENERAL

January 29, 2020February 23, 2020 Jeff Elliott 3 Comments

Another landmark of old Santa Rosa is slated for demolition, so anyone wanting to say farewell shouldn’t dawdle. Newcomers to town during, say, the last forty years, probably don’t know about it; native Santa Rosans who are Baby Boomers (or older) were probably born in it. That place is the old General Hospital at the corner of A and 7th streets, and it still looks almost exactly as it did about a century ago, when it was built in 1922.

It was just the sort of hospital you’d expect to find here during the town’s Shadow of a Doubt years, before and after WWII. The general practitioner doctors patched up farmers gored by bulls and reckless drivers who wrecked their autos on the Redwood Highway. They removed oodles of appendixes and tons of tonsils. So many casts were made for broken arms and legs they probably used enough plaster of paris to plaster every ceiling in Paris.

The tale of Santa Rosa General Hospital neatly breaks down into three acts but before raising that curtain, a few words about why it’s being demolished: That entire block – Morgan to A street, 6th to 7th street – is to be torn down in stages in order to build the Caritas Village Project. The hospital is scheduled to be razed in early 2022 and replaced by one of two large affordable housing apartment buildings and a third large building on the block will be a family and homeless support center. The three buildings have a unified design and are quite attractive; they will surely be an asset to Santa Rosa for decades to come. But there are two really important reasons why the city should not allow them to be built at that location.

Thirty years ago in 1990, Santa Rosa (finally) recognized that much of its unique character had been heedlessly demolished. To save what little was left of its heritage, a few of the old neighborhoods were designated as Preservation Districts, with “St. Rose” being one of the first. New construction has to conform to stylistic guidelines in order to fit in with the overall look. To now exempt an entire block from both letter and spirit of the law is a dangerous precedent which could be used by developers to build anything, anywhere. And since the Caritas Village plans were developed long after this Preservation District was formed, the project backers began with the assumption that they could get away with violating city law.

The other worrisome aspect is the three-story, 42k square-foot building intended to provide one-stop services to the county’s homeless. It’s a noble idea except the location is three blocks from Courthouse Square, which only ensures that our grown grandchildren will still be avoiding downtown because of its vagrant problems. Look, Santa Rosa has a history of making foolish and short-sighted planning decisions – I’m in the middle of writing a ten-part series just about the 1960s screwups leading up to the mega-mistake of approving the shopping mall – but surely city planners recognize it’s not wise to build a magnet for the homeless so close to the city core. Final approval decisions on Caritas Village will be made in coming months (planning reviews start February 27, 2020) so let the City Council know what you think about the project.

In the spotlight for General Hospital’s Act I was Henry S. Gutermute (1865-1958), a man who had his fingers in many pies. We first met him in 1905 when he had the Maze Department Store in Petaluma, on the corner where the Bank of America now stands. Fast forward to 1915 and he’s now president of the Burke Corporation, the new owner of the Burke Sanitarium, which five years earlier had been the scene of Sonoma County’s crime of the century. To scrape away the scandal and relaunch the sanitarium they threw a luxe dinner and dance for 400 movers and shakers. What the store and the sanitarium have in common is that Gutermute liked to heavily advertise – a practice he would continue with General Hospital, although it was unusual to find newspaper ads for actual hospitals.

(RIGHT: The Devoto home at 804 Fourth st. Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library)

Meanwhile, in 1914 a large family home at 804 Fourth street, then two doors east of the county library, had been converted into a new hospital. (Compare that lost majestic home to the squat little bank bunker there now and reflect upon why it was necessary to establish the Preservation Districts.) Called the Lindsay-Thompson Hospital/Sanitarium it was similar to the Mary Jesse/Eliza Tanner Hospital, another residence turned small hospital that was a block away. Both included an operating room.

That incarnation lasted just a year before it was taken over by the Burke Corporation, meaning Gutermute and his partners. They incorporated the General Hospital Association and renamed the place “General Hospital.” Presumably their business plan was to offer a package deal with surgery in Santa Rosa and recuperation at their health resort, as many newspaper items reported patients shuffling back and forth.

For the next four years little General Hospital hummed along, with nearly daily ads in the newspapers offering “MEDICAL SURGICAL OBSTETRICAL” services. (Fun fact: In 1916, the McDonald’s and other local nabobs marched their kids over there to have their tonsils removed en masse as a preventative measure before the start of the school year.) Then came the eviction notice – the Devoto family wanted their home back in thirty days. Santa Rosa had a 1919 housing crunch because of all the soldiers returning from WWI.

Instead of renting another large house, Gutermute scrambled to construct a temporary hospital from scratch. A special session of the City Council was called to grant him permissions to build something on the corner of Seventh and A streets – and just six weeks later (!!) the new General Hospital was open for business in January, 1920.

The new hospital was composed of six “bungalow cottages.” Cecil Etheredge, the Press Democrat’s City Editor was an early patient and described the setting. (Etheredge was being hospitalized for serious injuries in the county’s first passenger airplane crash.) “The General Hospital, seen outwardly, is built of bungalows and courts, in units, connected by runways. Every part of the hospital can be connected with any other, or be entirely segregated,” he wrote. Elsewhere the “runways” were described as “covered hallways.”

Because of this design, he noted that a ward for influenza patients could be isolated from the rest of the hospital – the Spanish Flu was still on everyone’s mind, having run its course only a year earlier after killing 67 in Santa Rosa alone. “H. S. Gutermute, when he planned his new hospital, figured the only way was to build it big or capable of being made big enough for emergencies,” Etheredge wrote.

The buildings were designed by William Herbert, a Santa Rosa architect mentioned here several times earlier. (There’s no truth in the story that these were “WWI barracks” moved from somewhere else.) Four of the six cottages were patient wards; there was a separate cottage for surgery and another for the administrators and the kitchen.

Gutermute pulled out all stops for advertising his new hospital in early 1920, with a series of numbered ads in both Santa Rosa papers. The large display ads promised to give invalids better care than could be offered at home and invited the public to come down for an inspection of their new 40 bed hospital with “Automobile Ambulance at your Service.” Each ad ended with the new motto: “The hospital of the open court and spreading oaks.”

Work on the buildings continued for the next two years. The covered walkways between buildings were enclosed to become real hallways and make the separate cottages into a unified structure; a new wing was added which included a maternity ward and the exterior was given the stucco walls that are still seen today. It’s unknown if Bill Herbert was involved in these modifications and additions, but I doubt it – when Gutermute hired him in 1919 he was just starting his career and probably worked on the cheap. By 1922 he was a well-established architect in Santa Rosa; I suspect the design was done by C. A. McClure, who was (literally) the new kid on the block. More about him below.

While Gutermute continued to own the hospital until 1945, he was rarely mentioned in association with it anymore. In 1923 he opened Central Garage on Fifth street, which was a used car dealership as well as the main general auto repair shop downtown. He apparently retired after he sold the garage in 1931, listing himself in the 1940 census as “owner General Hospital.”

Also in 1923 the first baby was born in the new maternity ward; a new era began.

Act II showcases the days of Gladys Kay, the long-time manager of General Hospital. What set her apart was being one of the nicest people you could hope to meet – and that the General Hospital staff shared that spirit. Gaye LeBaron once quoted Dr. Frank Norman, who was sort of Santa Rosa’s medical historian: “Tender, loving care. That was General’s secret.”

All together now: So how nice was Gladys Kay? Before she left on a month-long vacation, the nurses threw a we’ll-miss-you party. Whenever the PD ran a letter from someone thanking General Hospital for caregiving of a loved one, Gladys Kay was singled out for kindness – today who can even imagine knowing an administrator, much less expressing personal gratitude to same?

She was promoted to the job in late 1945. Earlier that year Gutermute had sold the hospital for about $50k to MacMillan Properties, a Los Angeles corporation held by five brothers – four of them physicians and surgeons. Shortly after taking ownership they installed a new manager; the nurse who had steered the hospital since 1920, Bertha Levy, said she was tired and wanted to retire (she did, and died just a year later). They replaced her with Maxine Smith, an experienced hospital administrator who had managed two Los Angeles hospitals. She quit six months later and sued the owners, claiming they had broken their promise to give her 2½ of the gross receipts in addition to her salary, room and board.

Gladys was an unlikely pick to follow a woman with such a professional résumé. She had no management training but once was apparently a nurse, although it seems she never worked as one in Santa Rosa. Her experience here seemed limited to running a downtown children’s clothing store and teaching kids to ice skate (after her death, husband Harry said she was a “Pacific Coast figure skating champ in the old days”).

(RIGHT: Telephone switchboard at General Hospital in 1962. Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library)

When the MacMillans took over she was already working at the hospital, but we don’t know when she began; the first mention in the paper comes from 1944, when she was the night telephone operator. That job was quite a big responsibility – their switchboard was the county Doctor’s Exchange answering service, which was the equivalent of 911 medical emergency today.

Her watchful eyes behind those wingtip glasses saw General Hospital expand to 75 rooms, with two operating and two delivery rooms. The latter was particularly important because the Baby Boomer era was booming; in August, 1948, General set a monthly record of 67 deliveries, the most to date in Santa Rosa history.

Gladys had a knack for promotion. Movie theaters sometimes ran contests or giveaways tied to what was playing, and in 1949 Santa Rosa’s Tower Theater had an unusual stunt for “Welcome Stranger” (according to reviews, a particularly hackneyed Bing Crosby RomCom). Although the plot had nothing to do with childbirth or babies, the theater got local merchants to donate a free set of baby clothes, shoes, portrait, etc. to the first child born on the day the movie began playing here. General Hospital not only made the biggest splash, but it tied in Gladys herself: “IF the first baby born Sunday arrives at the GENERAL Hospital, Mother and Baby will receive FREE “ROOM and BOARD” during their stay at the GENERAL through the courtesy of Mrs Gladys Kay manager of the hospital.” (Alas, baby Gail Elaine Franks was born at the County Hospital instead.)

Her greatest challenge was also PR related: How could General coexist with Memorial Hospital once the 800 lb. gorilla entered the playing field? Memorial was to open on New Year’s Day 1950, and a year before that she began running large newspaper ads (with her name and phone number at the bottom, natch) promoting General as additionally being a long-term care facility for the chronically ill and elderly. Then she announced their eight bed maternity ward would soon be closing because they expected most women would give birth at Memorial once it opened, and sent a letter to all 78 local practicing physicians asking if they had “further need” of General. Intended or not, this was a master stroke. From the Press Democrat:

Earlier reports to the contrary, the surgical and maternity services will be continued “if business continues on like this,” Mrs. Gladys Kay, hospital manager, said. She said the public “phoned and phoned” in answer to a disclosure by her earlier this month that insufficient hospital business in these two services might lead to their discontinuance. She said local doctors also have responded to the dilemma and that things are “picking up.”

Gladys had won the battle; not only did the MacMillans keep it open but added a new surgery and an additional 25 bed, $150k wing designed by Santa Rosa’s leading architect, Cal Caulkins.

Alas, the momentum only lasted so long; the trend in modern medicine was swinging away from General’s casual, homey approach to Memorial’s network of efficient clinicians and specialists (County Hospital, too, had become a major competitor). General Hospital really did close its maternity ward in 1957 when they were down to 20 births a month. Although Gladys didn’t retire until 1963, the hospital’s best days were in the rearview mirror.

General Hospital’s final act began about forty years ago and is still not quite over.

In 1966 the MacMillans sunk $50,000 expanding the hospital staff and adding new equipment; in 1969 the plan was to promote the place as cardiac specialists, with state-of-the-art gear such as an “external pace-maker” and a “mobile coronary rescue ambulance.” (Later they would boast of a “computerized E.C.G. machine, from which heart tracings are transferred by telephone and readings teletyped back within two minutes.”) Come 1971 and the big deal was their new 24-hour emergency room, complete with an emergency phone number (still no 911 services). Finally the MacMillans gave up and sold the whole works to Memorial Hospital in 1979.

(RIGHT: General Hospital operating rooms in 1962. Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library)

Gone were the big ads with photos of smiling doctors, laughing nurses and even their orderlies and “Green Lady” volunteers; there were no more promises that the hospital was “purposely overstaffed” (“it is the hospital’s aim to make its patients feel at home during their stay”). All that the new administrator, who was brought in from Memorial, advertised was their new St. Rose Alcoholism Recovery Center with its 3-week program and AA meetings, foreshadowing what was to come.

The staff expected Memorial would eventually close the place; they watched as all their expensive medical equipment was wending its way across town, even if Memorial Hospital didn’t need it – Gaye LeBaron had an item about a resuscitator device for newborns being turned into a tropical fish tank. But it still came as a shock to the 134 employees to discover on May 31, 1984, that Santa Rosa General would be closing in 60 days – and they learned about it from reading the newspaper.

“Honk If You Will Miss Us,” read a heartbreaking banner outside the entrance as the last days ticked by and staff members struggled to find new jobs, a problem made worse because Memorial also canned 40 of its own employees at about the same time. Memorial claimed the closure and layoffs were due to anticipated lower Medicare reimbursements, but Memorial Hospital was also in negotiations with the nurse’s union over hours and an increase in pay, with the administrators being quite clear there would be major cutbacks before they made any bargaining concessions.

For about a year the St. Rose Recovery Center was the only occupant of the old hospital, but even that program was moved in April, 1985 to another building nearby which was also owned by Memorial: 600 Morgan street. For the first time in its 65 year history, General Hospital was now empty and quiet. Memorial considered putting it up for sale with an asking price of $2M; the city floated the idea of leveling the buildings for a 300-space parking lot. Can’t have enough parking meters!

The modern homeless-centric era began in 1987, when the Salvation Army wanted to use the hospital building as an emergency 250-bed winter shelter. When the charity, neighbors and members from the Sonoma County Task Force on the Homeless toured the facility, they found squatters living there. One of them, Jerry Rioux, a former carny, gave them an impromptu tour. “I am here to set your mind at ease. This is a great place.” Rioux even offered his services to repair the damage he had caused while breaking in to the building.

Although the Board of Supervisors called the county’s homeless problem “staggering,” they balked at the $20,000 startup cost at first, which caused the shelter to delay opening until February, 1988. Even with that money, the Salvation Army lost $30,000 running the shelter for four months and couldn’t afford to offer it again next winter.

And so we arrive at Santa Rosa General Hospital’s last occupant: Catholic Charities. On Christmas, 1989 they opened their year-round shelter, the Family Support Center, which is still there as of this writing.

In the thirty years since, both the city and Catholic Charities have become more invested in concentrating the homeless in that particular block. In 1992, Santa Rosa used $102k in redevelopment funds to remodel 600 Morgan street as Catholic Charities’ homeless service center. That former home and the hospital were still owned by Memorial and used by Catholic Charities rent-free until they were finally sold to CC in 2015. After the last family moved away last year, Catholic Charities now owns the whole block.

According to current plans the first notable building to be torn down will be “Casa del Sol,” the four-unit apartment building at 608 Morgan Street. Although it was built in 1922, the same year General Hospital was finished, it was never associated with the hospital, as the classified sections in the old newspapers frequently advertise the apartments for rent. The architect was C. A. McClure, who was selling blueprints of this same design to others around Santa Rosa. Also in 1922 a developer used the plans to build the two apartment buildings at 422-426 Humboldt street which are still there – in the center of that courtyard the owner had a canary aviary, since the entire nation was inexplicably going canary crazy at the time.

Should the schedule hold, General Hospital will be demolished on February 1, 2022 because as Catholic Charities’ consultant wrote in the DEIR, the place has absolutely no importance: “[It] is not associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local, regional, or national history…[it] does not meet the criteria for individual significance and is therefore recommended not eligible for listing on national, state, or local historic registers nor as a contributor to the historic district.”

To that consultant all I can say is this: Do better research. Reading the old newspapers I am stunned at the affection our community expressed for that hospital over its 60+ years. If that engagement with the hospital doesn’t show “a significant contribution” to local history, I think you’ve got your criterion screwed on backwards.

But come 2022 and we find bulldozers awaiting, let’s form a caravan of vehicles down A street that morning and give that old dear a last resounding honk. Yes, General Hospital, we will miss you, deeply. Or should.

1941 view of Santa Rosa General Hospital. Photo courtesy Sonoma County Library

2020 view of former Santa Rosa General Hospital

DEVOTO HOME BEING MADE INTO HOSPITAL

The remodeling of the former David Devoto home on Fourth street, to be used as a sanitarium, is in progress. The work is to he completed about the first of October, when Mrs. Margaret Lindsey Thompson, formerly associated with a prominent San Francisco hospital, will conduct a modern sanitarium. The Devotos are at present residing on McDonald avenue.

– Press Democrat, September 15 1914

NEW HOSPITAL IS NOW OPEN
The Lindsay-Thompson Sanitarium, Located on Fourth Street, Admirably Arranged

The Lindsay-Thompson hospital, which occupied the former Devoto residence near the corner of E street on Fourth, has been opened, with Mrs. Margaret Lindsay-Thompson as manager. The big place has been ideally fitted up for a hospital and the large, dry and well ventilated rooms have been comfortably furnished according o the most approved methods for hospitals.

The hospital has all the latest appointments required by medical science and this is particularly noticeable in the operating room, which is equipped with automatic sterilizer and everything calculated to be of service and benefit to the sick and injured…

– Press Democrat, September 29 1914

ARTICLES OF GENERAL HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION FILED HERE ON MONDAY

In the office of County Clerk W. W. Felt on Monday articles of incorporation of the General Hospital Association were filed. The incorporators are H. S. Gutermute, A. G. Burns and J. C. Hardin. The two former, Messrs. Gutermute and Burns, are at the head of Burke’s Sanitarium here, Mr. Burns being the manager.

As the name of the concern indicates it is for the management of hospitals, etc. Recently it was mentioned that the Lindsay-Thompson Hospital, in this city, had been taken over by the Burke Sanitarium and in this connection the articles of incorporation were probably filed on Monday. The capital stock of the association is $25,000.

– Press Democrat, October 19 1915

BUNGALOWS FOR NEW HOSPITAL
Construction Work on Cottages for the General Hospital Will Be Commenced Today on Minnehan Property.

The General Hospital, conducted for several years past by H. S. Gutermute in the Devoto Home on Fourth street, will be quartered in cottages to be erected on the Minnehan tract within another month, if the plans now under way are successfully carried out.

Mr. Devoto, having decided to take possession of his property, has served Mr. Gutermute with notice to vacate within thirty days, hence the hurried decision to prepare a new home.

William Herbert, the architect, has prepared plans for a series of five bungalow cottages, and W. L. Proctor has been given the contract to erect them on the property at the southwest corner of Seventh and A streets.

The plans were approved Monday afternoon by the city council at a special session, and work on construction will be commenced at once. It is expected lumber will begin to arrive on the lots this morning and a large force of men will be put to work, so construction may be rushed to an early completion.

The plans provide for a series of six bungalow cottages of frame type. There will be an administration building in the center facing Seventh street, with a large court in front. This will give office quarters, matron’s room, reception hall and room with dining-room and kitchen.

Leading from this will be covered hallways connecting four other bungalows which will be used as hospital wards, and one which will be devoted to operation and anesthetic rooms, drug quarters and store-rooms. These will be on either side of the administration quarters and constructed in this manner all will get the sun all day and be extremely well lighted.

– Press Democrat, October 28 1919

General Hospital Moves To New Location in A St

The work of moving the General Hospital from its location in Fourth street to the new headquarters in A street started Thursday. It will be the middle of next week before the institution is installed in the new cottages, that have been built at A and Seventh streets.

The Devoto home, where the hospital has been established, will be remodeled and the family will occupy it after the first of the year.

– Santa Rosa Republican, December 12 1919

WHERE THE SICK ARE CARED FOR
By C. W. ETHEREDGE

Some weeks ago Ad-Man Banker strolled over to my desk, struggled simultaneously with his moustache and tongue, and finally asked me if ever I did any special stuff, which may mean anything in a newspaper office.

When he said he wanted me to go down and look at the General Hospital and tell Press Democrat readers what I found there. I assured him he was fishing in the wrong creek, but I’d lend him The Walrus to look things over.

In the course of some days she produced (The Walrus is a she) an article and story which was as good as anyone could do on that kind of an inspection – but now I have been here two weeks in person, and I’m glad to tell Santa Rosa people some of the nice healthy and handy things they have lying around loose, unknown or unappreciated except by those who have been in hospital.

H. S. Gutermute, when he planned his new hospital, figured the only way was to build it big or capable of being made big enough for emergencies. That day has nearly arrived, and a chain of sickness and accidents resulted in nearly every room and ward filled. One thing was certain, there were no spare nurses anywhere, and I felt pretty lucky with my chances in getting a private nurse for a couple of weeks.

The General Hospital, seen outwardly, is built of bungalows and courts, in units, connected by runways. Every part of the hospital can be connected with any other, or be entirely segregated. A “flu” ward can be (doesn’t happen to be, though) located across a court and yardway, and I wouldn’t have as much chance of getting the flu as if I were running around loose.

It is this convenience of operation. connection or segregation, which today makes life cast in happier lines, provided you have to be sick, than before Mr. Gutermute carried his plans to completion.

– Press Democrat, February 22 1920

MODERN APARTMENT HOUSE COMPLETED

Santa Rosa’s newest apartment house built by C. A. McClure at 608 Washington street, is completed. and waa thrown open to inspection for the first time Sunday.

The building follows the mission style of architecture, with stucco finish, and is one of the most pleasing in the city. Each apartment has four rooms, and is equipped with all modem conveniences. Hot water is furnished day and night from an electrically heated boiler, which serves all apartments.

– Press Democrat, July 25 1922

Building Moved Next To General Hospital

H. S. Gutermute, who recently purchased the one-story building opposite the Press Democrat office, has moved the building to his property next to the General Hospital on A street, and will transform it into a stuccoed – finish store building for rental purposes, he said Tuesday.

The fact that an attractive store building next to the hospital will hide from the view of hospital patients the sheet metal warehouses on A street caused him to place tiie building in its present location, Gutermute said. Land between the store and the hospital will lie planted with greenery.

Gutermute purchased the building from Thomas Sullivan, mover. He intends to place a new wall on the north side of the building and to renovate and plaster the interior.

– Press Democrat, November 22 1922

General Hospital Is Improved To Meet Increasing Demands

Santa Rosa now has a bungalow type hospital with more than 17,000 square feet of floor space, with 75 rooms and 50 beds for patients, which has been thoroughly equipped with all modern facilities and conveniences. With its medical, surgical and obstetrical wards it can care for all cases from the city and surrounding country for some time to come.

The hospital is owned and operated by H. S. Gutermute, who built up the Burke Sanitarium into a strong establishment in five years and then came into Santa Rosa, where he established the General Hospital in the old Devoto home in Fourth street. Two years later he was forced out when the war-time demand for houses made it necessary for Mr. Devoto to return to the house to reside.

At that time Mr. Gutermute erected the first unit of the bungalow type of hospital to house the General Hospital. This he has improved and added a second unit and completed the exterior with a stucco finish. The new unit in the form of a wing gives 25 additional rooms and has been set apart to include the maternity ward.

FORM OF CAPITAL LETTER

The hospital, which is in the form of a large letter “E” facing the East, is located on the old Menihan property at the southwest corner of A and Seventh streets. The lot is 300 by 125 feet, and the building is 220 feet long, with the three wings 104 feet each. The lot is large enough to allow a fourth wing to be added at any time in the future there is a demand for additional rooms. The building is nestled beneath the large live oak trees, giving it a very pleasant and inviting appearance.

The main entrance, lobby, reception room and office is between the north and middle wings. In addition there are four surgical, three X-ray, two delivery, three utility and seven staff rooms, besides the dining room, kitchen and store rooms. There are two large utility and numerous private bath rooms throughout the building.

The floors of the maternity wing are double and covered with brown battleship linoleum, while the corridor floors are carpeted with sound-proof rubber. The corridors are heated with gas radiators, and there ate electric heaters in each room. All rooms have running hot and cold water.

The furnishings are all of the best quality. The beds are of the latest adjustable type such as are used in some of the largest and most important eastern hospitals, including that provided by Henry Ford for his hospital at his factory.

The maternity wing has been added at the special solicitation of many physicians, who saw the needs of the city in that direction and the requirements of the future. It is expected the ward will be used more and more now that it is available at really less expense than cases ran be cared for at home.

Mr. Gutermute, in speaking of the hospital and its recent enlargement, said he hoped no one would misunderstand and think he was making a mint of money from the Institution, as, in fact, he said, he had been compelled frequently to take money from other enterprises he is engaged in, to meet hospital bills, as the expenses of upkeep and maintenance steadily grow regardless of the amount of business handled. With the enlarged capacity and facilities it is expected the income will increase accordingly as it becomes more widely used.

The Institution is open to all physicians, and already more than a dozen in this city, Sebastopol and other nearby points are using it in serious cases. The management assures all of the best possible care and treatment.

The new hospital will be thrown open for public inspection Thursday afternoon and evening, when all physicians and the public generally are cordially invited to call and inspect the place.

Mr. Gutermute has gathered a very efficient staff of trained workers about him for handling the work of the hospital. Several have been in his employ for five years or more, while all are loyal, experienced workers.

Miss Bertha Levy, the matron in charge, is a graduate of Lane hospital, San Francisco, and has had years of practical experience in such work. She was one of the first nurses Mr. Gutermute secured and she is considered the best in her work to be found. She is always pleasant and agreeable to all with whom she comes in contact and has proved herself an admirable executive.

Miss Elizabeth Tanner is in charge of the maternity ward. She too is a graduate of Lane’s and has proved her worth by faithful continued service in the institution.

Miss Myrna Ewing, who is head of the surgical yvard, is a graduate of the Mt. Zion hospital, San Francisco, and is faithful and efficient in her work.

Miss Mario Behrns, a graduate of the Alameda county hospital, and Miss Marie Darcy, graduate of the Idaho state hospital, have been with the hospital for several years. Mrs. Swisier is the night nurse while the Misses Naoma Pitkins and May Mendoca are two undergraduate nurses doing faithful work under instruction.

In addition the staff has a cook who has been there for several years, a maid, porter and yard man to keep the place up in proper condition.

It has been well said that a building does not make a hospital any more than a house makes a home. It is the care and treatment afforded by the staff, the kindly and courteous little attentions given patients which goes to make up the hospital as it does the home. All of these are afforded nf the General Hospital.

– Press Democrat, December 10 1922

1922

A HATED CORNER OF COURTHOUSE SQUARE

BIG LEAGUE BASEBALL GAME PLAN STARTED HERE TO GET FUNDS FOR JIM PETRAY MEMORIAL MONUMENT

BABE RUTH MAY PLAY BALL HERE

MONEY POURS IN FOR PETRAY GAME TUESDAY

JUDGE SEAWELL TO HEAD PETRAY MEMORIAL BOARD

SELECTED MEMORIAL FOR LATE SHERIFF

PETRAY MEMORIAL MODEL INSPECTED

PETRAY MEMORIAL ARRIVES AT SANTA ROSA

OPPOSITION TO LOCATION OF THE PETRAY MEMORIAL

THE PETRAY MEMORIAL

OPPOSE ALTERATION PETRAY MEMORIAL

PETRAY MEMORIAL ‘KICKS’ HEARD BY COMMITTEE AT MEETING IN SANTA ROSA

PETRAY MEMORIAL PLAN RESTS WITH JUSTICE SEAWELL
NOTHING HEARD FROM PLAN, HELD UP BY SANTA ROSA OBJECTORS

COMMITTEE AT SECRET MEETING TAKES FINAL ACTION ON MONUMENT; MAY ELIMINATE FIGURE OF JUSTICE

PETRAY MEMORIAL TO BE DYNAMITED SAY LETTERS RECEIVED BY PETALUMAN

BELIEVE WORK WILL START ON PETRAY MEMORIAL REST BENCH HERE NEXT TUESDAY

PETRAY MEMORIAL WORK IS STARTED-ORIGINAL PLAN, INCLUDING STATUE, IS USED.

SHOW FUNDS TO BE USED TO REBUILD PETRAY MEMORIAL

PETRAY MEMORIAL PROJECT STARTED

THE YEARS OF DRIVING DANGEROUSLY

MORE FROM THE ANNALS OF BAD DRIVING

10 MPH is Fast Enough, Mr. Speed Burner (1908)

Get Off the Sidewalk, I’m Driving Here (1909)

The Rules of the Road are Relative (1911)

Driving Like a Santa Rosan (1912)

When We Began Driving Like Maniacs (1913)

GOODBYE, GENERAL

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BIG LEAGUE BASEBALL GAME PLAN STARTED HERE TO GET FUNDS FOR JIM PETRAY MEMORIAL MONUMENT

BABE RUTH MAY PLAY BALL HERE

MONEY POURS IN FOR PETRAY GAME TUESDAY

JUDGE SEAWELL TO HEAD PETRAY MEMORIAL BOARD

SELECTED MEMORIAL FOR LATE SHERIFF

PETRAY MEMORIAL MODEL INSPECTED

PETRAY MEMORIAL ARRIVES AT SANTA ROSA

OPPOSITION TO LOCATION OF THE PETRAY MEMORIAL

THE PETRAY MEMORIAL

OPPOSE ALTERATION PETRAY MEMORIAL

PETRAY MEMORIAL ‘KICKS’ HEARD BY COMMITTEE AT MEETING IN SANTA ROSA

PETRAY MEMORIAL PLAN RESTS WITH JUSTICE SEAWELL NOTHING HEARD FROM PLAN, HELD UP BY SANTA ROSA OBJECTORS

COMMITTEE AT SECRET MEETING TAKES FINAL ACTION ON MONUMENT; MAY ELIMINATE FIGURE OF JUSTICE

PETRAY MEMORIAL TO BE DYNAMITED SAY LETTERS RECEIVED BY PETALUMAN

BELIEVE WORK WILL START ON PETRAY MEMORIAL REST BENCH HERE NEXT TUESDAY

PETRAY MEMORIAL WORK IS STARTED-ORIGINAL PLAN, INCLUDING STATUE, IS USED.

SHOW FUNDS TO BE USED TO REBUILD PETRAY MEMORIAL

PETRAY MEMORIAL PROJECT STARTED

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MORE FROM THE ANNALS OF BAD DRIVING 10 MPH is Fast Enough, Mr. Speed Burner (1908) Get Off the Sidewalk, I’m Driving Here (1909) The Rules of the Road are Relative (1911) Driving Like a Santa Rosan (1912) When We Began Driving Like Maniacs (1913)

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Subscribe to SantaRosaHistory.com blog via Email

PETRAY MEMORIAL PLAN RESTS WITH JUSTICE SEAWELL
NOTHING HEARD FROM PLAN, HELD UP BY SANTA ROSA OBJECTORS

MORE FROM THE ANNALS OF BAD DRIVING

10 MPH is Fast Enough, Mr. Speed Burner (1908)

Get Off the Sidewalk, I’m Driving Here (1909)

The Rules of the Road are Relative (1911)

Driving Like a Santa Rosan (1912)

When We Began Driving Like Maniacs (1913)