100 years ago – August 28, 1924
INGENIOUS BOOZE HIDING PLACE IN HOTEL FOUND BY RAIDING OFFICERS
Romolo Birchiolli, proprietor of the hotel at Fitch and Mason St., paid a $300 fine Monday morning as a result of a police raid on his place Saturday night, when a large quantity of liquor was seized. Officers paid a visit to the hotel at about 8:45 Saturday evening. Armed with a search warrant they sought high and low and in all sorts of places for the liquor they felt sure was somewhere on the premises.
Three-quarters of an hour later the police were beginning to feel that they had been foiled and were almost ready to give up, when the ingenious hiding place was revealed. The liquor was found under the stairs leading to the second story of the hotel and was reached through a step that slid easily aside when grasped just right. The police seized a 10-gallon keg and a 5-gallon demijohn containing wine and several half-gallon demijohns containing moonshine whisky and jackass.
75 years ago – August 19, 1949
NEW YORK GIANTS INVITE HEALDSBURG TO HOLD TRY-OUT CAMP HERE
Healdsburg has been invited to hold a two-day try-out camp for the New York Giants. In a letter to Art McCaffrey, Mickey Shader, San Francisco scout for the New York ball club, promised this city nation-wide publicity as well as to “give some kids a chance to get started in baseball.’’
Shader, present at the opening of the Healdsburg Ball Park under the new lights, was thoroughly impressed with Healdsburg’s baseball setup. The letter was turned over to the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce and a strong affirmative reply was immediately sent to Shader. Shader’s proposal came as a gratifying reward to the ball park lighting committee whose members worked to make the lights a reality.
It reads in part: “Was much impressed with your ball grounds the other night. Would your city be interested in having the New York Giants hold a two-day tryout camp in Healdsburg September 10-11? All we would want is this: Ball grounds in shape and we would want publicity on camp sent out by Healdsburg to every paper within 200 miles radius. We, too, will send out publicity”. The camps in the past have produced many great players and who knows that this camp may be the start of a major league career for players that attend.
50 years ago – August 22, 1974
DRY CREEK RANCHERS WILL CLEAR JUNIOR HIGH DEBRIS FROM BANKS
Dry Creek property owners who allowed T&R Excavators to dump concrete and other remains of the demolished Healdsburg Junior High along the creek banks apparently are resigned to the fact that it will have to be repaired to meet North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board standards.
The debris was placed along three Dry Creek ranches, south of Lambert bridge. The ranchers said they had a Sonoma County Water Agency permit to use the material for bank stabilization but it apparently did not apply to all the materials dumped. The job involves dragging the debris with a backhoe to above the high water level and placing the concrete in a specified way.
It is board policy that Creekside dumping be prevented because it encourages continuous dumping and leads to problems such as stream and aquatic life damage and rodent increases.
The Healdsburg Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am – 4pm, at 221 Matheson St.
