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Remember When Week of July 22

Check out Sonoma’s history

49 YEARS AGO
(From the Index-Tribune files of July 12, 1962)
Dr. John Schafer, formerly of Contra Costa County, is now associated in practice with Dr. Carroll Andrews, Dr. Wayne Craven and Dr. Richard Lose. The group’s medical offices are at 294 W. Napa St. Before coming to Sonoma recently, Dr. Schafer put in a two-year residence at Contra Costa County Hospital, Martinez. … Directors of Sonoma Valley Hospital this week announced they have retained San Francisco architect Rex W. Allen to make a survey which will serve as a guide toward future improvement and expansion of the hospital. Board chairman David Pfeiffer said Allen had been hired to make a study of the long-range bed capacity of the hospital. When the hospital was built some years ago, it was felt at that time that the institution could conceivably be expanded to a capacity of 100 beds. Capacity at present is 35 beds. … At an adjourned meeting Monday night, the City Council held a personnel discussion and a budget review. Salary increases effective Tuesday were give to fire chief Charles J. Basch and Police Chief Clarke W. McIntosh. Basch goes from $521 to $547. McIntosh goes from $496 to $521. … All roads and appetites lead to Sonoma Plaza on Sunday. It’s the day that the Sonoma Kiwanis Club put son its annual turkey barbecue for the benefit of the Sonoma Valley Swimming Pool Project, and everyone attending is assured of generous helpings of tasty, fresh local turkey meat, done to a turn over an open-fire barbecue by master chef Al Jones and his Kiwanis committeemen. … New building construction in Sonoma for the first six months of this year was higher than during the same period last year, the valuation being $307,561 compared to $269,408.50. A drop in the category of additions and alterations, however, ahs held the city’s total building activity valuation to about the same level for the first half of 1962 as for that period in 1961.

48 YEARS AGO
(From the Index-Tribune files of July 18, 1963)
Building activity in the city of Sonoma for the first six months of 1963 was nearly double that of the first half of 1962. It is shown in figures just released by the building inspection department. The valuation of projects started from January to June this year is listed at $1,068,486. The figure for the first half of last year was $562,412, and for the first six months of 1961 it was $435,786. … The latest in a series of acts of vandalism – committed Monday night at the Big Three Market in Boyes Springs – has Hot Springs area merchants and residents hotter than the comforting Boyes Springs mineral waters and clamoring for rapid action in the establishment of a sheriff’s department substation in the Valley of the Moon Fire Department firehouse. However, Sheriff John Ellis, First District Supervisor S. Carson Mitchell, and Sonoma County Administrator Neal Smith, all say that nothing concrete can be accomplished until the Board of Supervisors begins its final budget hearings on Aug. 5. … Joe DiMaggio, the former “Yankee Clipper” and member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame, will be in Sonoma Friday evening to participate in ceremonies for Division Babe Ruth League tournament play at Arnold Field. … Sale of 280 acres of the Arthur J. Walters ranch in the hills behind Mission Highlands, was announced this week by Hal Sands of the L. E. Castner Agencies, Boyes Hot Springs. Purchasers are Fremont B. Hitchcock Jr., prominent San Francisco sportsman and socialite and two San Francisco dentists, Dr. David D. Stern and Dr. Robert E. Kulvin. Hitchcock, well-known polo player and owner of properties in the exclusive Pacific Heights section of the Bay city, also owns a large ranch in Santa Rosa.

47 YEARS AGO
(From the Index-Tribune files of July 16, 1964)
Trustees of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District will hold a hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 4 to go on the proposed $1,753,268 budget for the 1964-65 school term. Announcement of the budget hearing was made at Tuesday’s meeting of the trustees, who also agreed to hold a bond election on Jan. 19, 1965, to obtain funds with which to build an intermediate seventh and eight grade school in Bel Aire. Superintendent John Glaese reported that Spanish is the most popular foreign language in California schools and that teaching a language adds $25 per student per year to educational costs. … The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Monday accepted the annexation of Temelec into the Sonoma Valley Sewer Maintenance District. … “If you haven’t tasted barbecued turkey the way the Kiwanians prepare it, you just haven’t lived!” This was the “come on” utterance of Lee Tunkis, chairman of the fifth annual Sonoma Kiwanis Club Turkey Barbecue slated for Sunday afternoon in Sonoma Plaza. Cooked over a huge open charcoal pit on wheels the succulent turkey diner will be served from to 2 to 7 p.m. Donation tickets, selling for $1.75 for adults and $1.25 for children under 12.

42 YEARS AGO
(From the Index-Tribune files of July 24, 1969)
Taking a page from the astronauts, directors of the Sonoma Valley Hospital District have decided to go skyward, and on Thursday set Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the date for a $1,790,000 bond election for the construction of a new three-story high-rise wing on the west side of the present hospital – between Andrieux and Bettencourt streets. A full basement, for general storage, will be included, and the third story will be a “shell” only, included in the present construction plans in order to save money in the future when the additional floor will be needed. … Along with adopting a $3,125,919 budget for the 1969-70 school year, trustees of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District on Tuesday evening also took steps to institute a more intensive drug abuse education program – utilizing the services of the newly-formed Sonoma County Drug Abuse Advisory Council. Richard Hankins, executive coordinator, told the local school board that the Council is a nonprofit organization, developed nine months ago to establish a program for prevention and rehabilitation. … At present, almost complete emphasis is placed on education and prevention – rather than rehabilitation – working with the county school systems. … High school dropouts, 18 years of age and younger, will get a second chance at completing their secondary education in the new Continuation High School program adopted by the Sonoma Valley Unified School District board of trustees. Funded by a $49,500 state grant, and instituted at the recommendation of assistant superintendent Dr. Wayne Henderson, the continuation school will be able to accommodate up to 40 students.

39 YEARS AGO
(From the Index-Tribune files of July 20, 1972))
The 114-degree heat on Friday added to the adversities faced by firefighters at the scene of the major conflagration which began on the picturesque Bundschu ranch in the Vineburg foothills about 4:30 p.m. Firefighters were eventually successful in putting down the potentially dangerous blaze – but only after aerial tankers had “bombed” the flames in a series of low passes. No homes or ranch structures were lost. … Was last week’s heat wave a record? Well, for the past 20 years at least, and probably father back than that. It got up to 116 last week. The closest in recent years was back in June 1961, when the temperature was 112. … Mr. and Mrs. Charles Spomer, of Sonoma, expect to begin construction of a motel on Broadway this fall. Present plans call for a one-story, 37-unit layout which will include an office and dining room. … A new real estate office, to be known as Sonoma Properties, is slated to open here around the middle of next month. Partners in the enterprise are Robert Moratto, former manager of the Sonoma branch of Sonoma Title Guaranty Co., and Henry K. Mayo, a former vice president of Imperial Savings, of Santa Rosa. They will occupy the building now being constructed at the southwest corner of Broadway and McDonnell Street.

37 YEARS AGO
(From the Index-Tribune files of July 23, 1974)
The Monday night meeting of the City Council at City Hall was billed as a hearing on the General Plan. But it wasn’t that at all. The plan was never really opened. Instead, for nearly three hours, the Council and the City Planning Commission and an audience of some 65 persons, renewed the hassle about where a shopping center – if one is to be built – should go in Sonoma. The meeting was actually a joint session involving the Council and the City Planning Commission. … The Sonoma City Council Monday night approved the hiring of Ed Steinbeck, 26, a member of the county’s planning staff, as the city’s new planner. He succeeds Margaret Johnston. … The events schedule for Pioneer Day in Sonoma which will be held this Saturday has been finalized. The parade will begin at 11 a.m. at the northwest corner of the Plaza. It will follow the same route as last year traveling east on Spain Street to Second Street East then south to East Napa Street. From there it will continue west past the Judges Stand on the Plaza and return to the starting point via First Street West. … A special state arson investigator, the Valley of the Moon Fire Department and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department are probing the senseless damage to the interior of the St. Vincent de Paul Thirst Store, 17956 Sonoma Hwy., early Tuesday morning. Authorities said that it appeared the store had been ransacked before being set afire, as a cash register and several drawers were found open and several articles of clothing thrown about, indicating a possible burglary attempt.