The Lake Tahoe Historical Society's docent, Lee, has developed a historical walking tour of the neighborhood of Al Tahoe. Today, for 3 1/2 hours we were lost in the past.
.jpg) |
| The "Al" in Al Tahoe comes from resort owner Al Sprague who combined modest luxury and simplicity to create another of the lake’s family vacation spots. In 1907, he built the Al Tahoe Inn, a three-story hotel with cottages and cabins scattered amongst the trees. Easy pathways led to the beach and the quarter-mile fishing pier where the steamers docked. A large dance pavilion, built in 1911, played host to summer evening dances and concerts. In 1916, electricity came to the Al Tahoe and a phone line connected it with Gardnerville, Nevada. |
.jpg) |
| Al was not the first in these parts to sense its touristic potential. In 1868, a small community named “Rowlands” was formed in the area at the
northwestern end of the current Lakeview Avenue. It housed shops, a
schoolhouse, saloon, dance hall and a hotel. |
.jpg) |
| A.H. Goodrich, a school teacher who came to the Lake in 1876 (and later became Placer County’s third superintendent of schools) built this original cabin. The photo above is AH's great granddaughter, Kathy, who we happened to catch outside her family home. She shared historic photos with all of us and had us mesmerized with her interesting history! |
.jpg) |
| The Goodrich cabin circa ~1876. |
 |
| When Frank Globin bought the Al Tahoe Hotel, in 1924, the name was so closely identified with the business that he called the resort “Globin’s Al Tahoe.” Globin customarily opened his hotel each year on the last day of May, provided Echo Summit had been cleared of snow. “If it had not, he and residents of the town took shovels and snow plows and opened it themselves. When the trend turned toward year-round tourism at Lake Tahoe, many resort owners fell victim to the unsolved problems of upgrading their establishments to meet the new demands of an ever-changing clientele. The early 1960s saw a number of “farewell parties” given for old resorts with Globin's closing in 1968 and Frank passing a year later. |
 |
| Our tour ended at the Old Historic Cemetery, a sad remnant of a once great resting place. The cemetery originally occupied part of the Thomas Rowland estate,
which covered much of the South Shore. Land for the community cemetery
was donated by Rowland in the late 1800s. When the land sold, the Al Tahoe street grid and lots were laid out without regard to the
old cemetery, which occupied parts of eight different lots. |
 |
| We were disappointed to learn that years of vandalism, theft, apathy, decay and natural weathering, as well as development
and construction in the area, have destroyed or damaged many of the
original cemetery markers, and many graves and their occupants have been
lost to the passage of time. Over the years, trash had been thrown into the cemetery property. Its safely has now been entrusted to the Lake Tahoe Historical Society and from what I know about this group, this history... this place of so many pioneers, will be kept safe to be shared with all of us who hunger to know more about this magical place we all home. |
posted under |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
5 comments:
I went to Globins pier as a child and caught huge crawdads with my dad in 1967-8
My grandfather built a home on Tallac in the late '50s. As a young boy, I would walk down Oakland and over to Globin's pier and closed-up dance hall. There I would catch trout and return to my grandparents' for a breakfast fish-fry.
I went every summer until my 16th year.
Great times.
I live right around the corner from this. I am very pleased to see them keep it a cemetery. It needs weeding bad and I'm hoping I can get a team together to do some weeding.
By any chance does anyone have photos of the Al Tahoe cemetery when the gravestones were still in place??
Have you visited the Lake Tahoe Historical Society? That museum is awesome and they have photos digitized numbering in the thousands. The staff is so helpful, too. Such history!
Post a Comment