Half Moon Bay Memories & El Granada Observer

think he liked best?

George Dunn’s entertaining Coastside Comet newspaper office was located in Moss Beach in the early 1900s, and the historic building still stands. He was one of the biggest local boosters of the Ocean Shore Railroad.

Arch of Flowers with Cow Bell, ding ding. Leads to cacti/succulent garden.

I got a new point & click Canon!

What’s that thingy she’s wearing on her head? Is he chasing her? What’s the story here?

To me, in person, these “old” billiard balls look like pieces of art. Each one has a different personality. I think they could be sold off, one by one for some charitable purpose.

Thanks to Dorothy Brogan, animal lover of Montara, for sending this.

In 1978 Mrs. Grace Fruendeling of San Francisco wrote me a letter filled with childhood memories of Half Moon Bay where she lived as a child. What coaxed her to contact me was the publication of “Half Moon Bay Memories: The Coastside’s Colorful Past,” a book I had just put together. She read about it in the San Mateo Times and that consumed the first few sentences of the handwritten letter. She must have been quite old so remember than when reading.

I want to share her words about Half Moon Bay with you:

“…At that time (late 19th century? I was 8 years old & remember many things that had happened. My Grandma was Mrs. Edward Schubert & they had a brewery & also owned a large ranch in Half Moon Bay.

“I also attended the school during my vacation in S.F. My mother’s married name was Mrs. Henry Frank & her sister taught high school there. She married into the famous family by the name of Abbott; they also owned a great deal of land there.

“I knew the Quilian family and many others.”

“I was 8 when I went to look at the wreck (of the ship New York at the beach near Kelly St.). It was a very exciting thing to see. We were told not to take anything but people came from all over, helping themselves, so I have a beautiful Chinese bowl from the wreck, which is still in my possession. I surely think a great deal of the beauty of the bowl.

“I think that I would like to know when your book will be published. I could sell some to my Chinese friends; it is history for them.

Yours sincerely,

Grace R. Fruendeling”

She added this interesting message: “I am the real grandchild.”

(Photos: On left, Half Moon Bay Grammar School, 1908. W.E. Wall was the principal; Mabel Nickels, the teacher; Lansing Griffith with drums; among the students John Miramontes, Ethel and Ella Knapp.
On right: Jefferson Grammar School, Sunset District, San Francisco, 1954. Mrs. McSweeney was the teacher. I am on the far right last row. My friend Lynn Kalajian McCloskey sits in the first row, with black pigtails, holding the sign, at right.]

In the 1954 photo, to the left, there’s a poem about the big blue & gray bus–I still recall the bus taking us to a place called “Fairyland” in Oakland.

Some of the kids in the Jefferson Grammar School photo are: John Marshall, Pete Stein, Phyllis Nicklaus, John Madigan Barbara Robinson, Rosemary Russo, John Aspelin, Phil Lapkin, Rick Watson, Nick Lukash, Jm Nurmi, Terry Pachtner. Cannot remember the rest, my apologies. Notice how all the girls wore dresses? Where are they, today?

to read your journal entry at Pescadero Memories regarding your attempts to access Acid Beach. I am very familiar with The Notch, Acid Beach, Trefiret Beach, and AMB’s beach having been to all four, and the latter three on many, many occasions beginning around 1993 or 1994.

To read more, click here

(Photo: Below, the Coastside madam, Maymie Cowley, posing in front of her other place, today known as the Miramar Beach Inn.)

From the Half Moon Bay Review, 1923

“Jose Antone Azevedo and Mary B. F. Azevedo, his wife, have filed an eviction against [Coastside madam] Maymie Cowley, A Picchi, et al, former and present operators of hotel property at Granada, alleging that they have failed to pay the plaintiffs in accordance with the terms of their contract. The complaint recites that the defendants purchased the property under a contract on September 21, 1921, to a total price of $3000. After making a payment down, the balance was to be paid in monthly installments of $100 each.

“It is alleged that no payment has been made since October 1, 1922. payments for succeeding months belng allowed to lapse.

“In addition to an order of eviction th eplaintiffs demand $500 attorney’s fees. The complaint was filed in the Superior Court by Attorney Vincent W. Hallinan of San Francisco.”

Yep, I was there.