The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
100 years ago – July 1, 1920
Healdsburg’s new fire engine
Healdsburg has been struggling along with antiquated hand-drawn apparatus for years, and is one of the last of the modern small cities to become equipped with a modern motor apparatus. The need for modern instruments to fight fire has been seen by the firemen for years, but the idea was laughed at by some city officials and at least one newspaper in the city up to the last year, when public sentiment was crystallized into a demand that adequate measures be obtained to combat fire. Public sentiment began to change after the disastrous fire at the Masonic Temple a year ago last January, and has been gathering momentum since, until one by one the opponents were won over to the idea of obtaining for the city “a mouse-trap with little gee-gaws and doo-dads,” as the new engine was described by one of its bitter opponents during the campaign to get an auto-drawn fire engine.
75 years ago – July 6, 1945
A. W. Garrett sells business to his employees
The A. W. Garrett Store, operated by pioneer Healdsburg business man A. W. Garrett for more than half a century, was sold this week to three of the firm’s employees, Frank Hatch, Claude Nosier and Charles Gagliardo. The hardware company was established in 1889 near the corner of Center and Powell Streets. Short time later as the firm expanded and more space was needed the store was moved to West Street, the building now being occupied by Ben Franklin Store. The firm has been in the present building on Matheson Street for thirty years and has become an important landmark to people who have done business with the congenial staff of the store for so many years. The new owners will operate the store under the name of The Garrett Hardware and Plumbing Co.
50 years ago – July 9, 1970
Second class set 175 in first swimming class
With much splashing and excitement, 175 youngsters are learning water safety as well as how to swim at Memorial Beach every afternoon in the Summer Swim classes sponsored by the Healdsburg Recreation Commission and approved by the Red Cross. The first section began June 22. There is only a $1 fee charged. Students receive instruction in one of five classes – beginners, advanced beginners, intermediates, swimmers and in lifesaving. Beginners, who usually range in age from four to eight, learn to adjust to the water, to hold their breath and float, to kick and stroke, to “crawl” on their back as well as the normal way, and, most of all, water safety. Those youngsters enrolled in the junior and senior lifesaving course work toward a Red Cross certificate in lifesaving. This means they are capable of long distance swimming, know the techniques of rescuing a drowning person, and receive instruction in artificial respiration.
