This article was published in the April 1975 issue of the PML News. 

At the end of this article is a reference to Sal Ferretti's new butcher shop, now occupied by Mel Lutt's Pharmacy. For those of you who don't remember Mel Lutt's Pharmacy, Custom Realty now occupies this corner building in the center of town next door to the veterinary office.

photo courtesy Margaret Anker
Garrote Hotel, Matt Foot, Proprietor, circa 1875

CENTENNIAL YEAR FOR GROVELAND CHRISTENING
By Jean McClish

Groveland celebrates the centennial of its name at OLD WEST DAY, June 15, 1975. It was in 1875 that the township citizens rejected the early gold camp name and chose one more fitting for the community.

Groveland lived out its first quarter of a century under the colorful, if somewhat repulsive, name of Garrote.

Names of gold mining camps were inclined toward the descriptive picturesque, Swift Justice at the end of a rope, punishment for a Mexican miner who stole a compatriot's horse, was reason enough, so the story goes, to establish the name of the camp.

By 1875 the settlement had a permanent, stable population of about 100, and together with Big Oak Flat was the hub of activity for surrounding ranchers in Moccasin Creek, Deer Flat, Spring Gulch, Big Creek and Second Garrote. These two sister communities supplied goods and services to south-of-the-river inhabitants.

Despite the county's financial panic of 1873 and the depression that followed, responsible businessmen of Garrote optimistically looked forward to a long and fruitful future.

In casting about for a more propitious name for the community, Benjamin Savory, proprietor of the Savory Hotel, offered that of his hometown, Groveland, Mass., and his suggestion was adopted.

The UNION DEMOCRAT of January 23, 1875 reported, "Among recent postal changes made is the name of Garrote post office to Groveland. Garrote is not a handsome name, besides it has unpleasant association, yet for all that, the pioneers of Tuolumne will stick to it and still call Jim Tannahill's post office Garrote."

In 1875, business establishments in Groveland included Matt Foot's Garrote Hotel (Groveland Hotel), the Savory, (torn down years ago, earlier called the Washington, stood where the Charlotte Hotel is today), Tannahill's store and saloon (Iron Door Espresso), and the Cassaretto store (originally Reboul's trading post now Groveland Community Hall building), all built in the early 1850's. Mullen's blacksmith shop was on the west of Cassaretto's store and Shoup's Livery stable was on the east. Allen's saloon (Garrotte Saloon which burnt down 1990's) was across the street, east of Hammond's blacksmith shop. Homes were strung out up and down the road. One, at least, still stands - the red bungalow flanked by the colorful garden tended by Bernice Laveroni Workman. It was built over 100 years ago.

Mines were flourishing throughout the area. These were what sustained the economy. Woodcutters were kept busy supplying the cord wood needed to fuel the steam engines that supplied the power to work the machinery.

The Big Oak Flat Road had been completed all the way to Yosemite in 1874, and more traffic was finding its way along the dirt track through town. To be sure, the road was usually impassable in the winter and during spring rains - even after the turn of the century.

Loaded wagons pulled by as many as 14 or 16 mules, if the load was heavy, passed through town. Four-horse 12-passenger stages made regularly scheduled trips from Groveland to Chinese Camp. Herds of cattle going up country for summer range or back down in the fall were driven into town, bypassing the "downtown' area by following the creek behind the Cassaretto store and coming baccord woodpassengercord woodpassengerk out to the road beyond the Groveland Hotel.

Although an early automobile came up the hill as early as 1901, four-footed horsepower was the preferred mode of locomotion into the 1920's.

Condition of the road was a constant source of irritation and occasionally made news in the local paper, the TUOLUMNE PROSPECTOR:
"A force of men are engaged this week in repairing the road between Big Oak Flat and Groveland, especially the "whirlpool" which was a very bad mud hole." (March 2, 1901)

"The road crew has at last reached Groveland and a new culvert put in above the Mt. Jefferson office. A spring-rocking, profanity-breeding hole has been wiped out, and the traveling public is duly grateful." (April 13, 1901)

1901 found Groveland booming. A resurgence of mining activity throughout the Mother Lode was prompted in part by new money from eastern investors and local stock companies, and partly from the development of more sophisticated mining methods. The Mt. Jefferson, mainstay of local mining activity, was building a new sulpheret house and a structure to house an assay office.

Older buildings were being refurbished and new ones built. H.M. Stanley erected a new blacksmith and woodworking shop, the Buckhorn, in the east end of town and "engaged competent mechanics to do blacksmithing, horseshoeing, and build wagons."

W.A. Forbes occupied a newly constructed building and advertised flour for $4.80 a barrel, sugar at 13-1/2 lbs. for $1.

There was a new barbershop in the Gem Saloon.

T.C. Reid was proprietor of Tannahill's old store with the iron doors. His post office store stocked stationery, pens, pencils, mourning notepaper, cigars and men's furnishings. It boasted a new coat of paint.

W.A. Smith's new cash store business opened in December 1900 offering choice groceries and provisions.

Miss Fannie Blackwell, a graduate of McDowell's dressmaking school in San Francisco, announced she would do dressmaking at the McSwain residence.

The Sierra Gorda Union No. 39 WFM was organized in 1900 and by 1901 had 135 members that met alternatively in Big Oak Flat in the Odd Fellows Hall and in Groveland at the Foresters' Hall every Thursday evening.

Oro Fino Hive No. 49 and Oro Grande Tent, Knights and Ladies of the Maccabees met at the Maccabees' Hall in Big Oak Flat across the street from the Big Oak marker.

Court Mt. Jefferson No. 8239 AOF, organized in 1894, had 55 members in 1901 and met weekly in Groveland.

Yosemite Lodge No. 97 I.O.O.F. was constituted in 1860 and the Rebekah Lodge No. 259 was established in 1901.

Much of the social life of the two communities was generated by these groups. Grand Balls were popular at the turn of the century, and nearly every week one of the organizations sponsored a ball. The Opera Hall in Groveland, across the Main street from the Groveland Hotel was decorated to depict the theme, musicians hired - usually Vic Repetto and McCarthy or Prof. Steele's orchestra from Sonora, and a gala evening ensued.

At midnight, following the "supper dance," the revelers adjourned to the Groveland Hotel and Schroeders for a midnight supper and then returned to the hall to dance until dawn.

Groveland circa 1905. (photo courtesy of Roy Brooks)

In the early 1910's when Charlie Baird was running the Groveland Hotel, he once put up 54 head of horses one snowy night. "I put the rigs outside, the horses tied heads together so they couldn't't get to kicking one another. That's the kind of crowd we had: "When there was a dance at Coulterville Charlie Baird would "take a 6-horse stage, everybody free. And they'd all come when we had a dance."

Baird's Hotel was dismantled after the Hetch Hetchy days. Today's Community Hall is at the right.

But it was during the Hetch Hetchy days of 1915 to 1925 that Groveland had her heyday. Headquarters for the railroad operation during the building of the railroad and construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam and the mountain tunnels was in Groveland. This occasioned a sudden influx of a great number of men, some with their families.

photo courtesy of Roy Brooks
Groveland during the Hetch Hetchy days.
 
The City of San Francisco built a hospital, office building, bachelor quarters, and homes for upper-echelon employees.

Once again old buildings were refurbished and new ones constructed: the Charlotte Hotel; Sal Ferretti's new butcher shop, now occupied by Mel Lutt's Pharmacy; the Cassaretto Mercantile, today's Community Hall; Charlie Baird's Hotel,Schroeder's dismantled in the slack years after the mountain division of the Hetch Hetchy project was finished and the facilities and personnel moved to Livermore.

Groveland was called Garrote until 1875.  The garage and adjoining buildings suffered serious fire damage in 1933.

Those were the days. There is a significant number of old timers who can remember the Groveland and Big Oak Flat of 1901. Even more recall those Hetch Hetchy days. They retain a fierce pride in the heritage of Groveland.

We salute them. We celebrate with them the centennial of the name of Groveland and the town's beginning 125 years ago as a camp of gold seekers. June 15, 1975 is Old West Days.

photo courtesy Ted Wurm

Groveland Wayside park is now being developed where a row of cottages once stood. The houses and a hospital-shown in the upper center right, along the railroad track - were built around 1917 to house employees of the City and County of San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy project. Railroad headquarters for the project was maintained in Groveland until 1925, when the structures were removed. The roundhouse and railroad shops were out of sight at the right.

courtesy Tuolumne County Historical Society
The Hetch Hetchy railroad shops and roundhouse were situated on land now occupied by the highway maintenance yard and portions of Wayside Park.

Groveland, circa 1970's