The Winged Victory in Tres Pinos

The plaque reads:
Tres Pinos Memorial of the Great War
December 7, 1941 – August 14, 1945
-----------------
For God and Country
For Freedom and Peace

This memorial was dedicated to the men and women of San Benito County who served in World War II. You'll find it on the grounds of Tres Pinos Church, just south of Tres Pinos, on Highway 25.

To learn about how this memorial came to be, click on this page: Tres Pinos, California WW2 Memorial.

Lover's Leap

Heading down (west) on Pacheco Pass. That peak up ahead is Lover's Leap

That craggy peak on Pacheco Pass (Highway 156) just past Bell Station is called Lover's Leap. I just learned that a few months ago. Here's what else I learned.

• It's 1,096 feet high.
• The land form used to be a volcano under a sea millions of years ago.
• The peak is also called Hollenbeck's Rock. The Mr. Hollenbeck for whom the mountain was named had owned Bell Station, which was called Hollenbeck Stage Station.
• An Indian princess climbed up to the peak and leapt to her death, hence the name Lover's Leap. One story goes that she was in love with a man from another tribe, which was a big no no. Romeo and Juliet all over again. 
• Hiking up the mountain is possible. 

What do you know about Lover's Leap?

Looking Up: What Is it?

And, do you know where you are?

Want a clue? It's in the photo. He-he.

Okay, here's your answer. For where you are, that is.

The Flowing San Benito River

These days it is rare to see standing water in the San Benito River. But, joyous joy, the river is flowing right now. It's rather cool!

Looking Up: The Clock Tower

It's almost 5 o'clock. Wouldn't it be so cool if the clock could Bong! out the hour? It would almost be like having our own Big Ben.

Want to read more about the landmark building?  Click here.

Veterans Memorial Building

The Veterans Memorial Building stands on San Benito and Seventh Streets.  How has that building figured in your life so far? Here are at least three for me:

• Long ago, I used to donate to the Red Cross blood drives that were held there.
• I have attended the annual Christmas balls hosted by the Filipino American Community of San Benito County.
• The husband and I have listened to the Christmas concerts given by the Watsonville Band.

Buona Domenica

The spire peeking above the fence is that of Sacred Heart Church on Fifth Street. I took this back in May as the husband and I cut through a back alley to Sixth Street to watch the Portuguese Festival Parade.

Tuesday in Hollister: Where to Go for History?

If you want to learn about the history of Hollister or San Benito County, one of the doors you may want to enter is that brown one in the photo. Do you know where that building is? Do you know who holds the key to that door?

The photo to your right is your hint. This house belonged to Dr. George Wapple, one of the local pharmacists in the olden days. It was built in 1909. Until the 1990s, it was the residence of the Wapple family. The home now houses local history.

Be sure to come back on Thursday for the answers and a look at what's behind that brown door.

Hollister City Hall

This week's Tuesday in Hollister question was: Do You Know Where City Hall Is?

No doubt you all know that it is located at 375 Fifth Street between Monterey and San Benito Streets, across from the Granada Theater. You can pay your city water bill in the basement. The door is on the east side of the building.

The City Hall building was originally the San Benito County Free Library. In 1910, the county received a $10,000 grant from the Andrew Carnegie Library Foundation to construct a library for the community. Two years later, the library opened and was located there until 1959 or 1960 when it moved to its current place.  Before the city of Hollister moved its government offices into the building, it was used by the San Benito County Superior Court and the county probation department.


A few buildings to the east of City Hall is a tan brick building that proudly wears a sign that identifies it as CITY HALL. That building, designed by William H. Weeks, was erected after the 1906 earthquake. Along with once housing City Hall, the building used to be home to the city's fire department.

For info about the Hollister city government and its building, check out these links:

• Hollister City Government
• Hollister City Council
• Carnegie Libraries of California—Hollister, California 

Tuesday in Hollister: Do You Know Where City Hall Is?

Got a grief about which you want to fight City Hall?

No.

Do you want to pay your water bill in person? You can pay that down at City Hall.

Feel like checking out a City Council meeting? City Hall is where you want to go.

But, do you know where City Hall is?

Don't know what the building even looks like?  Here you go.

Recognize it? Where is it?  You have until Thursday to figure it out.

Tuesday in Hollister: Standing Beneath Time

No guessing games today. We all know where we are, the northeast corner of Fourth and San Benito Streets. We're standing in front of the Eastern Star Masonic Temple Building, which is 102 years old. The clock tower is just as old.  Over the summer, the building got a new colorful look. Click here to see what it looked like before. Nice, huh?

I like looking into the store windows as I go by there to see what new dresses are being showcased. The dresses look like something Cinderella's fairy godmother would whip up for her.  They make me wish I was going somewhere fancy so I could buy one of those dresses to wear.

When I was a kid many years ago, the storefront was a grocery store owned by the Lum family. Anyone else remember the grocery store? Anybody know what other businesses came before or after the grocery store? Please share. All I know is the antique store that was there before the dress store.

If anyone is curious about the Order of the Eastern Star, check out this site. And, if you want to read something about the clock tower, check out "Happy Birthday to Time!"

Hollister, CA History: The Porter House

How did you do with this week's Tuesday in Hollister? Did you figure correctly as two commenters did?

"Monterey and 6th. Grace Bible Church seen kitty-corner where Wells Fargo used to be," wrote Cindy at Facebook.

"Hint: sounds like the name of a large type of steak," stated Anonymous at the original post.

I was standing at the Porter House on the northwest corner of Monterey and Sixth Streets. This Queen Ann style house was built around 1880. It is no longer a residence. It has been divided into office suites and today rents out to several local business people and to the Redevelopment Agency. My favorite aspects about the house is its wrap-around front porch and the cute tower where I wouldn't mind having my office.

The "Porter" in Porter House refers to one of the first, if not original, residents of the house, Dr. George and Olive Pond Porter. Dr. Porter immigrated from England in 1873, eventually settling in Hollister in the 1880s.  A druggist, Dr. Porter and brother-in-law Hiram Pond were co-owners of a drugstore in town. Porter went back to school to earn his medical degree and obtained his medical license in 1890. He returned to Hollister and more than likely practiced medicine. Dr. Porter died in 1905. Here's a link to his obituary. Mrs. Porter continued to reside at Monterey & 6th until her death in 1938.

Here are some interesting notes about Mrs. Porter's life, which I found at the San Benito County Historical Museum.  She was born Olive Pond in April 1860 in Placer County.  She was well-educated, having attended the Napa Collegiate Institute, the College of Pharmacy in San Francisco, and the Women's College of Medicine in Philadelphia. The notes did not mention if she graduated from the last two schools. She and Dr. Porter married in 1881.

How the Porters came to settle in Hollister is unknown. Did they come first or Olive's brother Hiram? While her husband was at medical school, Mrs. Porter took care of the business. According to the family notes, Olive was the owner of a 500 acre ranch on Cienega Road. She was also a past Noble Grand Matron of the Rebeka Lodge in Hollister.

There you go. Now you know a bit of who the Porters were at Sixth and Monterey a long time ago.

Tuesday in Hollister: Do You Know Where You Are?

Yes, this is in Hollister. The location is a block west of San Benito Street. I'm not giving any cross streets. That's your job to figure out. I will give you these hints:

• You're standing in a front yard.
• A church is nearby.
• The newspaper office is down the street. (Ah, I made it too easy now.)
• The house from which the photo was taken was built in the late 19th century.

Forget about looking at the photo's file name. I misnamed it. I took this photo a couple of years ago, but the perspective is still the same.

So, do you know where you are yet? Leave a comment here or at the Facebook page. Be sure to come back on Thursday to find out if you're right.

By the way, here's what it looks like on the other side of all that darkness.

Help Turn the Granada into an Arts Center

Dear Take 25 readers, how many of you would love to have an arts center in town? Can you visualize the Granada Theater on Fifth Street as the arts center?

The Hollister Downtown Association and the San Benito County Arts Council have a vision to one day own the historic Berberich Building, which houses the Granada, and turn the whole building into a multiple-purpose arts center. For many decades, the Granada showed movies—first-run, classics, and international. Today, it is used for live performances, including plays by the San Benito Stage Company.

Now, dear readers, this is where you come in. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is holding a nationwide This Place Matters Challenge that will award $25,000 to the community that receives the most votes for its registered historic landmark.

The Hollister Downtown Association registered the Granada Theater in the challenge and now needs our support. Head over to the Save the Granada Theatre page and vote. You will need to register for the site first, but that will take only a few minutes.


As of today, only 38 people have voted for the Granada. Please pass the word around to your friends and family, whether they live in Hollister or not.  You can easily do that by forwarding the link to this post. Thank you!

Would you like to know more about the Granada, the community challenge, and the organizations I've mentioned? Check out these links:

• Granada Theater at Cinema Treasures
• National Trust for Historic Preservation 
• Hollister Downtown Association 
• San Benito County Arts Council 
• San Benito Stage Company

Free Week at the Pinnacles

April 17 to 25 is National Park Week. In honor of the week, the National Park Service has decreed that entrance to all national parks, include the Pinnacles National Monument, is free. So, if you can take advantage of the freebie, head on out.

The husband and I ventured over to the Pinnacles last month, entering via Highway 25, of course. The day was gorgeous! Wildflowers were popping. Ravens were calling to each other and condors were circling above us. I think I even heard the flutter of bat wings.

The Bear Gulch Cave was open and we did our best to scramble all the way up through it. Alas, we couldn't figure out the path at the stream so swerved to the left and out of the cave, and walked along an outside trail to get back in. We did climb up the stairway out of the cave to the reservoir. As always, it was well worth the effort to see the views.

The Bear Gulch Cave is home to a colony of bats. The park plans to close it in mid-May to safeguard the bats as the babies grow up. The caves will re-open sometime in July when the bats leave the cave. Check out the Pinnacles Web site for more particulars by clicking here.

Here are some other links to check out:

• National Park Week
• Images from the Condor Cam
• Pinnacles Partnership 
• Heading a Bit Further on 25 (some photos of the drive to the Pinnacles)

And, here are a few more photos for your pleasure.

Bear Gulch Reservoir

View off the Chalone Peak Trail

Rocky Scales

Do you see Dino the Dinosaur?

One of the Faces at the Pinnacles

Looking Back From Where I Came

What Was Once Here?

Happy New Year, One and All! 

Here I am.  Let's just say I've been in hibernation. Still am, for that matter. But, it's high time for me to start taking highway 25 to, from, and around Hollister before 2010 is over. 

This photo is for all you current and former Hollister residents.  Do you know where this is in downtown Hollister? What's missing—and I don't mean part of the fence? (Click on the photo to get a larger image, if you think that might help.)

Still don't have a clue. Check out this web page: "Hollister Courthouse"

If you want to know more about what happened to the missing landmark, check out these pages:

• "Not Possible to Save the Catalpa Tree," Hollister Downtown Association
  
• "Outreach Set Up for Local Contractors on Courthouse Project," Hollister Free Lance
  

The Original Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital

Show of hands, Hollister folks: Who was born in this here building?

You. You. You. Me. You over there on the other side of the world. And a whole lot more.

This building stands at 910 Monterey Street. The corner of Monterey and Hawkins streets, to be exact. It’s the original Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital, which was built and presented to the city of Hollister by Mr. Thomas S. Hawkins.

Mr. Hawkins was one of the city’s founders. His granddaughter, the Hazel Hawkins, the sweetie of his heart, died from appendicitis in 1902. She was only nine years old. According to the story I’ve heard, Mr. Hawkins felt she may have lived if there had been the proper medical facility in town. So, he built one for the community as a tribute to his “Little Sunshine.”

Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital opened in November 1907 and served as the community hospital until the hospital district was formed in 1957. In 1962, the hospital moved into its modern digs on Sunset Drive. Today, Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital is part of the San Benito Health Care District which also includes skilled nursing facilities and a home health agency.

The old hospital building was used as a nursing home for many years. Then, somewhere along the line, it was turned it into an office building. And that's what it is today. The hair stylist who does my hair had her salon there for several years, which gave me a chance to prowl the corridors.

It’s a very beautiful building, as you can see. If you ever have a chance, pop in and take a glance of what’s inside. The left (or south) corridor especially. I'll just leave it at that.

By the way, does anyone know where the baby nursery used to be? The surgery? Just wondering.

Here are a couple of links to learn more the hospital and the Hawkins family:

• Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital
• A Family History Behind Hazel Hawkins by Marty Cheek

Historical Fifth & San Benito

Isn't this sign hysterical?

It’s one of my favorites around Hollister. Not to worry. Head on down. There’s lots of parking, on the street and in the parking garage. You just can’t park where that particular sign stands.

I suppose a sign of having lived a long life is when the downtown you've always known is now called "historic." What I wonder is if there's a Historic Downtown Hollister, where's the modern one?

According to a brochure by the Hollister Downtown Association, Historic Downtown Hollister is from Third Street (north end) to South Street (south end, naturally) and between Monterey Street (west end) and East Street (east end). That’s five cute blocks from north to south and two blocks, just as cute, from west to east. Easy to mosey or stride. And, yes, you will find most of the downtown shops and restaurants within those boundaries.

Here's a peek at what's on the historical corner of Fifth & San Benito Streets.

Yes, that's part of the Diablo range in the background.

This was the old Bank of America building.

The Church in Tres Pinos

A few years ago I jumped out of a plane and landed in the field across from the church where I had been baptized as an infant. The jump was planned (of course!) and I was attached to a trained professional skydiver of Skydive Hollister. But, that is a tale for another day.

Today, my focus is on the small, plain-looking church across from the field. I’ve always known it as the church in Tres Pinos, which is several miles south of Hollister. It’s actually called the Immaculate Conception Church, and it is right off of Highway 25.

The church was built in the late 1800s. It has been carefully kept and maintained through the years, both inside and out.

xxxx

The Immaculate Conception is an active parish with masses held on Sunday and during the week. The doors, I believe, are open during the day throughout the week. I'm not a churchgoer, but now and then I like to step into that church, usually on a weekday. When I enter its sanctuary, I always feel a sense of comfort…of being…of hope.

(Note: The photo of me was taken by Joe Siudzinski. Thank you, Joe!)

Driving Up Lone Tree Road

When I was a kid, I thought the mountains that surrounded Hollister were just a bunch of hills. What does a kid know! Today, in my wise old age, I am continually taken aback at how awesome they are.

The Diablo Range runs down the eastern side of San Benito County. The tallest peak in this whole range is in the southern part of the county—San Benito Mountain, which stands 5,241 feet high. Sorry. These photos aren't of that peak. One day.


This part of the range is just outside of Hollister. I don’t know how high they are. They do get a now-and-then dusting of snow, and when they do, some folks like to drive up Lone Tree Road to check it out.

The mountains have been wearing Spring quite well. The other day some friends came by, so it was a great excuse to head up Lone Tree Road. As you can see from the photos, it was a perfect day! We even saw wild boars who looked as tame as the cattle.