The Coronado Home & Businesses through the Years

In the last posting I described how the Mariano & Louisa Coronado family moved from Napa to Vallejo and how they eventually settled and built a home on a 3 ½ acre property on the Napa-Vallejo Highway.

In this post, I show how the original house grew as the family grew – from a one-story house to 2-stories and the addition of the Coronado businesses – initially calling the establishment “The Beanery” and then later “The Coronado”.  Remember in past posts, we found that Louisa (in addition to taking care of a rapidly expanding family) used to make big kettles of chili beans for customers.  When they bought 5-cent beer they were entitled to a bowl of chili beans.  Thus, the term “Beanery”.

Here are a series of historic photos of the Coronado residence – starting with the one-story house that was built between 1891 (when Mariano bought the land) and 1899[1].  These photos also document Mariano’s entrepreneurial spirit of responding to market demands.

The Coronado Homestead 1899

In the first photo above, Louisa is sitting on the arched side porch with her 6 children.  A slim Mariano is seen faintly standing next to the side porch.  There seems to be a dog posed in the front yard.  It is definitely a one-story house and probably snug for the young family.  (Note the arched side porch, the placement of the front door, and the two windows between the front door and the arched porch, one window higher than the other.  This helps determine that all these house photos, taken in different years, are the same house.)

The Homestead with Residential Second Floor & First Floor "The Beanery" - post 1900s

A second story is added to the original one-story house sometime after 1900 as the family needs grew (See the second photo above).  “The Beanery” business is added on the main floor.  The sign painted over the front door reads: “The Beanery. All kinds of wines 5c, 10c. M.P. Coronado, Prop.”[2]  Two potential customers are standing in the front and maybe that’s an older and younger Coronado child and dog standing and sitting near the residential side entrance.

Commercial Conversion - "The Coronado"

The third photo (above) shows the two-story home with the placement of “The Coronado” sign above a double-door entrance to the left of the photo.  There appear to be tables set up in the front under the tree and under the roof overhang – maybe for customers.  I can’t be sure, but there seem to be two people in the shadow of the side arched porch.

Expansion of "The Coronado" 1912

The fourth photo (above) of the two-story Coronado house taken in 1912[3] shows that there is a one-story addition on the left that looks like it may have expanded the interior space of “The Coronado” business.  In addition, M.P. Coronado also started another business to keep up with the times.  On the far right in the photo is a hanging sign that reads: “Gasoline, Oil and Carbide[4] for Sale Here”.  It was the beginning of an auto filling station business.

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[1] I estimate that the first photo was taken in 1899 based upon a more detailed photo of the family on the arched porch.  All the photos were originally black & white but were "colorized" using the MyHeritage website.

[2] Mariano Coronado became known as M.P. Coronado at least by 1891.

[3] This photo is from cousin Catherine McIntosh.  Her grandfather, Harry McIntosh, wrote the following about the photo: “The Coronado home, bar & cafe in 1912. The two larger cars are Overlands from A.B.Coronado's dealership in Vallejo. The small car is a Ford c1908 model that was rebuilt and owned by Harry McIntosh.”

[4] Carbide was used in the carbide headlamps of the cars for driving at night.

Harrison McIntosh Turns 100 - A Special Day

It is rare that a genealogical blog, steeped in the past, has the opportunity to celebrate a living family member whose past, whose life and whose present has brought renown to the family.  This is the focus of today’s posting, where we celebrate the One Hundredth Birthday of Harrison McIntosh, our famous California ceramic artist.

Those of you who have followed the family relationships will remember the recent posts in which I discussed the courtship and 1913 wedding of Harry McIntosh and Jesusita (Hess) Coronado, the eldest daughter of Marion & Louisa Coronado.

The newly married couple settled in Vallejo where Harry worked as a musician and then for the Sperry Flour Company.  Two sons were born to the young couple, Harrison (born: 11 Sep 1914) and Robert (born: 11 Mar 1916).  Both sons would grow up and mature professionally in Vallejo, Stockton and the Los Angeles area to become internationally known artists.  Harrison would concentrate on ceramic arts while Robert would become a portrait, landscape and movie animation artist.

Today cousin Harrison is celebrating his 100^th Birthday.[1]  I send my best wishes to him and wish him many more years.[2]

We visited Harrison four years ago at his home in southern California and toured his former home and studio in Padua Hills in Claremont, California.  Although his eyesight is fading, his alertness and memory are as sharp as a youngster.

As a testament to his life and professional career I have assembled photos[3] that show Harrison over the years.

Brothers Robert & Harrison McIntosh - 1926 (Photo Credit: James Coronado)

Juanita Coronado (wife of James), Hess, Harrison, Harry, Juanita Coronado (daughter of Juanita on the left), Robert - 1926 (Photo Credit: James Coronado)

Family Photo - Harry McIntosh, Hess, Harrison, Louisa Coronado (grandmother of Harrison & Robert), Robert - 1941 (Photo Credit: James Coronado)

Harrison McIntosh applies brush work to a large bowl in his studio in Claremont, CA - 1953

Harrison McIntosh at his potter's wheel - 1966 (Photo Credit: Sam Calder)

Harrison McIntosh in his studio - 1977

Harrison McIntosh in his Padua Hills studio - 1992 (Photo Credit: Marguerite McIntosh)

Harrison McIntosh in his retrospective exhibition at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in 2010  (Photo Credit: Catherine McIntosh)

Harrison McIntosh celebrates his upcoming 100th Birthday with his wife Marguerite at a family lunch in Claremont, CA in August 2014  (Photo Credit: Catherine McIntosh)

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[1] Harrison’s brother, Robert, passed away in 2010 at the age of 94.

[2] The American Museum of Ceramic Art, in conjunction with the Claremont Museum of Art, is presenting a special exhibition, HM100: A Century through the life of Harrison McIntosh, from September 13 to October 26, 2014.  For information: http://www.amoca.org/hm100/

[3] Photos assembled with the assistance of his daughter, Catherine McIntosh.

Hess & Harry Wedding Photo Explained

My July 31, 2014 web post carried a photo of the McIntosh wedding in 1913 where I misidentified some of the wedding party members, particularly and most importantly where the groom and the bride were standing.

Cousin Catherine McIntosh was kind enough to point out to me in a comment that she thought that her grandfather, Harry McIntosh, was the man on the left in the photo with his bride, Hess, standing next to him and not Dutch Coronado.  She is right.  I did a little more research (with a pronounced red face) and hope to now correctly identify the people in the wedding photo.

The McIntosh wedding party posed for this photo on the steps of St. Vincent’s Church in Vallejo.  It was just after noon on July 14, 1913.  On the steps from left to right is Harry McIntosh; Jesusita (Hess) Coronado McIntosh; Marion (Dutch) Coronado, the best man; and Hallie Osborne, maid of honor.  The flower girls in the front are from left to right: Marian (Toots) Coronado and Cecelia Coronado.  The girl on the fourth step on the right is Alice Anderson.[1]

Hess Coronado was born in 1888 and was the oldest surviving daughter of Mariano and Louisa Coronado.  My mother, Cecelia Coronado, born in 1906, said that Hess helped raised her and her sister, Toots (born 1905), in the large Coronado family.

Harry McIntosh came with his mother, and his sister, Isabella, and brother, Walter, from Quincy Massachusetts around 1910[2].  Harry was a piano tuner[3] and piano player.   He played the piano for Mariano at the Coronado Inn and spent a lot of time with his good friend, Dutch Coronado, at the Coronado property on the rural Napa Vallejo Highway.

“Harry always admired our oldest sister, Hess”, says Cecelia.  “She was tiny.  In fact he found her at the stove most of the time where she was even too small to reach the kettles to stir.  Mama put a little stool there for her.  That’s where Harry discovered his future bride.”[4]

Since Dutch was a good friend of Harry, he was a logical choice for best man at the McIntosh wedding.  The maid of honor, Hallie Osborne, is a mystery to me.  She may have been a good friend of the bride, but I could not find any reference to her in family records or census records.  Any help from family members would be welcome.

Flower girls and sisters, Cecelia and Toots, were born about 15 months apart and look like they could be twins in the wedding photo.

The girl high up on the steps in the photo on the right side is 13 year-old Alice Anderson.  She was the niece of Harry McIntosh.  She came with her mother, Isabella, her grandmother and her Uncle Harry from Massachusetts and settled in Vallejo where Alice and her mother, “Belle” lived.  Her mother ran a rooming house on Georgia Street.[5]

Cecelia says that “since Harry had a job with Papa playing the piano, Alice used to stay with us a lot and I think one time stayed all summer long.  Alice remembers staying with us during the school year too and riding the buggy to school.  Mama used to say to Toots and me, ‘You two girls are fine.  But let Alice come around and she gets you two in mischief’.”[6]

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[1] Coronado Newsletter, Vol 1, No 3, May 1994, page 8.

[2] I don’t think that all members of the McIntosh family came to Vallejo at the same time.  Harry was listed as a boarder living at 332 Georgia Street in Vallejo in April 1910.  According the 1910 Federal Census he was a piano tuner working for a piano manufacturer.  Isabella McIntosh Anderson, her husband, George, and her daughter, Alice, were in Quincy Massachusetts in April 1910 living at 76 Rover Street according to the 1910 Federal Census.  Isabella and her daughter, Alice, probably left soon afterwards for Vallejo because Harry and Alice were closely associated with the Coronado family as Harry was courting Hess.  Isabella remarried in 1916, so either George Anderson died or they were divorced by then.  Ancestry.com database online. 1910 United States Federal Census, California, Solano, Vallejo Ward 2, District 0190, page 3.  1910 United State Federal Census, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Quincy Ward 2, District 1140, page 30.

[3] Ancestry.com database online. 1910 United States Federal Census, California, Solano, Vallejo Ward 2, District 0190, page 3.  By the time of his wedding Harry worked for the Sperry Mill Company in south Vallejo.  Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Coronado Family Memories, Coronado Newsletter, Vol 3, No 3, May – August 1996, page 3.

[4] Cecelia Coronado Phipps, Coronado Family Memories, Coronado Newsletter, Vol 3, No 3, May – August 1996, page 3.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

Remembering My Childhood (Cecelia Coronado) - Part Five

(This is the fifth in a series of posts based on audio recordings made by my mother, Cecelia Coronado Phipps in 1983.  Here she remembers her brother-in law, Harry McIntosh, and her brother, Dutch.)

Harry McIntosh

Dutch told me years later that he and Harry McIntosh, who married my sister Hess, became good chums, good friends.  They would sleep in the garden in the summertime.  In those days the summertime was real hot.  Hess and Harry were going together at that time and he played the piano for my father.

Let me tell you a little story about Harry. Dutch always had a motorcycle.  Harry was inclined to be rather slow moving.  He was a swell guy.  We all loved him. ... Dutch had the motorcycle going in the back yard and said, "Jump on Harry.  Get on, we're going into town."  Well he thought that Harry had jumped on.  By the time he got into town, which was three miles away, there was no Harry! ...

Harry's mother brought him and his sister from Massachusetts.  She was a widow and ran a boardinghouse in Vallejo.  Alice, his half-sister, was practically raised with us; she spent so much time with us.  One time, Mama said, "Pick a few apples, Alice."  Well, she not only picked a few, she took every apple on the tree.  So there were no apples left on that tree.  We have fond memories of Alice, who grew up almost like our own sister.

Harry & Hess Wedding Day 1913.  Dutch in center with light-colored hat as best man.  Sisters Toots & Cecelia as flower girls.  Alice on steps at far right. (Revised 8/21/2014)

Dutch

Let me go back and tell you a little "ditty" that Dutch talks about.  He was sent to school when he was four years old.  He was a very large boy, big boned. ... He was just not ready for school at all.  Apparently they wore these little sailor hats at that time.  All he wanted to do was hit the teacher with his sailor hat.  He just provoked her so much, that finally she sent for my father.  He came and the teacher said, "He is just not ready for school yet.  All he wants to do is fuss."  The teacher said to let him come back in a year's time, so Papa took him home.  Well, when the year was up, he was certainly ready for school.  Everything then came so easy for him.

Dutch Coronado driving the beer truck in 1914.  Man standing on the truck bed holding the child may be his brother, James.

Dutch, as a beer truck driver, in front of The Coronado Inn