Community Corner
Watsonville News, 101 Years Ago Today: Hotel Burns
A fire damaged one of the biggest hotels in the city.
On this date (Oct. 29) in 1910, fire ravaged a portion of the largest hotel in Watsonville. The blaze made the news all the way in Sausalito. The Sausalito News published this report in Volume 26, No. 24.
Property Destroyed in Watsonville
Watsonville— Fire destroyed the annex to the Hoffman House, the second largest hotel in the city, owned by Liutenant-Governor (sic) Warren R. Porter, and for a time threatened the safety of the entire south end of the town. Appeals were sent to San Jose and Salinas for help and both responded with apparatus, but by the time the engines arrived the local department had the blaze under control. The loss to the hotel is about $2000, and to adjoining property $1000.
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The Hoffman House and the Watsonville House were well-known boarding houses in the 19th century, according to Watsonville historian Jane Borg in a Santa Cruz Sentinel report. It was torn down in 1919, the Register Pajaronian reported.
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