San Lorenzo Valley Museum is a destination for those who are interested in the progression of the San Lorenzo Valley from vacation spot to a bedroom community of Silicon Valley. The museum’s ever-changing exhibitions provide a steady diet of information and history to its visitors, and the museum is doing it again with “Resorts!”—on display at the Faye G. Belardi Memorial Gallery in Felton until April 5.
In the early 1870s, exploring visitors marveled at the dramatic scenery in the San Lorenzo Valley. With the arrival of the railroad in Felton in 1880, the summer campers from the Bay Area came to escape the summer heat. When the railroad pushed north to Boulder Creek and much of the virgin lumber was depleted, the land owners divided the land, laid out townsites, and so the resort industry was born.
This exhibition highlights some of the early resorts—familiar and unfamiliar—and includes brochures, postcards and other resort and tourist ephemera and souvenirs.
The impetus for the exhibit is an old-timey wooden sign (circa early 1900s) pointing visitors toward the “Ben Lomond Hotel,” just one of the many locales out-of-towners flocked to when they arrived on the train from San Francisco or Oakland for a weekend stay. The sign was donated in 2025 by Phil Chabot; it was found by his son Sam Chabot in the attic of a home in Ben Lomond and its discovery opened the door to “Resorts!”
“Deciding which resorts to cover in the exhibition was a difficult decision to make, because there were so many of them,” said Exhibition Curator Lisa Robinson. “In the early days of travel to the San Lorenzo Valley, people got on the train in Oakland, brought their tents and camped under the stars for the whole summer,” added Robinson, referencing the fact that while visitors from San Francisco came south to warm up, Oaklanders arrived to enjoy the cool air of the redwood forest.
Robinson said that as the popularity of SLV exploded as a vacation destination, resort owners wanted to keep people—and their money—in town.
“They started building hotels and cottages, and added bowling alleys, tennis courts, swimming, boating and other family-friendly activities,” she said.
Thanks to the advent of the automobile, travelers began visiting auto camps in the 1920s and suddenly, gas and service stations were popping up all over the valley, including at Big Basin State Park.
“There were resorts and gas stations every few miles, even along Bear Creek Road,” Robinson said.
While the Brookdale Lodge is still in business, the majority of other resorts that cropped up in the area have long since faded into the annals of history, including the Minnehaha Hotel, Alpine Resort, Clear Creek Villas, Woodland Hills Resort, The Rustic and the Brookdale Inn, which was stationed directly across the street from the Brookdale Lodge.
The owners of the Brookdale Lodge took the owners of the Brookdale Inn to court citing controversy and confusion over the similar-sounding names, but the judge sided with the Brookdale Inn owners, determining that the Brookdale-based location of each resort allowed for the word “Brookdale” to appear in their titles. The Brookdale Lodge went on to host celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Mae West and President Herbert Hoover, while the Brookdale Inn eventually became defunct.
Visiting the exhibition is indeed a step back in time, with guest books from resorts (many of them featuring German entries), photos, dish ware, souvenirs, brochures, postcards and much more.
“Part of the fun of this exhibit has been tapping into the nostalgia that it brings,” Robinson said. “We’ve heard repeatedly from visitors who said they remember coming to the area for vacation with their grandparents and great-grandparents, and they joyfully recount the memories of their visits.”
A video featuring the various swimming holes and pools in the San Lorenzo Valley plays on a loop in the exhibit next to a curio cabinet of keepsakes from the resorts.
“Many of the items we have on display came from local historian Ronnie Trubek, and we’re grateful to her for allowing us to share these pieces of our past,” Robinson said.
While the majority of resorts featured in the exhibit have long since disappeared, their impact on the San Lorenzo Valley is unmistakable and feature the museum’s ability to bring the past into the present for visitors to reminisce about and enjoy.
The Faye G. Belardi Memorial Gallery, located at 6299 Gushee St. in Felton, is a former church building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The gallery is open Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 1-4pm and by appointment. Educators can arrange a private tour for their students by contacting the Museum at in**@*******um.org. Admission is free but donations are welcomed.
