Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs
Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs | |
California Historical Landmark No. 1017 | |
 Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs pool, ca. 1920 | |
   | |
| Nearest city | Gilroy, California |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°6′30″N 121°28′39″W / 37.10833°N 121.47750°W |
| Area | 8 acres (3.2 ha) |
| Architectural style | Italianate–Victorian |
| NRHP reference No. | 95000996[1] |
| CHISL No. | 1017 |
| Added to NRHP | August 21, 1995 |
Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs, a
Buddhist shrine from 1939 and a Japanese garden teahouse from that same year. The property is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[3] The hot spring's temperature ranges from 99° to 111 °F (37° to 44 °C). These springs are the site of occurrence of certain extremophile micro-organisms, that are capable of surviving in extremely hot environments.[4]
Setting and early history
The site is in a mixed oak forest sloping above
destination hotel in the Victorian period included San Francisco Mayor James Phelan, gold mining magnate Adolph Sutro, Claus Spreckels and singer Margaret Alverson Blake
.
The roaring 1920s
Further development took place in this vibrant period in
Roaring twenties
a redwood water tank was built in 1913 and the first concrete pool for mineral water was installed at this site in 1917. In the early 1920s William and Emily McDonald purchased the property from Roop. More guest cabins were added, bringing the total to 24. The guest cabin Arizona was erected in 1924, but unfortunately it was consumed by fire in 1992. A number of the original guest cabins from the 1920s are still extant, each named after a different state. The cabin names are clearly affixed to the front of each structure for easy identification.
Social activity at Gilroy Hot Springs was intense in this period.
slot machines drew large crowds for birthday parties, Thursday night poker games, swimming parties, Saturday night dances and local service club socials. Over 500 registrants per day would visit the resort in the peak summer season. The San Francisco Motorcycle Club
had an especially notable outing here in 1920 (Gilroy Advocate, 1920).
Automobile use was rising dramatically in this era, so that a frenzy of tree cutting occurred in the early 1920s all along Gilroy Hot Springs Road to accommodate the burgeoning auto arrivals. Yet at the end of the decade, the
Southern Pacific Railroad ended its auto stage
service to the resort.
Beginning of Japanese influence
On September 15, 1938, "Japanese Capitalist Buys Famed Gilroy Hot Springs Resort" read the headline in the Gilroy Advocate.
Americans of Japanese ancestry
, especially because the hot springs recalled similar physiographic features of their native land (Seido, 1941).
World War II and aftermath
After the bombing of
European American
counterparts.
Modern era
The sleeping annex was demolished in 1946, and in 1964 Sakata could not afford to meet the requirements of county
Portola Valley. The hotel and clubhouse burned down in 1980. The property was operated as a private resort until 1988, when it was purchased by Fukuyama International, Inc., headquartered in Osaka, Japan. Fukuyama then launched plans for rehabilitation of the property as a Japanese American cultural and recreation center and secured its standing as a California Historical Landmark
.
In 2003, the property was purchased by the
California Department of Parks and Recreation and added to the Henry W. Coe State Park. Although it is currently closed to the public until a management plan is implemented, many of the structures have fallen victim to vandalism and the ravages of time and weather[citation needed
].
Bibliography
- Gilroy as a Home, Coffin 1873:31 National Register of Historic Places OMB 1024-0018
- Gilroy Advocate, 17 May 1924
- Gilroy Hot Springs Santa Clara County, Fukuyama International, Inc., 209 Post Street, San Francisco, California, June 1, 1995
- James E. Ball et al., GeologicEvaluation of Gilroy Hot Springs, Earth Systems Consultants, File No. NJG-2034-05 47853 Warm Springs Boulevard, Fremont, California, May, 1995
- List of California Historical Landmarks, Santa Clara County, State of California Landmark 1017
- Environmental assessment prepared by Lumina Technologies for Santa Clara County (1999)
- National Register of Historic Places, U.S. Dept. of Interior, National Park Service, Office of Management and Budget No. 1024-0018
- Masuro Seido Collection (1941) National Register of Historic Places OMB 1024-0018
- Gilroy Hot Springs Joins Henry Coe State Park, "?". The Nature Conservancy. 2003. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
- Ian L. Sanders: The Mineral Springs of Santa Clara County, Design Factory Graphics, 2012. ISBN 9780615613260
- Ian L. Sanders and Michael F. Brookman: A Hundred Years of Gilroy Hot Springs, 1860s–1960s, Design Factory Graphics, 2014. ISBN 978-0989524612
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "California Historical Landmark: Santa Clara County". Office of Historic Preservation. California State Parks. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
- ^ NRIS Reference No. 95000996.
- ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2010. Extremophile. eds. E. Monosson and C. Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, DC.
