Schuhmann Hotel chattel mortgage analysis

Fred Allebach

PO Box 351, Vineburg, CA 95487

Analysis of hotel from inventory and mortgage of chattels lists, just prior of Elsa M. Schuhmann Vanderschoot sale to the William B.  and Grace Findley 10/25/46

There are two lists on the 10/25/46 document, the inventory list and the mortgage chattels list. Both list essentially the same information but with some differences and in different orders. In the following text I point out the differences, reconcile where possible and try to reconstruct what the actual configuration of the working hotel might have been.

FIRST FLOOR

Main floor dining room,  4 tables and 15 chairs, juke box, piano, heating stove

-this could have doubled as a dance floor with furniture cleared out

Small dining room, 3 tables, 10 chairs (shown as first floor on inventory list, could be on second floor)

Kitchen, 8 burner gas range, table, 6 chairs

-at one time between 70 and 80 silverware place settings

-20 beer mugs with figures, 32 gold rim beer glasses, 15 green beer mugs, 16 large beer glasses, 41 beer glasses with handles, 125 beer glasses in total

-28 wine glasses, 26 cocktail glasses, 40 water glasses

-20 meat platters, 8 vegetable dishes, 78 soup and dinner plates, 30 salt and pepper shakers, 6 coffee pots, 2 large soup pots, 5 enamel pitchers

-4 chambers (seeing as how only one bathroom is noted and that the plumbing was all added onto the building after it was built, “chambers” could be chamber pots)

Service room, 1 large table, 1 small table, 5 chairs, 1 refrigerator

Dance floor off main floor, 1 table, 4 large benches, stationary benches, 4 small benches

Bedroom w/ dresser, chair, bed, wash stands (inventory and mortgage lists same)

Bedroom, 4 chairs (mortgage list adds 1 bedspring mattress)

Bedroom #1 first floor, 1 double bed, dresser, chairs, small table, wash stand

(mortgage chattels list has bedroom # 6 on first floor, same as #1 but single bed, hard to tell)

Bathroom, 1 chair and equipment (prob. in location of circuit breaker room now)

Porch, 2 tables, 4 benches, 1 rocker

SECOND FLOOR

community kitchen, 1 table, 4 chairs, 1 stand, three burner gas and oven stove, 1 sink and drainboard, 1 swing faucet

-is this the sink in Colleen’s shed?

Hall, big enough for 50 lb ice box

Bedroom #8, 1 bed, dresser, chair, small table

Bedroom #9, 2 bedrooms, 1 living room, 2 beds, 2 dressers, 3 chairs, 2 tables, 1 rocker

Bedroom #10, 1 bed, 1 chair, small table/dresser

Bedroom# 11, 1 table, 4 chairs, 2 broken chairs

Bedroom #12, 1 bed, 1 chair, 2 dressers

(mortgage list seems to show bedrooms 10, 11 and 12 on second floor, hard to tell how they set up the lists)

Second floor porch, 1 table, 2 benches

THIRD FLOOR

porch, 2 tables, 4 benches?

Bedroom Breakdown

-bedroom #1: one double bed, dresser, chairs, small table, wash stand

-numbered bedrooms 2,3,4,5,7 are the same as #1 contents-wise, #6 is same as #1 but single bed instead of double, no floor location indicated for #s 2-7

-this means that bedrooms 8,9,10,11 and 12 are of different configurations than #1, could be double or single beds, or rooms just furnished diff than #1

-bedroom #8 does not say if single or double bed

-#9 is special unit, 2 bedrooms with a living room, doesn’t say if beds are double or single

inventory list bedrooms: 13 total listed,

-first floor: 2 un-numbered bedrooms, #1,

-second floor: #8, 10, 11, 12

-2.3.4.5,7 listed but with no floor

-#9 missing

mortgage of chattels list bedrooms: 14 total listed

-first floor: 2 un-numbered bedrooms, #1, #6

-second floor: #8,9,10,11,12

-2,3,4,5,7 listed but with no floor

total bedrooms:

-13 from inventory list, 14 from mortgage list

-12 numbered bedrooms,

-6 double bed units furnished like #1,

-the remaining 6 beds (8-12) could be double or single beds, or rooms just furnished differently than #1

-2 un-numbered bedrooms, seems like on first floor

-#9 special unit is perhaps second floor by where Zak took out wall

-if 8 and 9 are on the second floor and #1 plus two un-numbered on the first floor, and numbers are sequential by floor, then 2-7 would be on the first and second floors, 10-12  would be on third floor, more or less

-from how lists are ordered, it seems first floor has:

-dining room, kitchen, service room, 3 bedrooms (#1 is double bed, other first floor 2 bedrooms are not numbered but appear as on first floor according to layout of the lists, this could be because they were not for rent and for the keepers and/or owners),

-small dining room could be first or second floor, probably second floor

-dance floor is probably Colleen’s apt. (peak-roof building adjoined to hotel on the south side)

three porch configurations are listed:

1^st floor 2 tables, 4 benches, 1 rocker

2^nd floor? 2 tables, 4 benches (but list layout appears to have two porches located as on first floor

3^rd floor? 1 table, 2 benches

Extra supplies,

-12 sheets, 12 face towels, 10 bath towels

-telephone (Florence Bill, sister of Phillip C. Bill, husband of Johanna Schuhmann, would have been the one and only operator ever in Sonoma)

-all beds on first floor have linen, blankets and bedspreads

Some Interpretation

---they had at least 12 bed sets, towels etc, which corroborates that there were 12 guest rooms, it was a 12 room hotel in terms of guest occupancy, with one of those 12 units having two bedrooms and a living room

---the kitchen, service room, small dining room and bath are probably in location of Fred and Kim’s apt. (Unit #2) and the breaker box room

--- the sink in Colleen’s shed may be from the original main kitchen or from the second floor community kitchen

---Greg Ubaldi says the sink in unit #2 now maybe came from the little yellow house at 19434 8^th. Street East

---main dining room was big enough to have 4 tables and 15 chairs, juke box, piano, heating stove, would have taken up a goodly space on the first floor

---if you have 3 bedrooms or more plus kitchen, dining room, service room, bath on the first floor and then a dance floor off the main floor, then it makes sense that Colleen’s apt. (south adjoined building) was the location of the dance floor, if the actual dining room had 4 tables and 15 chairs, not likely that it doubled as dance floor if dance floor itself already had 1 table and 8 benches plus stationary benches

-Ron Zak corroborates that when he moved here 30 plus years ago, what is now Colleen’s apt. had an open floor

---when Greg Ubaldi worked on the roof he saw that Colleen’s apt. had siding on the north side, indicating it had been built as a stand-alone building before the hotel was built in 1913-14, so the south extension on the hotel actually predates the hotel, this building would have been in substantially better condition in 1913-14 when the hotel was built

---is there a former doorway to Colleen’s inside Ally’s apt.? or did people have to enter the dance floor from outside?

---Greg also said there were 4 cabins on the Rambo parcel, none houses, but cabin size, like at Von Sydow’s, each with a small porch, one or two of these were torn down when this parcel was sold by Grace Findley

---Cheryll Powers remembers the whole first floor of the main hotel being open, which indicates extensive remodeling by the Findleys after purchase from Elsa Schuhmann in 1947, Fred and Kim’s bedroom in unit #2 has a drop ceiling and the bath/shower/closets abut to former bathroom with high ceilings, the wall between Fred and Kim’s and Ally’s bath appears to be added, would be interesting to look for previous opening from Ally’s bed/bath area to Colleen’s, interesting to reconstruct the original configuration, there is also a fireplace/ main chimney behind the wall of Ally’s bathroom and kitchen

---there is a 50’ plus stone lined well inside the building, inside the second closet to the left inside north entry, this well has been filled in with pea gravel as per County rules concerning new septic system permits

---convenient kitchen access to the well would have meant that the current walls into Fred and Kim’s apt. were added

---there is a basement below the northwest quadrant of the hotel with a door and staircase down; the basement fills with water during wet year rainy seasons, other local basements fill with water as well, as the water table/ and Arroyo Seco are about equivalent for some months, other local home owners essentially pump out the water table during this time and keep 7^th Street East ditches constantly flooded

---from this 1947 inventory, with 80 or more place settings, 20 meat platters, 78 dinner plates and soup bowls: corroborates early I-T ads (seating for 300), that the resort put on pretty big outdoor events, not a small potatoes enterprise in the Valley, they must have had a lot of tables, enough to serve 80 or more and been used to shuffling chairs and tables all around

---by the 125 beer glasses and ethnic Germans, beer drinking, dancing/ dance floor, music were important entertainment activities, as with many people at a similar level of technological development to the Schumanns in 1912 - 38, the dance is a huge deal socially; by the glasses, beer was more important to these people than wine

---there is an existing stone wall which supports the bank of Arroyo Seco, it is falling down in some places and has remnant fence posts and fencing, various pipes go out that way, some maybe for gas to light lanterns at tent camping pads