70 years on Happy Lane

I love looking at old photographs of the Springs to imagine how it was in the heyday of its resort era. But nothing tops talking to someone who has lived here since then.

Jan Schwarz moved to Boyes Hot Springs from San Pablo with her family in 1946, one month before her 12th birthday. Her parents bought three and half acres on Happy Lane. And Happy Lane is where she’s lived ever since.

When I first moved here, Happy Lane was a little dirt road. It didn’t even have a name. Our house was the only one on the street,” Schwarz said.

She and I recently sat down for a chat at Barking Dog Roasters, where we talked about Boyes Hot Spring then and now. She said her dad and his four brothers built six vacation cottages, named Sunnyside Cottages, on Happy Lane. “The tenants were families from San Francisco who came and spent a month,” she said.

Despite the fact Schwarz would spend her weekends cleaning the cottages, she said hosting the guests was a lot of fun. The same families would return every summer, and she and her family got to know them.

“We would have barbecues down by the creek with our guests. My dad was a professional accordion player and he would play music.” She also said they would sit outside at night during the summer and listen to the music from the Little Switzerland nightclub (now Rossi’s), that traveled across what were then open fields.

She also recalls that the first market to open up in the Springs was the Boyes Food Center in 1949, which continues to operate in the same location on Highway 12 at the corner of Calle del Monte.

Schwarz also said that folks living in the City of Sonoma have always had a stigma against the Springs. “When I was in high school a lot of my friends’ parents wouldn’t let them go to Boyes Hot Springs or El Verano, because they didn’t think it was safe.”

She said that fear was because it was a resort area with a lot of empty houses, and Sonomans back then also didn’t relate to the temporary residents from San Francisco.

Schwarz got married in 1954 to a man who would become Chief of the Valley of the Moon Fire District. They moved into their own house on Happy Lane. She said it was around that time when the Springs started changing from a resort area to a place people lived permanently. But she said the significant growth in the permanent population occurred in the 1970s.

Schwarz was very active in community affairs. She and her husband participated in getting Saint Leo’s church built in 1969. She also spoke fondly of the late Juanita Munson, the Agua Caliente restaurateur known for her outlandish behavior and great food.

“Juanita was very good to the fire department,” she said. “She always donated money and would help put on events.”

Schwarz raised two daughters, who also continue to live in the Springs. She has four grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

I asked her if there is anything that hasn’t changed in 70 years. Her answer: The roads. She said other than the major intersections and connectors, which have had stoplights installed and been widened, she said the roads are the same.

I also asked Schwarz what is her vision for the Springs. She said she would like to see the old, run down buildings torn down. “They’re what make the area looked depressed. It needs to be cleaned up. People would stop if it was cleaned up.”

Schwarz also said that sometimes she misses the resort days, because the area was clean and not run down. But she loves her community. “I thought many times about moving, but this is my home. As my dad used to say, this is God’s country.”

Gina Cuclis, a candidate for First District Supervisor, has been a resident and community advocate in Boyes Hot Springs since 1990. She also is president of the Sonoma County Board of Education. Reach her at [email protected].