Final Inventory of the Schuhmann Hotel
And Interpretation of Original Hotel Layout
Analysis of hotel
architecture and contents from inventory and mortgage of chattels lists, just
prior to Elsa M. Schuhmann Vanderschoot sale to the William B. and Grace
Findley 10/25/46,
Inventory taken from: Agreement to Sell and Buy Land, Amendment
of Agreement to Sell and Buy Land, Between Elsa Martha (Schuhmann) Vanderschoot
and Olgeird O. Kulak, 1946 Book 730 pp. 223 - 227
Sonoma County Recorder’s Office
The Mortgage of Chattels list was an accounting from the
final sale of the hotel from the Schuhmann family to the Findley family in 1947.
It’ contents were essentially the same as the inventory list. Why the Elsa and
the Kulaks were involved with a prior sale agreement so soon before and then
the land was sold to the Findleys, remains a mystery.
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 second floor common kitchen area)
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, washstand
(mortgage chattels list has bedroom #6 on first floor, same
as bedroom #1 but a 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 drain board, 1 swing faucet
-(this the sink is currently in a tin shed in the back yard)
Hall, big enough for 50 lb ice box, (this would
either be in the stairway or along by the community kitchen; the community
kitchen is currently Ron Zak’s studio where one wall was removed)
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 two bedrooms are not numbered but appear as on the
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 the ‘Miss Lee Douglas’ building (reference
1), currently the apartment conjoined to the hotel on the south.
three porch configurations are listed:
1st floor 2 tables, 4 benches, 1 rocker
2nd floor? 2 tables, 4 benches (but list layout
appears to have two porches located as on first floor
3rd 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 E. Schuhmann, would have been one of the early phone operators
in Sonoma)
-all beds on first floor have linen, blankets and bedspreads
Interpretation of
Original Hotel Configuration
The main hotel building has three doors. There is a main, porch
side front entry that faces west. The only first floor numbered guest room was
off of this entry. The rest of the adjacent area here would have been check-in,
lobby and an open area with a fireplace.
The north side door leads to a hall and the main staircase
to the guest rooms above. Immediately upon entering there is a door and
staircase to the right that leads down to a partial basement and storage area.
The basement is underneath the current front apartment kitchen and living room.
Wire lined fabricated glass shelving indicate a fancy enough method of keeping
glass and kitchenware. This type of glass shelving may have been used in other
parts of the hotel and not the basement.
The north side door entry leads straight south down a hall
and then to the staircase that turns back north. To the immediate left of the
north entry is a door to the original first floor bathroom. Above this on the
second floor is another bathroom, the plumbing for which comes down through the
first floor bath ceiling.
As you proceed down the hall, at the turn where the stairs
lead back north, you can see where previous doorways and/or open entries led to
the front part of the first floor and back into the kitchen, dining area. This
is consistent with current owner Cheryll (Bauer) Powers memories as a child, of
the whole first floor being essentially open.
To the left as you get to the main staircase is a door
leading to a closet. Inside the closet is access to a 50’, stone-lined dug
well. The well is pretty much in the center of the building. This well was
filled in with pea gravel as part of county code requirements for putting in a
new septic system on the property in 2013. When the hotel was operating, the
well would likely have had a hand pump. Easy access to the well pump from the first
floor kitchen would have been necessary.
The final door to the main hotel is on the south side. This
door was perhaps the private entry for the dwelling unit of the owners/
hotelkeepers, as well as a back door to the kitchen and dining area.
The hotel’s kitchen, service room, small dining room and
bath are probably in the general location of the current apartment # 2, Fred
and Kim’s apartment. The hotel’s first floor bathroom is the same as the
current breaker box room and would have had a door from the north hall and
perhaps also another door from the keeper’s dwelling unit.
The current breaker box room is a jumble of plumbing and
wiring. The old toilet is in place, a toilet of some age and character. As
mentioned, this bathroom was perhaps adjoined by another door, to the old
kitchen and private quarters of the owner/ operators. The two first floor un-numbered
bedrooms would have been located in this private dwelling area.
The current apartment #2 bedroom has a drop ceiling. The
space for this bedroom, two small closets and small bath has been remodeled and
carved out of a space that previously had a 10’ 3” ceiling. The whole first and
second floors have spacious 10’ 3” ceilings.
The location of the hotel’s main dining room is open to
question. If the first floor was mostly open and it also had a small private
dwelling/ keeper’s unit, the logical place for a dining area would have been by
the south facing windows by the south door. This is where the current apartment
#2 living room is located. This dining area would likely have extended towards
the west and into the front of the building where a wall now divides the living
area of apartment number #2 from the later added bathroom of the front
apartment.
The old kitchen and six burner gas stove was in all
likelihood right under where a vent hole is located on the east wall. There are
two old doorframes leading into the old kitchen. One of these, on the north,
has been closed in and now serves as narrow shelf unit. This doorway would have
led to the un-numbered first floor bedrooms, an access to the well pump and a
door to the bathroom. The west door into
the kitchen would have served to be able to close it off from the dining area.
One thing about the current kitchen and the sink put in by
Greg Ubaldi, son of the current owners: the plumbing appears to be a later
addition as it goes through the outside of the building. It’s possible the old
sink was closer over to the northeast corner so it could tap into the existing
plumbing from the first and second floor bathrooms. This would explain why a
new sink was put in by Greg at a later date. The kitchen got remodeled as part
of configuring apartment #2 on the first floor. The plumbing from the sink put
in by Greg and the second floor sink plumbed through the outside of the
building both met at a Roman style sump box and from there went into a pipe to
the old septic tank. This has all been changed over to flow into the new septic
system.
The upshot here: the stove, sink and original kitchen
location had to be somewhere in the current vicinity of the apartment # 2 kitchen.
A clue may be in the size of the windows. The current apartment #2 bedroom and
bathroom windows are smaller and set higher up on the wall. This may indicate
that a stove and sink were over in the northeast corner, so they could be up
against the wall but still have a window.
Greg Ubaldi says the current sink in unit #2 came from the
little yellow house to the north, at 19434 8th Street East; the
yellow house kitchen had been remodeled to a more modern style. (2) Greg put
this old sink and metal cabinet into the kitchen of unit #2. (3) In the process
of putting this sink in, part of the original kitchen cabinets were cut out,
two drawers and two bottom doors, so as to center the sink and supporting metal
cabinet unit with the window. Previously, another part of the original built-in
wood cabinet was cut to accommodate the refrigerator.
There is an old sink/ drain board out back in a metal shed.
This sink may be from the original kitchen or from the second floor common
kitchen.
The original plumbing was limited to two previously
mentioned bathrooms, the first floor kitchen and a second floor common kitchen.
Clay pipes led to a built-in septic tank behind the old water tower. The water
tower was equal in height to the second floor kitchen, thereby providing enough
pressure to supply the hotel’s bath and cooking needs without using an electric
pump. When Cheryll (Bauer) Powers was a child, a working windmill was associated
with the water tower and outside well.
The outside well, if original or deepened from the original
is relatively shallow. In dry years the well goes dry late in the fall. Being
close to Arroyo Seco, the well, when dry, is responsive to rain; one good rain
brings it back.
The final inventory and chattel mortgage indicate that there
were 12 numbered bedrooms. The items left on the final inventory in 1946 show
there were at least 12 bed sets and sets of towels etcetera. This supports the
claim that there were 12 numbered guest rooms. The original Schuhmann Resort
was therefore a 12-room hotel in terms of total guest occupancy. One of those 12 units had two bedrooms and a
living room. This two-bedroom/ living room unit was on the second floor,
southwest quadrant.
When the rooms are added up now it does not seem to quite
fit, 12 rooms seems too many. It must be kept in mind that after the Schuhmann
family sold the hotel to the Findleys, there was plenty of time for remodeling,
which would have taken away evidence of the original layout.
It’s possible the Schuhmann family lived in the second floor
two-bedroom quarters. They also could have lived in buildings existing either
to the north or south of the hotel.
The main first floor dining room area was big enough to have
4 tables and 15 chairs. The first floor also had a jukebox, a piano and a heating
stove. This would have taken up at least a quarter or more of the space on the
first floor. As mentioned, the north entry hall that led to the staircase also
led to the dining area and was open to the west towards a lobby adjacent to the
front (west ) door. A fire place was located in this area as well.
The kitchen and owner’s/ keeper’s quarters were kept
separate and off to the east side of the first floor. Convoluted homer remodeling
jobs have obscured the exact configuration of this keeper’s quarters but we
know there had to be privacy and also access to the well pump and bathroom.
The current wall between the apartment #2 living room and
the front apartment bathroom is an addition, as is the front apartment bathroom
itself. A break in the wainscoting that continues on either side of the wall shows
where the original wall was located. The fireplace and main chimney is behind
the wall of the current front apartment bathroom and kitchen. The chimney goes
down to the basement where there is a clean out. Old doorways, now closed off,
connected the first floor dining room, lobby, hallway and staircase.
A dance floor is noted as being off the main floor. The only
location this dance floor could be is in the Miss Lee Douglas building. If the actual
dining room had 4 tables and 15 chairs, it’s not likely that it doubled as
dance floor if the dance floor itself already had 1 table and 8 benches plus
stationary benches. Long-term tenant Ron Zak confirms that when he moved here
35 plus years ago, the Miss Lee Douglas building had an open floor. There is a
former door opening from the current front apartment into the Miss Lee Douglas
building, what would have been an entry to the dance floor. People could have
eaten dinner, passed time in the lobby, had a few drinks, put on some music or
struck up the band and went on in to
dance.
The Miss Lee Douglas building has been remodeled a number of
times, with two separate additions put on, most likely by the Findleys and then
later the Bauer/ Powers. The first addition extended the roofline to the east
and put a bathroom in adjacent to the bathroom in the hotel front apartment.
This area was apparently an office area for the Findleys. The last addition was
for the current kitchen.
When Greg Ubaldi worked on the roof of the Miss Lee Douglas
building he saw that the building had siding on the north side, indicating it
had been built as a stand-alone structure before the hotel was built in 1913-14.
That the building pre-dates the hotel is also corroborated by the League For
Historic Preservation’s note. (1)
The Miss Lee Douglas building would have been in
substantially better condition in 1913-14 when the hotel was built.
Greg Ubaldi also remembers that there were 4 cabins on the
Rambo parcel to the south of the hotel, none houses, but cabin size, like at
Von Sydow’s, each with a small porch. One or two of these were torn down with
an Army tank when this parcel was sold by Grace Findley for the current
industrial park, where Sonoma Door and Sash is currently located. A main
building with outlying cabins, as seen at Von Sydow’s and Schuhmann’s, was a
typical resort configuration.
The inventory list gives some indication of where the
original hotel rooms were located. The remodeling by the Findleys after
purchase from Elsa Schuhmann in 1947 shows up with closed in door frames, new
dividing walls, and plumbing added to the exterior of the building on the
second and third floors.
The second floor landing has two doors, one each to the east
and west. Each door had a doorbell. This indicates the north first floor entry
door must have been left open and the first floor hall doors able to be closed
and locked to keep the kitchen, lobby area, dining room and numbered first
floor room private while providing access to rental and/or hotel room
quarters.
The second floor landing east door opens to two rooms, a
bathroom, a room with a small sink, and an alternate staircase leading up to
the third floor. The bathroom was original and the staircase gave access to it
from the units on the third floor. The sink area is an addition because the
plumbing was put on the outside of the building. The exact number of hotel
rooms that were in this second floor segment was probably two. Ron Zak said
there were two rooms.
The second floor landing west door led to the double room
unit, the common kitchen and one more small unit. There must have been a hall
or some common access to the porch. This area has been remodeled as Ron Zak’s
art studio, archives and photo lab.
The third floor, accessed by the main staircase, had to have
six or more hotel units, (to make it all add up to 12) some of which or all had
private access to the second floor bathroom.
The bathroom and kitchen currently on the third floor were later
additions as all the plumbing is on the exterior of the building. The third
floor bathroom stack ties into the bathrooms of the Miss Lee Douglas Building
and the current front apartment bathroom.
The hotel has double-hung wood casement windows with lead
weights and wavy glass. At one time they were painted red and the siding white.
The old windows were replaced in apartment #2 probably because the building had
settled. The door and window frames on the south side are not currently square.
The settling of the building perhaps relates to the fact that the original
gutters were made of wood and over time they would have failed leading to
unwanted splash-back and possible rotting/termite activity on some of the wood
supports below, on top of the foundation.
The trouble area is right where apartment #2 adjoins the Miss Lee
Douglas building.
As mentioned there is a basement below the northwest
quadrant of the hotel with a door and staircase down to it. The basement fills
with water during wet year rainy seasons.
Other local basements fill with water too as the water table and Arroyo
Seco is about equivalent for some months. Other local homeowners essentially
pump out the water table during this time and keep 7th Street East
ditches constantly flooded. The 50’ dug well could be the primary cause of
basement flooding in wet years. A sump
pump, now dysfunctional, was put in to pump flooded water out in wet years. The
sump outlet pipe went out to where the septic field is now. Water may also have entered the basement from unwanted
splash-back resulting from bad gutters.
From the 1947 inventory, with 80 or more place settings, 20
meat platters, 78 dinner plates and soup bowls: supports early I-T ads, that
the resort put on pretty big outdoor events, with seating for 300, 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.
These tables and chairs were probably stored in the carriage house, an area to
the northeast of where the water tower footprint still remains. The foundations
of the carriage house remain but are crumbling fast.
As evidenced by the 125 beer glasses and ethnic Germans
running the show, we can surmise that beer drinking, dancing and home made
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
and was a huge deal socially. The type of glassware shows beer was more
important to these people than wine.
Along the eastern border of the property there is an
existing stonewall which supports the bank of Arroyo Seco. This wall is falling
down in some places and has near it remnant fence posts and fencing. Various
pipes go out that way, some maybe for gas to light lanterns at tent camping
pads. Some grey water was probably discharged into to the creek.
A line of buckeye trees marks the boundary of the former
Rambo parcel that was later sold by Grace Findley to make the current
industrial park to the south.
References
(1) Sonoma League for Historic Preservation, Historical
Survey, date printed 11/29/08, 6 photos present
- no citations, no indication of author
Sometime after 1898, lot #513 was owned by Miss Lee Douglas.
“…where she had a small residence. It is this single story structure, on the
south side, around which the three story building was built by the Schumanns”
(2) The cabin behind the yellow house has a bathroom in
which is a unique, old style sink.
(3) When the new septic system went in in 2013, there was
some question if the interior plumbing would need to be remodeled or if it could
be grandfathered in as a pre-1960s job. I did some research to show that the
landlord would not need to remodel. The kitchen units were all old enough to be
grandfathered. All that would be necessary were low-flow toilets.
Sink Styles
• By the 1950s, the
porcelain-coated metal sink hadn't varied much in design. Bathroom sinks were
previously hung on walls, but in the 1950s installing sinks into cabinets
became popular. Kitchen sinks were sold as a kitchen unit: a cabinet
with a porcelain-over-metal sink. Often single or double molded drain boards
flanked the deep single or double sink basin. The sink was dropped into the
cabinet or was molded and affixed to a metal or wood cabinet beneath. Today's
marketplace offers a variety of 1950s sinks for sale.
•
The sink style and metal cabinet style at 19550
8th Street East is clearly a 1940s- 1950s style, click on the links
below to see examples. The one in unit #2 is a double drain board with metal
cabinet. The first floor front aparment has essentially the same unit, same
sink type, with fancier cabinet.
•
Youngstown sinks is a 1950s brand. It is the
same brand, Youngstown by Mullins as
in the front apartment.
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