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                  Remembering When
                  Ojai Valley House was intellectual center of valley
                  by David Mason

                  "The talented journalist could have found no better
                  place for a winter home than the pretty little town
                  which bears his name."
                  - Ojai Valley View, Dec. 10, 1887

                  The few residents were unhappy when the news reached
                  the village that Charles Nordhoff, the legendary
                  author, had bought 1,000 acres in Baja California.
                  The people felt that, since they had named their town
                  Nordhoff in his honor, he should have purchased
                  property here.
                  In his book "California for Health, Pleasure and
                  Residence," Nordhoff wrote glowing reports about the
                  Ojai Valley House, a small hotel in the center of
                  town, the great wooded park which surrounded the
                  hotel and the intellectual atmosphere of the valley.
                  R.G. Surdam, a Ventura businessman and        [Image]
                  developer, had laid out the town in the Ojai
                  Valley. His desire was to have someone build and
                  operate a hotel in the new little town and offered to
                  give the builder 20 acres as an incentive.
                  Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Blumberg took Surdam up on his
                  offer and on Jan. 12, 1874, started the construction
                  of their hotel. Stores and homes also were being
                  built, but the little town still didn't have a name.
                  Surdam had favored the popular name Topa-Topa, but
                  Mrs. Blumberg felt that since the writings of Charles
                  Nordhoff had brought them all here, it should be
                  named after him. Mrs. Blumberg's suggestion was
                  adopted, and the town was named Nordhoff (now Ojai).
                  The original hotel was a canvas-covered wooden frame
                  and it was 60 feet wide by 20 feet deep, with a
                  kitchen, 16 feet by 20 feet. The front door was in
                  the center of the building, where the fountain in
                  Libbey Park is today, and the construction took three
                  months to complete.
                  On the night of April 26, 1874, a grand opening ball
                  was held at the new Nordhoff Hotel. An outside area
                  was built for dancing and decorated attractively.
                  However, early in the evening just as the dancing was
                  to begin, a strong east wind came along and lasted
                  until almost 11 o'clock. The guests waited and
                  waited. When the wind finally died down, the young
                  people danced until daylight.
                  The hotel was quite a tourist attraction; it was so
                  successful that the canvas walls were replaced with
                  actual wood siding. Most of the guests were coming
                  from Santa Barbara, as it was becoming quite a fad to
                  spend time in the Ojai Valley, arriving by way of the
                  popular Casitas Pass Road.
                  The town was continuing to grow, and the Blumbergs
                  had found another venture in the valley that
                  interested them. In 1877, they sold the hotel to Col.
                  Wiggins, who was also buying the remaining properties
                  of Surdam's original townsite.
                  Wiggins passed himself off as a millionaire and
                  reportedly had for his "partner" a member of the
                  Louisiana legislature who was a cotton merchant in
                  New Orleans.
                  Col. Wiggins was a man of much dignity and character,
                  which suited this man with a long military
                  background. He had his own ideas on running a
                  successful hotel; he treated his guests as if they
                  owed him an apology, and the offense was only made
                  worse by his heavy room rents, and he soon found that
                  he had the hotel all to himself.
                  In 1878, Col. Wiggins died and his widow shared her
                  sorrows with a second husband in San Francisco.
                  The next owner was John Montgomery. The Montgomery
                  family had located in the valley in 1874 and owned
                  many acres surrounding the downtown area.
                  During Montgomery's ownership, the use of the hotel
                  was changed to a young ladies' seminary. Mrs. Kinney
                  of San Francisco arrived in town and approached Mr.
                  Montgomery with a startling proposition to open an
                  academy for young ladies in the building. She was a
                  veteran in the business and came highly recommended -
                  the establishment was to be first class.
                  In a few weeks, glowing circulars were scattered over
                  California announcing the grand opening and detailing
                  the various branches and strict rules of decorum,
                  guaranteed moral safety and payment to be made in
                  advance. Four professors from San Francisco, loaded
                  with accomplishments and burning to impart their
                  knowledge, took charge of their departments. The
                  doors were thrown open and only the presence of the
                  sweet young ladies were all that was necessary to
                  make everybody happy; but, alas, they did not come.
                  When Mrs. Kinney's money ran out, and the professors'
                  tempers were beginning to show, the professor of
                  oriental literature led the departure of them all
                  back to San Francisco.
                  The hotel then reverted back to its original use
                  under the guidance of Mrs. S.C. Gridley. She ran the
                  hotel for a short time until it was sold to Frank
                  Barrows, who changed the name to the Ojai Valley
                  House and he operated it for three years.
                  In the 1890s, the name was changed from the Ojai
                  Valley House to the Hotel Oakdale, under the
                  management of J.J. Burke. Although Burke ran it
                  successfully, the hotel changed proprietors again in
                  1894. The hotel was known for a short time as the
                  Ojai Valley Inn. In 1895, the name changed back to
                  Hotel Oakdale. In 1910, it became part of the
                  properties owned by the Ojai Improvement Co. and it
                  was then named the Ojai Inn.
                  In 1910, the hotel was leased to J.A. Woods, a highly
                  respected hotel man. The building was beginning to
                  show signs of neglect and the tourists had found that
                  the beautiful Foothills Hotel was more to their
                  liking. So, in September of 1910, Woods departed the
                  valley. The newspaper, The Ojai, reported his
                  departure in glowing terms: "J.A. Woods, erstwhile
                  landlord of the Ojai Inn, has departed from our
                  midst. He leaves a number of creditors to mourn his
                  loss. His departure occurred last Tuesday and though
                  there were a number who would have appreciated a
                  parting call, he folded his tent and stole silently
                  away. Though he had been making preparations for
                  several days to shake the dust of this beautiful
                  valley off his feet, he dropped no hint of his
                  intentions."
                  The paper continued to give the details: "A couple of
                  days before he faded away, he shipped his trunks by
                  express to Los Angeles and on the morning of last
                  Tuesday his wife took her departure. All of his
                  preparations having been made, he left on the
                  afternoon train, traveling light."
                  In 1916, E.D. Libbey, Ojai's greatest benefactor,
                  decided that the town of Nordhoff should be
                  beautified. He felt that the hotel property was a
                  good place to begin. The land was cleared of the old
                  hotel and the undergrowth removed. Libbey and Richard
                  S. Requa, the architect from San Diego, toured the
                  location with thoughts of perhaps another hotel on
                  the site. Libbey had expressed a willingness, under
                  certain conditions, to donate the land for a park or
                  hotel, whichever was best for the benefit of the
                  town.
                  Libbey paid $7,500 for the property, and he
                  envisioned the park to be interlaced with a system of
                  drives and walks. The Tennis Club was to be able to
                  continue to use the tennis courts, however, Libbey
                  intended to have them "greatly improved" with new
                  grandstands built to face the town.
                  The land was filled with oaks, cypress, sycamore and
                  willows through which flowed two picturesque mountain
                  brooks; it provided a most interesting and beautiful
                  natural park. It was then decided to make this the
                  recreation center of the community.
                  It was important to plan a treatment for the park
                  front that would separate it from the main street and
                  still allow the charm and beauty to be enjoyed from
                  the thoroughfare. A combination of arch entrances and
                  connecting pergola seemed the logical treatment of
                  the park front. What Mr. Requa designed was a
                  graceful and beautiful structure dripping with
                  wisteria blossoms.
                  When it was completed, the land became known as the
                  Civic Center Park, now known as Libbey Park. This
                  beautiful park in downtown Ojai wouldn't have come
                  into existence had it not been for the original
                  Surdam gift of land to the Blumbergs and Mr. Libbey's
                  gift to the town of Ojai for the good and enjoyment
                  of all.

                  © 1999 The Ojai Valley News

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