The history of Sonoma Valley bubbles and flows along tributaries like Sonoma Creek and the thermal springs that surge to the surface throughout its length. Crossing the steel bridge from Eldridge to Glen Ellen, visitors can still experience the healthful waters and agricultural abundance that attracted thousands of vacationers in the early 1900s. The town also had its wild side during its pioneering days. In 1893, the population was 72 and there were 10 saloons. Today, the town’s amenities are considerably more comfortable, and there is but one saloon.
The trains brought people to summer in the area and resorts sprang up with names like the Los Guilicos Harmonic Pavilion, where guests could picnic, boat and fish. Families can still swim and picnic at the 22-acre site, now called Morton’s Warm Springs.
Glen Ellen
One of Glen Ellen’s early citizens, Joshua Chauvet, arrived from France in 1850 and soon purchased an old mill built by Gen. Vallejo south of town, converting it into a winery and brandy distillery. By 1888 he was producing 175,000 gallons of wine a year. The building is now known as Jack London Village.
In 1905 Chauvet built a hotel in the center of town, along with several other buildings. The hotel enjoyed huge popularity; then, as times changed, it sat vacant for periods and was only months away from the wrecking ball when it was saved by its present owners. The Chauvet Hotel was recently transformed into condominiums and is on the National Registry of Historic Places.
As early as 1885, the Glen Ellen Viticultural Society was formed, and grape growing had begun in earnest. Col. Charles Stuart bought part of the Vallejo land grant and named it Glen Ellen for his wife. When the village took the name Glen Ellen, Stuart changed the ranch to Glen Oaks. He became one of the largest champagne and wine producers, and after his death in 1880, Ellen Stuart took over the winery and ran it for 10 years until the phylloxera infestation. Two other women nearby, Kate Warfield and Eliza Hood, were propelled into winemaking by similar circumstances and became award-winning winemakers. The Stuart compound survived and is now an historical landmark, and the Glen Oaks vineyard is still being farmed.
In addition to its most well known resident, Jack London, Glen Ellen was home to Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher, one of the foremost writers on food. M.F.K. Fisher made her home in France and Glen Ellen, and produced 26 books that intertwine food, culture, love, relationships and passion for life. Her last home can be seen from Highway 12 on the Bouverie Preserve.
Proving that Glen Ellen has not lost all its spunk, in 1992 the populace was galvanized by the imminent threat of having the town cannon, gifted to Glen Ellen by a General Wagner in 1905, sold to an East Coast collector. Citizens chained themselves to the historic relic in protest. The Richardses, who had purchased the Jack London Lodge, Wolf House and Jack London Saloon, inherited the cannon that sat rusting in their parking lot. An agreement with the town was struck, and the cannon now sits proudly, affixed with an historic plaque.
Kenwood
The charming hamlet of Kenwood was originally a swamp, home to waterfowl, frogs and finny creatures. Re-channeling of the runoff and the creek, opened the area to homesteading, as thousands rushed to California in search of land and gold.
Once part of the immense Los Guilicos land grant, the town of Kenwood was created around 1895, in anticipation of the extension of the rail lines to Santa Rosa. The depot is built of locally quarried basalt and is the only stone depot in Sonoma. Quarries abounded at the turn of the century and stone was hauled to San Francisco to pave the streets there. Samuele Sebastiani, who later started the famous winery, worked these quarries for $1 dollar a day.
School was at times conducted in a chicken house, a church and finally a schoolhouse on Highway 12 that today is S.L. Cellars. Another landmark on Highway 12, Puckett’s Corner, was bought by the comedic duo, the Smothers Brothers, and turned into a tasting room, now called The Wine Room. Wine was an important industry, begun in 1851 by William Hood who planted 160 acres of grapes on his vast holdings. He was followed by many other grape-growing pioneers, including the Pagani, Behler and Kunde families, whose efforts gave rise to present-day wineries along Highway 12.
Fascinating characters have woven the fabric of Kenwood’s history, including the famous Mary Ellen Pleasant (Mammy Pleasant), who has been variously depicted as a voodoo priestess, a multimillionaire entrepreneur, a madam, a tireless advocate who worked on the Underground Railroad to free slaves and a murderess. All may be true, but her history is clouded with gossip and conflicting stories. One thing that is known is that she bought the Drummond Ranch and built the Beltane Ranch there, fashioned in the style of New Orleans’s architecture. It was sold in 1936 to the Heins family and run as an inn by their descendents.
Kenwood grew to have shops, hotels, saloons and businesses during the years, none of which remain, but many quaint older homes dot the charming neighborhoods that surround a lovely, green central park space. And from Glen Ellen to Santa Rosa, fine wineries, historic inns and enchanting scenery provide a glimpse of the old and a taste of the new.
