Thursday, June 18, 2020

A MODEST LITTLE HOTEL


Illustration of John Hooper's hotel at Big Trees Grove from Santa Cruz County, California: Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, Fine Residences, Public Buildings, Manufactories, Hotels, Farm Scenes, Business Houses, Schools, Churches, Mines, Mills, Etc.…With Historical Sketch of the County by S.H. Willey, 1879.
In August 1876 Laura J. Dakin of Vermont made a return visit to Big Trees Grove. She was last there just a few months prior in May, camping out with friends in the solitude of the grove. She fondly recalled “… their white tents, camp chairs, movable stove, [and] wagons [which] ... made a picture to be remembered." 

"... I still had that memory in my mind when I visited the place again the first week in August, expecting to find it quiet and deserted, only waiting for our party to break the stillness, but with a sudden turning of the road, lo! A modest little hotel seemed almost to strike you in the face, it rises so unexpectedly, with its very new boards and white-wash, its rows of small windows, open mouthed door, and ‘ice cream’ sign.”

‘“Why, I did not know any one lived here,’ I exclaimed, with an indefinite idea that they or I were trespassing.”

‘“Oh, yes! Somebody has rented the grove for five years,’ I am informed, and somehow I don’t like the idea of so much civilization just at first but when I see the many improvements in and about the grove I begin to feel reconciled.”

In addition to the hotel, those improvements included a log footbridge across the San Lorenzo River and many rustic tables scattered about. The “man of the house” responsible for the improvements was the grove’s first manager, John Hooper, who began a lease on May 12, 1876. 

Ms. Dakin’s delightful account of Hooper’s new resort is the earliest by a visitor yet found.

Source: “The Santa Cruz Big Trees,” by Laura J. Dakin, Express and Standard, [Newport, Vermont], September 26, 1876.

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