Well, I had hoped to had this ready by now, but I still need to finish up some research. To be honest, I got sidetracked when I reviewed the Lee Zwiebel file, a manager of the theater during its early years.
Of course, there were some controversies that arose from the theater over certain films shown. Whatever the case may be, if anyone would like share their stories about Sierra, by all means contact me.
In my previous post about the Shinn Ranch, I promised a follow up concerning the children of Oliver & Louisa Shinn.
James Oliver Shinn, the eldest child pursued a career in newspaper business. He first gained experience working for Susanville’s Lassen Advocate. Along with his brother, Al, they launched the Mountain Review on November 12, 1879. The newspaper continued until his untimely death the following summer. Continue reading The Shinn Family
It is interesting to note that when the first town plat of Susanville was surveyed only three streets were named after individuals–Lassen, Roop and Weatherlow. Fast forward to 1912, when the town’s largest adjoining subdivision, Lassen Townsite, was laid out nearly all the over half of the streets were named for individuals. Those streets such as Alexander, Knoch, Pardee, Minckler, were named for the investors.
In future posts, we will delve into the history of the street names, and who were these people. For instance, Mark Street was named for Mark Arnold, the seventeen-year-old son of Alexander and Susan Roop Arnold, who died in 1898.
In the summer of 1862, T.N. Long and Al Leroy constructed a story and half building on the southwest corner of Main and Union Streets, the current site of the St. Francis Hotel. It housed the Magnolia Saloon, and at the time of construction was most pretentious structure in Susanville. In 1864, the saloon also housed Lassen County’s first courtroom. As the court only was in session during the first few days of each month, it did not interfere with the saloon trade. In 1867, with a new Lassen County Courthouse, the Magnolia was no longer needed for judicial purposes. Over the years, it housed numerous entities and was destroyed by a fire in 1882.
For over a century a barbershop went hand-in-hand with the Pioneer Saloon. Times change, the old fashioned barbershop is bordering upon extinction.
In Susanville, there is still Fred’s Barbershop at 20 North Lassen Street. It is a place that I not only patronize, but also stopped by from time to time to discuss the weather and any other topic that suits our fancy. Fred Borghi, has been doing business there since October 1958, a local institution.
In the annals of Susanville’s history, it has witnessed a wide variety of fraternal and social organizations. One of the more unusual and short-lived was the Loafer’s Society.
Organized in 1878, the Society recruited men to sacrifice themselves for the good of the community, to consumer all the intoxicating beverages, so as to prevent others from falling prey to demon rum and other concoctions. They also distributed themselves about the entrances of churches and other public gatherings to provide examples to the young not to follow in their foot steps.
The Loafer’s Society only membership requirements were for men of good immoral character, an easy flow of profane and vulgar language and a large capacity for whiskey. They also, only met on Sundays.
In case you missed the first installment, you can find it here. The newspaper had two eras—the Tremain and Cooks. On March 16, 1911, Fred C. Sefton purchased the Lassen Weekly Mail from J.M. Tremain for $3,000 and the transition was in earnest. Sefton’s news coverage was far superior than Tremain.
A fire, too, again shaped the newspaper. On October 9, 1911 the printing office of the Lassen Weekly Mail was destroyed by fire. Sefton moved to a new location on South Gay Street in the rear of the Bank of Lassen County building, where it remained until 1934. But that was not the only change on the horizon. In June 1913, Robert M. Cook purchased the newspaper. Cook, who was also attorney, worked in the newspaper trade in Philadelphia. But what he desired the most was to own a small town newspaper, and headed to San Francisco as a base for his quest.
It was a family affair operation, as his wife, Katherine and their two sons, Kenneth and Don were involved in the newspaper one way or another. In 1918, a women’s page was added, with Katherine in charge of that department. In 1922, “Weekly” was dropped from the masthead, and now the paper simply known as the Lassen Mail.
The good times would only last so long. On March 30, 1933, Robert M. Cook passed away after a couple of years of health issues. There was no question he was the guiding force behind the paper. A year later the family leased the newspaper to D.J. Makepeace. The newspaper struggled and in the spring of 1937, Ross Draper publisher of the Lassen Advocate acquired it. Draper continued with Mail, until December 1938. At that time it was merged to be the Lassen Advocate-Mail. When 1940 arrived, the Mail was dropped from the title.
Last month I inaugurated a book-of-the-month, that featured Sagebrush Reflections. After all proceeds from book sales not only help support operations, but help finance future publications.
As Easter Sunday falls on March 27, I thought it is only fitting to feature my history of Susanville’s Sacred Heart Church. While the work examines the church’s humble beginnings with the first Mass held in 1869, to when the parish was established in 1912. Yet interspersed along the way are many tidbits, how the church grew with the community. Take for instance the year the parish was formed, the growth was so rampant in Susanville that more commercial and residential buildings were constructed that year, that in all the combined previous 15 years! Did you know that the church’s St. Patrick’s dinner is the oldest continuous event in the history of Susanville and 2016 marks its 99th! All of this and more at a bargain price of $10.00. Order here.
Today, marks my first anniversary of a daily blog. That topic concerned the history of the Roosevelt pool, which had been demolished in February 2015. You can read the full account here.
The City of Susanville and County of Lassen created the Honey Lake Valley Recreation Authority. It is a five member board with two representatives each from the City and County and a fifth seat to a member of the public. As a casual observer, while countless meetings have been held, plans submitted, yet nothing as far I can tell, I don’t see anything moving forward. May be I am bit cynical, but their latest news release contained who and how much people will be paid for their services, but still no concrete details when a pool might get constructed. Hence, some creative person provided the above illustration. No doubt, a member of the Authority will take me to task and so hopefully a year from now on my second anniversary we may know more.
In 1913, Susanville’s first movie theater opened for business at 804 Main Street. It was a multi-functional building where dances and other social events were held. It should be noted that the first movies to be shown in Susanville occurred in 1907. When the Orpheum first opened, movies were shown usually two to three nights a week. Whatever the case may be, it became one of the most popular social hubs in town. It should also be noted, that the basement of the Orpheum housed a bakery.
In 1921, the Orpheum had competition when the Liberty Theater opened at the present site of Sierra Theater. The Orpheum adapted and at times had a skating rink and bowling alley. Many a civic organization held meetings and social fundraisers there. On May 16, 1963, Paul Langslet had the building demolished for a parking/used car lot.