South Vallejo’s hidden beach community
Writing about a community’s history can be a challenge when “progress” has erased much of what it once was. But that’s not the case with Sandy Beach, an offbeat assortment of 43 waterfront homes perched on pilings overlooking San Pablo Bay, just north of San Francisco.
Homes that started out as ramshackle fishing shacks, built by squatters a century ago, have undergone major upgrades or have been replaced by newer houses. But the picturesque setting and sense of isolation from nearby Vallejo and other communities in the populous Bay Area remain intact in this hamlet located at the confluence of the Carquinez and Mare Island straits and the bay.
When California became a state in 1850, the Sandy Beach area, including the steep hill above the waterfront strip, was part of a federal reserve. In
1863 the War Department gave the land to the state and in 1868 Gov. Henry Haight signed over 6.3 acres, including the beach, to Elijah Keckley Yost. The Fairfield stable owner paid $6.30 for the land patent.
A year later, Abraham Starr built a flour mill just to the north of Yost’s property. By 1871, an old map shows several buildings at the mill site, but only one structure at Sandy Beach. The map also indicates Yost’s property was now in the hands of the Vallejo Land and Improvement Co., whose partners included John Frisbie, Gen. Mariano Vallejo’s son-inlaw. In pre-statehood days, the same land was a small part of Gen. Vallejo’s vast Rancho Suscol granted to him by the Mexican government.
By the early 1900s, Sandy Beach had become a popular swimming area. In a 1983 column, Vallejo journalist Marion Devlin recalled wading at the beach with her sisters in about 1915 and “the beach was bare, not a building of any sort in sight.” Dave Beronio, a Vallejo sports editor for many years, also recalled swimming there, writing in a 1974 column that “clean water it wasn’t, but it was swimming nonetheless.”
In the 1920s, amid uncertainty over tideland ownership, squatters began building fishing shacks there. Also, members of the Vanderkarr family, from South Vallejo, fenced off part of the beach and began charging swimmers admission. That aggravated Odessa Green, who with her husband had bought one of the squatter cabins in 1928. In a 1983 interview, she said the Vanderkarr who claimed to own the beach was “just a trampsquatter” himself.
By the 1930s many more homes had been built, some reachable only by a narrow boardwalk, and a major legal battle was brewing. Residents feared they could be evicted due to a land ownership claim filed by the flour mill, at that point known as Sperry Mill. The state and the American Toll Bridge Co. which had just built the Carquinez Bridge south of the beach, also were involved in the case. The dispute led to 1945 and 1947 Solano County Superior Court rulings that ultimately favored all but a few of the homeowners whose houses were close to the mill.
In the 1950s the City of Vallejo proposed to annex Sandy Beach. That led to a petition opposing the annexation and a majority of the community’s independent-minded residents rejected the idea. Other annexation plans surfaced in later years, but Sandy Beach is still in the unincorporated area of Solano County. Property owners also were assessed in the 1970s for part of the cost of a much-needed sewer line project.
Sandy Beach residents also have had recurring hassles with the California Lands Commission over leases of part of their lots that are below the low-water line. The agency insisted that without a lease arrangement any decks or other improvements built beyond the low-water line would have to be removed. Dan Glaze, who lived at Sandy Beach for more than 30 years, recalls a meeting with a commission official that ended badly when Glaze and other homeowners asked to see some documents. “I don’t have to show you anything,” the official snapped. “I just want you off my property.”
Besides the legal battles, there’s the ever-present hazard of living over the water and at the base of a hillside that has dumped mud and rocks onto the beach during many winter storms over the years. In 1982 and 1983 mudslides left tons of debris on the boardwalk. The 1983 slide snapped water and sewer lines and pushed several houses toward the water. The boardwalk, under five feet of mud in some places, was impassable for days. Bad weather in 1993 caused another big slide, resulting in an evacuation order that was followed by some but ignored by other residents who wouldn’t budge from their homes.
High winds also have caused problems. A major windstorm in March 1943 caused waves that swept away one of the Sandy Beach homes. On the hill above, roofs on dozens of homes in a wartime federal housing project were blown off.
There are all sorts of stories about big logs, trees, derelict boats, a half-sunken barge and even a dead 40-foot-long whale floating under
Sandy Beach homes. A stolen car was pushed off the hill above the community once, hitting the corner of a home. In all cases, volunteers worked to help one another and resolve the problems.
“It’s still a great place to live,” says longtime resident Phil Joy, whose many volunteer efforts have included towing away the dead whale, clearing mudslides and replacing damaged pilings under houses. “The funny thing is that people move here and end up staying 30, 40, 50 years. Where else around here are you going to find a place over the water?”
“The changes have been unbelievable,” says Tom Castelli, whose parents bought their Sandy Beach home in 1957. “But the house is still in the family and now the third generation — my son, nephews and nieces — can enjoy it. And we have no intention of selling.”
“Sandy Beach has changed,” adds Greg Plaskett, a resident for decades. “It was more like an artist colony and we did more things together. It’s not quite as much fun as it used to be. But I don’t think I’ll move. It’s paradise on earth here.”
— Vallejo and other Solano County communities are treasure troves of earlyday California history.
The “Solano Chronicles” column, running every other Sunday, highlights various aspects of that history. My source references are available upon request. If you have local stories or photos to share, email me at genoans@hotmail.com. You can also send any material care of the TimesHerald, 420 Virginia St.; or the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Marin St., Vallejo 94590.