Hotel Bon Air: New Evidence From Survey Maps
By: Anne T. Kent California Room
Tags: Local History, Greenbrae, Marin County, Hotels And Resorts, Maps

by Dewey Livingston

The Hotel Bon Air. The photo was altered to include a background that is actually the opposite direction: the hills above Escalle and Mt. Tamalpais. Courtesy of Alan Best, Kentfield Greenbrae Historical Society.

As the new MarinHealth hospital facility nears completion on the site of old Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, the subject of the fabled Hotel Bon Air is ripe for exploration. Recently, a new cache of survey maps donated to the Anne T. Kent California Room’s map annex by Nute Engineering in San Rafael has provided a closer look at the physical location and aspects of the hotel. First, a history of the hotel follows, excerpted from my book, In the Heart of Marin: The History of Kentfield and Greenbrae, California, published in 2014:

The development of the Escalle vineyards and picnic grounds north of Larkspur in the late 1800s, with a convenient North Pacific Coast Railroad stop in front of the resort, led to an influx of small houseboats or arks on the south banks of Corte Madera Creek and creation of a popular summer destination featuring “saltwater bathing” and other attractions. To capitalize on this popularity, in 1901 Mr. and Mrs. John E. Manlove built a hotel resort on 22 acres on the north side of the creek, in the former location of the Biggins and Prunty brickyard. Margaret Manlove, a San Francisco hotelier, had operated the nearby Mount View Hotel (as Mrs. Leach) on the former Fisher estate in Kentfield and had reportedly borrowed the money to build here from Mount View owner A. P. Hotaling.

The Manloves named their resort Hotel Bon Air, likely inspired by the famous Bon Air Hotels in Richmond, Virginia and Augusta, Georgia. The impressive four-story, 50-room edifice reportedly cost $80,000 to build and featured two shingled towers and a wide verandah with sweeping views of the creek and Mt. Tamalpais. A saltwater swimming pool offered a cleaner alternative to the sewage-influenced creek, and also a bowling alley, dance hall, gambling room and six guest cottages on the hill in back. Most guests reached the hotel via a boardwalk from Escalle station that led to a private drawbridge over the creek.

The Hotel Bon Air site after the hotel was gone and the hospitals built. Courtesy, left, U. C. Santa Barbara Special Collections; center, U.S.G.S.; right, Google Earth.

The hotel formally opened on May 15, 1902, advertised as a “New, modern 50-room hotel…every convenience; first class in every particular; fishing, boating, swimming, beautiful drives.” Hotel Bon Air hosted dances and special events (a “Grand Ball” on Fourth of July, 1902 drew 150 guests). On a summer night in 1906, hotel guests witnessed an “illuminated water carnival” on Corte Madera Creek, at which “thousands” of Japanese lanterns lit up the hotel, arks, nearby homes and the entire Escalle complex. A parade of more than 100 boats, with a military band on a float, toured the creek and ended the evening as “the band serenaded the hotel guests.”

Francis W. Smith managed the hotel in 1906 and Mrs. Manlove leased the whole operation later that year to C. A. Strassburger and a partner. She leased the new Cadillac Hotel on Eddy Street in San Francisco in 1908 and apparently gave most of her attention to that business, although she still owned and promoted the Bon Air. The Manloves traded the hotel around 1911 and it was reopened the following year after some improvements were made, but times were tough and swimming in the “slough” waned in popularity. A newspaper noted that the hotel “has never been considered a good investment;” it soon closed and was then foreclosed by the bank, which planned to demolish it. The Archdiocese of San Francisco, owner of the surrounding Greenbrae Ranch, bought the remaining property in 1918.

Location of the former hotel and cottages in 1931, left, and 2020, right.

Louis Dell’Era, wife Josephine and their eleven children resided at the empty hotel property as caretakers for many years. Son Nazzareno (“Reno”) told how he planted a eucalyptus tree to shade his chicken coop in the 1920s; the tree still stood as of 2014. The Dell’Era family remained for some years as caretakers until the Hotel Bon Air burned around 1923. The site remained vacant until its purchase by Niels Schultz and the subsequent construction of Marin General Hospital in 1952. “Every summer our whole family would go to pick at the best blackberry patch in Marin, the ruins of the hotel,” wrote Earl Rothermel. “If you didn’t get enough, you went to the other big patch by lifting up the wire fence to the farmer’s cow pasture. In one day you could pick enough berries to make two families jelly for a year.”

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Now, back to the site. When Marin General Hospital was built, it obliterated much — but not all — of the hotel grounds. Many of the palm and eucalyptus trees remained, and no doubt there was evidence of the cabins on the hillside behind. Old maps have definitely placed the hotel location, but what of the details? This is where the Nute map comes in to the picture.

J. Warren Nute established a land surveying and civil engineering practice in Marin County in 1945. His business grew quickly, as he took on many major projects including sanitation plants. One big job was the survey of the old Hotel Bon Air property in 1949, in preparation for the construction of Marin General Hospital. Nute produced a huge ink-and-linen map measuring nine by four feet, with one- and two-foot contours and astounding detail.

The foundation of the hotel remained on site, and is depicted on the survey map. Tucked into a draw in the hillside — perhaps an excavation area for the former brickyard there — the building measured 100 by 75 feet and featured an interior courtyard with fountain and palm tree. Visitors approached the hotel porch through a grove of palm trees and a wide set of concrete stairs. Below, next to a branch of Corte Madera Creek, sat the remains of the swimming pool, 110 by 50 feet in size. It is likely that this pool was filled with tidal creek saltwater, somehow filtered and purified for the safe enjoyment of guests. A dirt reservoir, surrounded by elms, is revealed nearby, and the remains of a circular brick water tank, 28 feet in diameter, remained on the top of a knoll to the north.

J. Warren Nute’s nine-foot-long survey map of the Bon Air property, and details showing the hotel’s swimming pool and tree details. Nute Archive,Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

The survey map locates every tree on the property, as well as its shadow line: the string of eucalyptus — which survives — on the south side of the property; numerous palms and cypress; occasional walnut, cedar, and maple; and the hundreds of native oaks, madrones, and a few bay trees. Each tree is located precisely, with its trunk diameter and height noted.

Other survey maps in the Kent Room collection include a survey of the hotel and its guest cabins, made in 1902 upon the opening of the hotel. The survey calls the property, “Riviera,” hinting at the aspirations of the proprietors. Each cabin had a name: Belle View, Rose, Oak, Fern, Wren, and the log cabin called Klondyke Cottage (a sign of the times). A stable provided for horses for the guests.

Nute’s survey of the hotel foundations and courtyard. Nute Archive, Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

The maps show that most of the archeological evidence of the Hotel Bon Air has been destroyed by hospital construction over the years. The recent construction took out the iconic palm trees that many of us remember from our experiences with births and illnesses and deaths at the old hospital. An overlay provided here shows the relationship of the 2020 site with that of around 1902: a quiet, genteel retreat for the people of San Francisco and the Bay Area. With views of Mt. Tamalpais and its pretty foothills, the Hotel Bon Air must have been a true pleasure resort, as revealed by old maps and photographs.