| Beechler’s
Sanitarium
One of Soquel’s best-known landmarks had
burned to the ground before anyone paid much attention to it,
and yet today, photographs of the compound inspire a sense of
mystery and a few remnants still standing on East Walnut Street
can stir the imagination.
The original Mansard-roofed house—similar
in appearance to the nearby Averon home in Capitola—was
built in the 1870s and was owned by a local schoolteacher, Miss
Matilda Baker. She sold it about 1900 to an aging surgeon who
had served in the Civil War, Dr. James Beechler. He expanded the
grounds with additional buildings featuring wide verandas, porch
columns, and sturdy railings, and named it “Dr. Beechler’s
Sanitarium.” It became a place where people in need of convalescence
could recoup with supervised medical care, food, and lodging.
By 1910, however, the physician was finding his own health a problem.
Called into court to answer a contempt charge for failing to respond
to a subpoena, Dr. Beechler attempted to explain that his actions
to due to failing health. As he spoke, the doctor collapsed in
the courtroom and was revived with difficulty. He soon announced
his retirement and his sanitarium was managed by another physician
from Omaha.
Dr. Beechler lived six more years until his death
in March, 1921. Later, an itinerant junk dealer, L. T. Wallenbach,
said the doctor and his wife had promised him the value of their
estate in exchange for supervised care. But when he was unable
to produce a signed agreement, the court declared the contract
void.
Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Bays purchased the Soquel sanitarium
in 1927. They ran it as an apartment house during the early years
of the Great Depression. Suffering a loss of $2500 in a unexplained
1933 fire, the Bays lost all the main buildings of the entire
complex in “blaze of mysterious origin” a year later,
in February 1934.
Two members of the Capitola Volunteer Fire Department,
Chief Ed Huber and Thomas Hayford, nearly sacrificed their lives
when a water tank exploded as they entered the building in search
for the source of the fire. Both suffered burns. The cause was
judged to be either spontaneous combustion or a short circuit
in the wiring. The Bays reportedly had little insurance, but with
the help of fire fighters were able to save most of their personal
belongings. The buildings were valued at $8,500.
Today a few outbuildings and apartments remain
on the site of the sanitarium above Center Street, and mature
trees suggest the size of the original building footprint.
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