Morton’s Warm Springs memories for sale

Retro day resort a ‘warm' commodity at $2.5 million|

It’s not every day something comes on the local real estate market that the owner describes as “a spectacular piece of property,” one with a “long history as a special and spiritual place” the Wappo used to treasure, with natural warm springs that producing mineral-rich water with “substantial health benefits.”

Not every day – but not that infrequently, either. It was just two years ago that Stephen Compagni Portis bought the 19-acre Morton’s Warm Springs Resort property for a cool $1.5 million; now it’s on the market again, with the price tag only a million dollars higher.

Given the attributes of the property, though – located on Warm Springs Road between Glen Ellen and Kenwood – Portis got a deal. There are two spring-fed swimming pools on the property plus a kiddie pool, an old stone bathhouse with rustic boulder staircases descending to Sonoma Creek, verdant river glens and old stands of mature oak and madrone, a baseball field, barbecue pits, volleyball court, horseshoe pits and picnic grounds for 10 to a couple hundred.

There are even trails that rise from the bucolic river valley into the surrounding hills, and wildlife from deer and wild turkeys to maybe the odd bobcat or two, according to Portis. Though he and his wife have a place on the east side of Sonoma Valley – complete with an historic old vine plot of mixed Italian grapes dating from Agoston Haraszthy’s original vineyards – the 57-year-old entrepreneur admits to spending not a few nights here, where the air is redolent of native grasses and the distant scent of starlight.

“My initial vision for the place was to develop some kind of spiritual retreat center – possibly build some tree houses, tipis, maybe some cabins,” said Portis. Though he said he didn’t rule out corporate groups that might want to do a retreat, his heart seemed to be with the sort of refuge that the San Francisco Zen Center – where he studied for several years – has at Tassajara, in the mountains outside of Carmel Valley.

However Portis’s interests developed in a different direction between the spring of 2013, when he purchased the property, and today. Shortly after the Warm Springs acquisition, Portis bought Jenner-by-the-Sea, the inn on the Sonoma coast at the Russian River’s mouth, renovated the rooms and restaurant and opened it to generally positive response from the press and public.

There has also been the recent surge in interest in clean energy, a field Portis has long been involved in. In 2009 Portis founded Renew Financial, a firm that negotiates mid-term home loans for solar and other renewable energy improvements. His strategy allows homeowners to borrow the full amount of project costs and pay it off by tying payment to property taxes, through municipal bonds. Sonoma County is an active partner.

The shifting economic landscape and his need to reprioritize led Portis to put Morton’s on the market just a couple weeks ago. “I made the decision that what made sense to me was turn this over to someone else who has a vision,” he said. “Whatever vision that might be.”

“We’ve had interest from all over the United States,” said Daniel Casabonne, the realtor handling the offering. “Most of it is from here, the South Bay, San Francisco and Marin, but we’ve had calls and inquiries and buyers outside the Bay Area too.”

Most long-time Sonoma Valley residents just remember idyllic summer days from childhood at Morton’s, which was first opened some time in the 1940s by Ethyl and Harold Morton. Prior to that it was known as Kenwood Springs, according to records with the Western Sonoma County Historical Society.

“It was a great place to grow up. I met a tremendous number of really nice people,” said Lee Morton, now in his 70s and living in Healdsburg. Both his parents are gone now, but his sisters are also still alive.

“It was where we had a job and we learned to work whether we wanted to or not,” said Morton. “In hindsight, it was a gift from my parents. Just a super place to grow up, so many years ago… It’s a different world now.”

It’s one of several geothermal springs along the course of Sonoma Creek, including locations at Fetters Hot Springs, Boyes Hot Springs and Agua Caliente. The Sonoma Aquatic Club’s swimming pools and Jacuzzi are naturally heated by subterranean waters from the Agua Caliente springs.

The present-day Fairmount Sonoma Mission Inn is located at the site of the Boyes Hot Springs, where water as hot as 135 degrees is tapped by a deep 1,100-foot well. The springs feed two swimming pools, whirlpools and private water treatments at the pricey mid-Valley hotel.

Morton’s calls itself a “warm springs” in part to emphasize that it’s not a spa for luxury treatments but a recreation resort for families. There are three mineral pools, all of which are fed partially by water from hot springs 200 feet below the Earth’s surface. The water comes out of the springs at 94 degrees and cools to 84 degrees in the pools, which are chlorinated for swimming safety.

One of the charms of Morton’s is its very timelessness: the Facebook “You Know You’re From Sonoma When….” group users frequently cite good times come and gone at Morton’s, including Altimira graduations, swimming lessons, barbecues and ping pong, end-of-the-year field trips, even company picnics.

“End of year field trip for Altimira then in the summer our parents would drop us off there for the day,” posted Celeste Winders, one of the administrators of the group. “We would swim all day and in between take breaks to sneak around in the creek and get our legs all scratched up.”

Whether or not Morton’s Warm Springs Resort remains into the future as it is remembered so fondly is yet to be decided. Casabonne said, “Half the parties are interested in just keeping what’s going, while other people have ideas to make some minor changes.

“There is even one party looking at it for having a private retreat for them and their extended family, with the advantage of the hot springs.”

That would be a hard fate for many locals – near and far – to swallow.

“It was the kind of place that stays in your heart forever. You could always find your friends there or make new ones,” added Debbie Kiesil Butcher, who went to Sonoma Valley High in the 1970s and now lives in Utah. “Wish I could afford to buy it, I’d make sure it always stayed the same way.”

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.