Pictured here is the Piedmont Hotel as it was around 1912. The McAbee brothers, Orin and Willard, founders of the long established, but now closed Southern Lumber Company, sold their Universal Hotel property on the corner of Mountain and Highway 9 to Peter Ricca of San Francisco, an experienced hotelier and restaurateur.
Ricca owned the hotel and restaurant, which had been operated by John Ercole, up until early 1920 when it was sold to Ugo Giomi and W. D. Alexander.
The hotel was to be renovated and modernized ready for the summer tourist trade. It was reopened later that year under the name of The Big Basin Inn serving delicious Italian dinners, with a new dining hall, handsome fireplace, and dance floor. The cottages had been renovated and the hotel grounds were being laid out in walks with beautiful flowers. Dinner, with dancing, was just $2 a plate.
The partnership did not last long, and in July of 1920, Alexander sold his interest to Giomi. Alexander would become the proprietor of the Boulder Creek House on the corner of West Park Avenue.
Giomi changed the name of the establishment to Ugo’s Tavern and it operated under that name until, in 1939, Giomi suffered a severe stroke.
In 1940, it was purchased by a San Francisco business woman Faith Garabaldi. Again, the property was remodeled. A “Blue Bar,” extending across the front of the building was finished in blue and ivory knotted pine. When the hotel opened under the new name of Boulder Creek Lodge over 150 guests were in attendance. The menu changed too; chicken and steak dinners were accompanied each Saturday night by a special dancing event to a Hill Billy Orchestra.
A miniature golf course was added where golf tournaments were held during the town’s “Timber Days” celebration.
Article from Jul 28, 1950 Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, California)
Ownership changed to Joseph Overman, his wife Margaret, and their daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Fred Hansen. They built a swimming pool which was opened to celebrate the Overman’s 55th wedding anniversary in 1957. Joseph added eleven cabins to the lodge property. The Overmans passed away within a few months of each other in 1965 and the property again changed hands.
Now known as “White House Corner,” this property however has a much longer history. Perhaps one of the oldest buildings in the San Lorenzo Valley stills lies in the depths of one of its structures that has seen so many renovations and modernizations over the years.
The Piedmont Hotel had been a merchandising store for over twenty-five years prior to becoming a hotel. It was Cottrell's Store.
Built in 1874, in Joseph W. Peery’s town of Lorenzo and owned first by Charles C. Cottrell and later by Samuel H. Rambo (State Senator 1905-1907), this building witnessed the flume being built in 1875, the coming of the railroad in 1885, the birth of the town of Boulder Creek, and the destruction of Lorenzo in 1897, when fire ravaged the structures on the south side of Highway 9.
Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel, April 16, 1897:
The store of S. H. Rambo, across the street from the burnt district, had a close call from destruction, and was only saved by hard work on the part of the bucket brigade, assisted by wet blankets.
If only walls could talk!
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