Title History of Lot 513, Sonoma, CA

Title History of Out Lot 513

One Hundred Years After Otto Schuhmann

Sonoma was established as a California Mission in 1823 and as a presidio or military garrison in 1836. The original town layout in 1836 had the core of town divided up into a square pattern of smaller lots with the Plaza at the north/center. The “out lots” were larger in size and outside the core area. The out lots lay between Sonoma Creek on the west and Arroyo Seco on the east. The town’s northern boundary was up against the foothills. The southern boundary of town proper was approximately where Napa Road is now with the out lots extending further south towards the marsh lands of San Pablo Bay. Out lot 513 was an original lot of the town of Sonoma. Some of the of lots were not purchased right off and it took them a few years to move, hence the 1852 date of the first granting of out lot 513, which I will refer to also as lot 513.

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was the first grantor of lot 513 in 1852. Vallejo granted deed not as owner but as mayor of Sonoma.

The original and existing out lot 513 is bounded by Arroyo Seco on the east, France Street on the south, 8^th Street East on the west and Napa Street East on the north. The lot has a distinctive shape and location that is easy to recognize and locate. Lot 513 is directly east of the Plaza; the northern boundary of lot 513, Napa Street East, goes straight to the southern boundary of the Plaza.

In 1861 John G. McCrackin came into ownership of lot 513. For more on McCrackin see Arthur Dawson’s manuscript on lot 522. Other early owners of note: Charles van Geldern, Robert Douglas Sr., William A. Berry and David Burris.

The Douglas family was involved in the property from 1869-1913, 44 years, although not with continuous title. The property was at one time referred to as “the old Douglas place”.  For example, a 5/2/1914 Index-Tribune note states “Expected to open in about 6 weeks is the three story hotel being built by Otto Schumann on the old Douglas place at Buena Vista Station…”

The 1875 Otto Von Geldern map shows D. Bradford owning the lower portion, the lot appearing to be divided with a small parcel and illegible owner at the north end. Thus began a series of acreage fractioning of which this text is an effort to unravel.

From 1880 through early 1941, lot 513 had passenger rail service, with Buena Vista Station and a siding located immediately west of the property. For reference, the station was directly west of parcel 1 (of lot 513) on the 12/08/09 Assessor’s map. In 2014 a 6x6 post and a few other pieces of wood and hardware are all that remain of the station.

The 1898 County Atlas shows Fred White owning lot 513 and holding 14.5 acres, which is close to if not the original amount of land for the entire lot. The lot directly to the west was owned by Fredericka Rufus. In 1898 the Estate of Moses Heller is directly east of lot #513 and bordered by property of Jacob Gundlach to the south. The Estate(s) of Kate Johnson include one very large holding that encompasses all of Lovall Valley from the county line to Arroyo Seco, this conjoins with estate of Moses Heller. Kate Johnson also has another holding just north of Buena Vista Station.

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” (A)

Starting in 1908 or before, a series of title transactions involving the Douglas family and the Estate of Robert W. Douglas end up with Louisa A. Douglas owning 3 acres, “more or less” of the northern portion of the lot. Of these 3 acres, in 1910, Louisa sells 1.5 acres to Arthur and Essie Rambo. At this time, Oscar Studley owned the whole southern portion of lot 513 down to France Street.

On 5/4/1912 enter my central characters, Otto and Clara Schuhmann, who buy 1.89 acres of the “northerly part of lot 513” from Louisa A. Douglas. This transaction was signed in the presence of Robert A. Poppe as notary.

At this point it would be worthwhile to note that the eastern side of Sonoma Valley was populated by many German immigrants. This occurred through a process known as chain migration, during the second great wave of immigration to the US from 1880 through 1910. Otto Schuhmann immigrated in 1907 at age 49. On the 1910 Census he is listed as a hired man in the household of Carl Dressel (1). All of Otto’s family was German born and immigrated soon after. Perhaps by coincidence the east valley German influence was such that 8^th Street East was at one time called Germania Street.

A look at the surnames of parcel holders on the early maps shows many Germans on the east side of the valley. A study of the surnames on headstones on the Mountain Cemetery shows many Germans as well. Some of the best known early founders of Sonoma were German or German speaking immigrants, Schocken, Poppe, Rufus, Duhring, Rubke, Pauli, Ritz and so on.

It is fitting then that in early 1913 Otto and Clara Schumann bought .68 acres from Louisa Douglas, gaining railroad frontage just north of the Rambo lot and began to build the three-story Schumann Hotel fronting Germania Street, overlooking the Sonoma Valley to the west. The hotel was completed in 1914 and operated in the family as a resort/ hotel until Otto’s death in 1939.

Otto and Clara Schuhmann were lesser-known players during the heralded resort era of Sonoma Valley. Their hotel and resort was directly adjacent to Buena Vista Station and siding. Bay Area rail tourists could stop at the corner, take transit to the Buena Vista winery, other local Buena Vista villas, cross the street to Von Sydow’s and fill a gallon jug with wine and/ or head over to the Springs.

Unfortunately for the Schuhmanns, Prohibition came into effect only 5 or so years after the hotel was built and lasted until 1933. Not good for a beer drinking German subculture and a hotel that had more than 125 beer mugs as part of its inventory. (2) Yet bootlegging went on up the Lovall Valley hills as evidenced by an I-T note about Ted Riboni having 40 to 50 stills there and in Cavedale.  Undoubtedly the Schuhmanns had their run-ins with the law during Prohibition as it is unimaginable they stopped drinking for 14 years.

In1914 the Schuhmann tract took in all the northern portion of lot 513 except for the Rambo parcel. Schumann land wrapped the Rambo parcel to the east and both Rambo and Schumann bordered Studley to the south. The 1.5 acre Rambo parcel did not extend east to Arroyo Seco. This Rambo parcel was immediately south of the hotel and is now occupied by Sonoma Door and Sash at 19554 8^th Street East. This fraction of Lot 513 now extends to Arroyo Seco and is currently owned by “Chicken Jerry” Marino.

In late 1922 Otto Schumann, perhaps in capacity as “the mayor of Buena Vista” (I-T 8/25/17), signed a quitclaim deed with Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co. to grant the railroad a right of way, “a parcel of land 55’ in width, 27 ½’  from the centerline of the rail road, as located on 8^th Street East or Germania Street, between Denmark Street and the Northerly line of United States Street (Napa Street), a  distance of 3950” more or less”. This is clearly Schuhmann granting title to land he did not personally own. This deed stands the test of time as it is referred to in future deeds concerning any transactions with railroad frontage along lot 513.

In late 1927, Essie Rambo sold her portion of lot 513 to Catherine Fitzgerald. The county grantor/ grantee books show the Fitzgerald family as quite the Sonoma County real estate wheeler-dealers.  In 1937 Otto Schuhmann buys the 1.5 acre Rambo lot from Catherine thereby aggregating the Schuhmann Empire to its maximum extent of 4.07 acres. This includes the original 1.89 and .68 from Louisa Douglas and then the 1.5 Rambo acreage. This purchase then gives Schuhmann a straight east-west southern boundary which seems to have stayed in place ever since.

Clara Schuhmann died in March of 1932. The resort era and the Schuhmann’s lives were winding down. In December of 1938 Otto made a gift deed of his lot 513 property to his eldest daughter Elsa Martha Schuhmann. The acreage at this point is listed as follows: first tract, 2 parcels, 1.89 acres, second tract 1.5 acres, to the south. The .68 is not mentioned and here my exact acreage math starts to deteriorate. Yet I assume the property still adds up to 4.07 acres and contains all of the northern portion, no Schell-Vista fire station yet. And in November of 1939 Otto Schuhmann died.

Allow me to provide some context for what follows. Elsa Martha Schuhmann was registered to vote in a 1940 Buena Vista primary election and presumably she lived at the hotel/ resort. The 1940 Sonoma Census had Elsa Martha as a 59-year-old head of household; she was “resort manager”, of her own resort, working 48 hours a week. She had an 8^th grade education. In 1935 she lived in San Francisco. After her father died in 1939 she must have moved to Sonoma.

In 1941 Elsa married Felix J. Vanderschoot Sr. in Reno. They then lived in Napa. For the next 5 or so years Elsa must have rented or leased the hotel/ resort, until 4/46 and thus begins a complicated series of transactions with multiple changes of ownership and divvying up of acreage fractions which culminates in Elsa selling the whole property in 5/47 to William B. and Grace E. Findley.

In April of 1946 Elsa Vanderschoot agrees to sell 2 acres “more or less”, the hotel and its contents to Olgierd O. Kulak. Olgierd was “a married man of the County of Sonoma…by occupation hotel keeper”. To be sold: “A portion of the premises known as Schumann’s Resort located on the Vineburg Road…and the fixtures thereon ”, “the southerly line of which is approximately 210 feet northerly from the most southerly line of land owned by the seller on said Vineburg Road and having a frontage of 276 feet more or less” and extending east from RR frontage to the middle of Arroyo Seco, together with furniture, equipment and fixtures described in attached inventory (2) The total sale price was $12,500. If the seller can’t deliver a good title, “the buyer has the option to lease said property for 5 years at $175.00 per month.”

The above description leaves Elsa with land still south, which would be the Rambo parcel, perhaps extended to Arroyo Seco as a separate unit, perhaps in the original size. The “two acres more or less” fits the original 1.89 acre description, that of the hotel parcel. There were a number of dwelling units, two cabins, on this parcel at the time, since demolished.

In June of 1946 Elsa and Olgierd modify their sale agreement to include water rights stipulations. Olgierd has to give water rights to Elsa, “to the house belonging to the seller and adjoining the property sold on the northeasterly side and to the two cabins owned by the seller on property adjoining the property sold on the southwesterly side, all water necessary for reasonable domestic use…” and seller agrees to pay buyer $2.00 a month for the water. There were two parcels with cabins/ buildings adjoining the hotel parcel that Olgierd was buying, one to the north and one to the south. As I read it, the two cabins in question were probably on the Rambo parcel to the south, one possibly a former Douglas residence and since demolished to make way for the industrial park now owned by Chicken Jerry Marino. However an alternate reading could mean those “cabins” to the north at the current 19434 8^th Street East, even though one is a small house. That house could have been a cabin at the time and later had an addition to the west which now has the upstairs porch over it. At any rate, Elsa was securing water rights to satellite parcels from a probable central well on the parcel being sold. (4)

In September of 1946 Elsa and Irne O. Kulak Olgierd’s wife, grant Olgierd 1.5 acres, the same size as the Rambo parcel. This then leaves Elsa with the fraction of property north of the hotel, 19434 8th Street East, with the little yellow house with the upstairs porch and the cabin out back by Arroyo Seco.

I believe Olgierd and Irne were long-term (up to 32 years) employees of the Schuhmann’s and that Olgierd was the Schuhmann’s hotelkeeper almost from the beginning in 1914. That Irne would become a joint tenant and listed as a co-grantor with Elsa would fit Elsa showing loyalty and respect to someone almost like family. That Olgierd, as buyer, would have the option to lease the whole kit and caboodle speaks to that he was already running the hotel, and listed in deed documents as a hotelkeeper by occupation.

Various Schuhmann Resort ads in the I-T mention Hungarian Cooking. That the Kulaks were Slavic gave an ethnic twist, albeit not Hungarian, to what the Schuhmann Resort could offer dining-wise. It’s a reasonable surmise that Olgierd O. Kulak and Irne O. Kulak are somehow connected with the Hungarian cooking yet as I’ve discovered in this business, what once may seem reasonable can quickly become wrong.

Olgierd is a Polish first name. Kulak is a Slavic/ Russian word meaning fist, tight fisted or alternately, a yeoman farmer. “Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent farmers in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union. The word kulak originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire who emerged from the peasantry and became wealthy following the Stolypin reform, which began in 1906.

According to the political theory of Marxism-Leninism of the early 20th century, the kulaks were class enemies of the poorer peasants.” (3)

Before the final sale to the Kulaks, Elsa is challenged by the Executor of the Last Will of Otto Schuhmann and the Administratrix of the Estate of Clara Schuhmann. I take this to mean that Elsa’s siblings, Johanna E. Bill (married to Phillip C. Bill) and Gerhardt Schuhmann, challenged the sale and Elsa’s right to solely dispose of the family property. Elsa prevails and the titles are quieted. In one decree Elsa keeps title to .68 acres, in another she retains title to the “first tract, parcels one and two, 1.89 acres”.

The acreage gets mixed up here as to how much got sold to who, how much is left where, all kinds of wheeling and dealing is coming up in the next half year, but this will, as I said, come out in the wash when Elsa sells everything to William B. and Grace E. Findley in 1947.

Here’s where things get interesting, in April of 1947 “Olgierd O. Kulak of Rt. 2, Box 106, Sonoma, intends to sell to Florence Cleaver Welch of 3855 California Street, San Francisco, “all rights, title and interest in and to that certain business known as “Laguna Resort”, located at Rt. 2, Box 106, Buena Vista, Sonoma…including all furniture, fixtures, equipment etc…”, “that said sale will be consummated on 5/1/47”.

This is the first mention of any “Laguna Resort”, which could be the cabins/small homes to the south of the hotel, on the Rambo fraction or the current yellow house and cabin to the north at 19434 8^th Street East. It could also be the main hotel renamed. The fact that it is called “a business” and not referred to as a parcel could mean something as well.

This Laguna Resort could be the mythical operation of ill repute of local lore.  Since Kulak is selling it to Cleaver Welch, this would have made it run by the Kulaks at a prior time, during the World War 2 years. Florence Cleaver Welch would only have had it a short while, as Elsa regains the property and sells to the Findleys only one month later. Of course the Laguna Resort could also be read as being the renamed Schuhmann Resort, the main hotel. From the deeds, it’s not clear what acreage the Laguna Resort might be.

There are rumors and local lore that during the WW2 era the hotel building itself was a house of ill repute. There is speculation that men from the Mare Island shipyards took the train over to Buena Vista Station and then disembarked for the hotel. There are possible pictures of girls on the front balconies.

Yet, a Cleaver Welch “Buena Vista Resort” brochure from this era seems to be family oriented, offering home cooked meals and “good old fashioned hospitality”.  But the brochure also mentions offering massage, frequently a code for prostitution. Against this theory: “Masseur in attendance daily”, a masseur is usually a man and men are not usually prostitutes.  

Robert Parmelee says the whorehouse rumor is “way over-rated”. Bob says there is no reliable information to back this up. In Bob’s astute analysis, Sonoma Valley was not known for prostitution. Resorts would maybe rent a cabin or an annex to a contractor who would run a brothel on the side; it would be a satellite to the main resort business; the owners knew nothing and did not ask questions. For guests, collateral services could be arranged. There would be cottages to rent out, i.e. the “cabin” at 19434 8^th Street East (which had a full bath) or the shed at 19550 8^th St. East (no bath), that’s how they would do it, during the slow season, as a winter business, and/or as a satellite operation, families would not see it. You don’t want to wreck the regular business, which was family and church oriented, from San Francisco.

The purported prostitution could have all been at Von Sydow’s. There was a whole backroom, card-playing scene over there (Neal Bertlin personal communication), plus cabins.

On April 28, 1947, water rights are still being ironed out: Elsa waives and releases water rights to Kulak and for $800.00 any previous agreements about water are null and void. Elsa’s rights of way for road purposes are released and waived on the Kulak’s property. Railroad right of way agreements made by Otto Schuhmann in 1922 still stand and are not waived.

Here’s a good example of why legalese is hard to understand: “…to the use in common with the owner or owners of the remainder of the Schuhmann property of such rights and rights of way or in derogation of dimunition (sic) thereof, nor of any agreement for water pipe line easement made by me or granted to me by said O.O. Kulak or his successor assigns”.  Absent hiring a lawyer and a surveyor to interpret this in plain English, details presented by an amateur like me will fall through the cracks. Some of the legalese plain does not make sense.

Regardless of legalese, there is reference to the “remainder of the Schuhmann property”, and so not all was sold to the Kulaks, a clue as to the fractions involved. That remaining exclusively with Elsa seems to be the most northerly part, 19434 8^th Street East, as per the September 1946 grant from Elsa to Olgierd.

April 28, 1947 was a big day for lot 513. Florence Cleaver Welch grants Elsa a water pipe easement.  Grantor: “Florence Cleaver Welch, sole owner of parcel #1, a portion of out lot 513 of 1.51 acres, bounded by Arroyo Seco on E ad RR on W”. The grantee: “E. Vanderschoot, owner of lands adjoining said parcel #1 and lying to the north thereof” is parcel #2. Property adjoining parcel #1 on the south would be parcel #3.

The upshot of this: Florence appears to be sole owner of the hotel parcel at this point even though there has only been notice of intended sale and the sale date (5/1/47) has not arrived yet. Florence grants Elsa rights to water pipes and maintenance across Florence’s parcel  #1, which is sandwiched between Elsa’s parcels #2 and 3. Parcel #1 is the hotel parcel and #2 and #3 are the 19434 8^th Street East and Rambo parcels, respectively. 

Florence Cleaver Welch and her husband Joe put out a brochure for the Buena Vista Resort, undated, but clearly showing a photo of the hotel. They list themselves as owner-managers. For what duration the Cleaver Welches managed but did not own or both is open to question.  At least from September of 1946 to April of 1947, eight months, the Cleaver Welches could have been the proprietors. September of 1946 is when Olgierd was granted the hotel parcel. The Cleaver Welches could have leased from Olgierd and perhaps Elsa before that.

We’ve been on April 28^th 1947; now on April 29, Olgierd Kulak grants Florence Cleaver Welch 1.51 acres, a portion of out lot 513. Then there is a bill of sale and inventory of the exact same hotel contents and inventory that Elsa previously sold to Kulak on April of 1946. But then on 5/7/47, a week later, Elsa sells 2.14 acres to the William B. and Grace Findley and in 1964 when Grace Findley dies, the property is restored to its 4. some acre size, with 4 parcels, 1 and 2 with no acreage given, #3 is 2.14 acres, #4 is 1.51 acres.

Somehow I’m missing a few grantor/ grantee pieces and I’m certainly missing the reasons why this all transpired in such a complicated way. After the Findleys come in there are no more Kolaks or Cleaver Welches and the property seems to revert to its size at the max extent of the Schuhmann Empire. In July of 1949, Florence Cleaver Welch gives a notice of intent to sell alcoholic beverages, in Boyes Hot Springs; she is then out of the Schuhmann/ Kolak picture.

The trees and grass grow out back and all is silent on this land as to what transpired in the past. Some of these land transactions may never be accurately reconstructed.  

At the advent of the Findley era, 5/7/47, the resort begins to be converted to apartments. The Findleys keep an apartment on the first floor, probably unit #2, (my apartment) and used the dance floor, the southerly adjoining apartment to the main hotel, as an office. This dance floor is the same building referred in reference (A) as the home of Miss Lee Douglas.

The Findleys come up on weekends from San Francisco. William B. Findley was a shipbuilding engineer for WW2 ships at Marinship, at the north end of Sausalito, 3 miles from the Golden Gate. William Findley’s son also worked at Marinship. William raised turkeys in the back yard.

In 1964 Grace Findley dies of a stroke and in 1967 William B. Findley marries Eleanor Olivia Bauer, Grace’s life-long friend. In April of 1969 William and Olivia grant themselves joint tenancy and in October of 1970, William B. Findley dies.

In December of 1970 there is a Decree Establishing Fact of Death of Joint Tenant. The joint tenant has a right of survivorship, i.e. Olivia gets the property. There are four parcels of lot 513, #3 is 2.14 acres, #4 is 1.51 acres, #1 and #2 are not measured in this document but presumably add up to the maximum Schuhmann tract of 4. some acres.

In May of 1971, Grace and William B. Findley’s son Ralph challenges Olivia’s inheritance of the Findley estate, at least as it pertains to lot 513, as a breach of oral agreement. In 1972 the will is settled in Olivia’s favor; Olivia’s joint tenancy on the deed supersedes Ralph’s claim. Olivia then moves to the property from San Francisco and has a trailer put in to the southeast of the hotel. Her son Arthur Bauer moves to the little yellow house at 19434 8^th Street East. Apartments in the hotel are rented at a very low rate.

At some point here Ron Zak, photographer, moves to the property and has been here ever since.

Around 1972, county zoning changes are shifting land use to the east of 8^th Street East towards industrial park development and Ronald Pearson makes an offer to Olivia for the acreage south of trailer; this is the former Rambo parcel, extended to Arroyo Seco. A 1973 real estate map shows four parcels on the northern portion of lot 513, two smaller at the top and 2 larger at the bottom. The two larger are the hotel parcel and the Rambo parcel extended to Arroyo Seco. The two smaller are 19434 8^th Street East and another fraction that will become the Schell-Vista Fire Station.

I don’t have the date granting title to the Schell-Vista Fire Department but it happened at some point after the beginning of the Olivia Findley and Arthur Bauer era.

In January of 1974, Eleanor O. Findley, “Olivia”, grants Ronald W. and Donna M. Pearson 2.14 acres, more or less, a portion of lot 513. Thus the fate of the expanded Rambo parcel was to become a sash and door shop along with other small industrial uses. Of note, Cheryll Powers’ son Greg Ubaldi remembers the demolition of the home(s) on the Rambo parcel. Someone had a military tank. They brought it over on a trailer, unloaded it, crushed the house in short order, then tank back on the trailer, end of story.

In September of 1976, in a quitclaim deed between Olivia and Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co., Olivia “relinquishes to Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co. all title, right and interest in a driveway across said lands and any interest due to a fence encroachment across said land”. Presumably this is when the railroad tracks were taken out, thereby obviating any deals as to rail crossing driveways.   

On 12/2/78, Eleanor Olivia (Bauer) Findley dies and her son Arthur inherits the property. April,1990 is the final settlement and distribution of Olivia’s estate and will.

In July of 1996, Arthur Bauer makes a gift grant of the remainder of the northern portion of lot 513 to Cheryll Powers and George F. Powers 3. In December of 1999 Arthur Bauer dies. Arthur was Cheryll’s uncle and Olivia was her grandmother. Cheryll and George are the current owners.

In late 2011 the trailer that Olivia brought in, in 1972 was demolished by Greg Ubaldi, Cheryll’s son, with a back hoe, not quite a tank but fitting. There remained south of the trailer old fence posts and fencing along the Rambo parcel line, long since overgrown by mature buckeye trees.

The frontage to west of lot #513 is railroad right of way. Northwestern Pacific Railroad still owns it in 2012.

And thus we go from Mariano Vallejo granting title to this lot, as mayor of Sonoma in 1852, to the Powers era in 2014, one hundred years, more or less, after Otto and Clara Schuhmann bought a fraction of the property from Louisa A. Douglas and built the Schuhmann Hotel.

References

(A) 

Sonoma League for Historic Preservation, Historical Survey, date printed 11/29/08, 6 photos present

- no citations, no indication of author

(1)

In the 1910 Census, the household enumerated immediately after Dressel was Philip C. Bill, future husband of Otto’s youngest daughter Johanna E. Schuhmann, who had yet to immigrate at this time.

(2)

see chattel mortgage inventory lists of hotel contents

 (3)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak

(4) The current well is shallow and goes dry later on in the Fall of dry years. The well is shallow enough to be responsive to one good rain, i.e. one good rain brings the dry well back. Wet years the well stays good all year. In the 2013 water year the well went dry for five months. George Powers, current owner, will drill a new deep well as soon as permits and papers are arranged, this as of 4/1/2014.

A water line still runs from the main well to the parcel to the north, perhaps a holdover from all the water rights wrangling of the past. A new septic system was put in, at considerable expense with the leach field to the north and the old tank drained and filled.

At one point in the past, a horse fell in the old tank. Apparently the fire department came with a sling and lift, and handed the strap to the owner and said, ‘here you go’.