Rare 1865 photo of Pollard's Hotel (burned down around 1880)

 

 

Were the Pollard Hotel and the Donner City Hotel on the same site? Details at bottom of this page

 

Below, three 1915 color panoramic photos  (not colorized) by J. Waters

The photo above is looking east from the west shore of Donner Lake and shows the same area as the page below from the 1915 State Department of Engineering Survey of the old road. The photo was taken two months before the survey in 1915.

The surveyor was working east to west. Note the "cottage" on the left is 150' to the right of the road as noted in the field book, and then the hotel is 426 feet beyond that point (closer to the photographer) as noted.

The big round sign is a Red Crown gasoline sign. The hotel and surrounding area was expanded greatly a few years after this photo--owned by Wally Gelatt.

The photo above appears to be where present-day Donner Lake Road meets Donner Pass Road. Notice the old car on the road and the cows grazing.

 

There's a plaque at the Donner Summit "Rainbow" bridge overlook that is titled "Those Who Passed Here" and it refers to the pre-Highway 40 highway as "unpaved and primitive." Other than not being paved, this 1915 Donner Lake road above is hardly primitive (in many countries today this is considered a modern road). In fact, when Highway 40 opened in 1926, it was not paved either, and wasn't paved for several years. Between 1863 and 1926, the old road was constantly maintained and improved by the railroad, then county and state governments. Below is a 1917 letter from the California Highway Commission, looking and sounding anything but primitive as it makes clear that the state viewed this road as serious business.

 

 

 

 

 

Above, an 1865 Lawrence & Houseworth photo of the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road, within the 1 mile section that is being illegally blocked. If you look in the center, you'll see the photographer's covered carriage off to the side of the road. It held a portable darkroom. (click photo for full screen)

 

 

Above, an 1877 Andrew Hill painting depicting the 1844 Stephens-Murphy pioneer party making their way around the same hill that drivers go around today on old Highway 40.

Hill won a gold medal for this painting in 1878 in Sacramento. This painting was purchased and placed in the California Pioneers Association of San Francisco, but destroyed by fire in the 1906 earthquake. Luckily, someone took this black & white photo of the painting prior to 1906, but the colors are lost forever.

(click photo for full screen)

 

 

The same location 82 years later in 1926, soon after the bridge was opened.
The remnants of the old road and the 1925 detour can be seen in the foreground. The old road (from 1863) goes around the small pond. During construction of Highway 40, which was to the left of the photo, rocks fell down on the old road and a detour was created, which is to the right of the pond. It's possible the detour was a previously used short-cut. Thanks to Jack Duncan for this information.

 

Below is a photo of the same area while Highway 40 was under construction. The old road is buried under rocks and the detour goes over the granite hump. The bridge is not yet built, although Highway 40 is in the works.

 

 

Below is closeup of above photo showing two cars. This would have been in 1925.

 

The photo below is very interesting due to the second it was taken--showing the third car coming from the old road onto new Highway 40. If the photo was taken one second later, it would not be obvious that the cars were coming from the old road onto the new road. The entire new road wasn't opened until the bridge was finished in 1926. The bridge is just left of the photo. The old road went to the right where the third car is seen.

 

 

The same location another 79 years later in 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, 1923 photo shows a car making its way up the Lincoln Highway to Donner Summit. This section of road between the car and the photographer is now covered with 2 to 3 foot boulders placed there by the idiots who put in the ATT fiber optic cable in the 80s. Someone must have said "Here's a flat area--let's just put them here." How about getting ATT to clean this up? This is the only point where the old state highway is not accessible from Truckee to the summit.

(This spot is 1/2 mile above the section being blocked)

 

 

 

 

 

Above, 1929 photo on what is today's South Shore Drive. Highway 40 was only 3 years old, behind the hotel. The hotel and restaurant is on the site of today's Donner Lake Realty. The hotel is the same one as the photo at the top of this page--but about twice the size. Look closely at the roof--it shows the original size and the addition. The hotel was moved in the late 40s to across from today's boat dock and named Lakeshore Hotel. 1949 photo below. It burned down in 1961.

 

Below, 1927 in Citrus Heights, at Auburn Blvd and Greenback Lane. This was right after new Highway 40 opened to Reno and was still called the Victory Highway but not for much longer. People liked signs. Roll mouse over for close-up of the "You Are Here" map (allow Active X control if asked).

Below, 2009 at same spot. Looks like a former gas station and garage similar to the old building. What used to be Greenback Lane is now Desimone Lane, a shortcut to Greenback Lane, which was shifted east a bit (at the stoplight) to connect with Highway 80. (Google photo)

 

Were the Pollard Hotel and the Donner City Hotel on the same site?

It seems very likely that the current Pollard Hotel monument needs to be moved to the other side of Old Highway Drive in front of the current Donner Lake Realty buildings. Here's why:

 

The recorded 1909 and 1954 subdivision maps for this area along with the 1922 Highway 40 construction plans establish beyond a doubt that the Donner City Hotel sat on the exact site of the current Donner Lake Realty buildings (the road would therefore have been behind the current building, meeting up at the curve in Old Highway Drive. The current short section of Old Highway Drive from the curve to South Shore Drive was a 1954 re-alignment of the old highway.

 

I found the above 1865 photo of Pollard's and computer-enhanced it to bring out the lake and hillsides in the background. The few other fuzzy copies of this photo on the internet do not show the lake and beyond. We can see that the Pollard Hotel faces the lake and not the road, just as the newer Donner City Hotel did in the 1915 photo (50 years later). The carriages in the 1865 photo seem to be on the road right next to the hotel traveling at the same angle as the road in the 1915 photo of the Donner City Hotel. One thing that stayed the same from the 1865 photo above to the 1915 photo above was the road.

 

Then there is the fact that both buildings are hotels. It seems very unlikely that the newer hotel would have been built in a different spot than the Pollard Hotel. If the Pollard Hotel had a concrete foundation, it probably survived the fire and could have been used for the new hotel (they both appear to be the same size) and any water and sewer setup from the Pollard Hotel could have been re-used to some extent.

 

And here's more rock-solid evidence: Notice the bump in the ground to the right of the hotel in the 1915 photo--looks like a granite outcropping. If the Pollard Hotel was at the southwest corner of Old Highway Drive and South Shore Drive as the current monument shows it, we would see that bump in the above photo, near the tree stump--but it's not there.

 

Below are two maps showing Pollards Hotel. The 1865 survey shows two buildings which the surveyor identified by dots, Pollard's Barn and Pollard's Hotel, one on each side of the road. The surveyor used similar dots on other structures on his map. Notice the different sizes of the two dots, the hotel being larger than the barn.

The other map is from 1868, drawn by Montague. It also shows two buildings, one on each side of the road. Both maps show the hotel being close to the road. If Pollard's Hotel was where the current monument is, the hotel would be 150-200 from the road--why would the hotel be built that far away from the road and the barn?

An interesting note--the Donner City Hotel also had a "garage" across the old road and it can be seen in the 1929 photo above--look above the two cars on the left. It was built sometime after the 1915 photo and before 1922, when it shows up on plans for Highway 40.

 

 

 

Below is a cropped photo showing Pollard's Hotel from a distance across Donner Lake. To the right of the hotel is another structure--that could be the barn. It's clear from the maps that they were fairly close to each other. BTW, a dam was built on Donner Lake in 1877 and water came much closer to the hotel than naturally, as seen in the photo.

 

 

Below is a photo from 1866 showing a similar hotel at Crystal Lake--the hotel has the same L-shape and is nearly identical to Pollards. The structure to the right is probably the same type of barn that was at Pollard's.

 

 

I know nothing about the group who placed the monument where it is and I don't know what their basis was. I'm thinking that they may not have realized that Old Highway Drive was realigned in 1954 and they only knew that the hotel was on the south side of the old road. If that was their only basis, then the above evidence shows it needs to be moved. Maybe a search of old Truckee newspapers could find a story about the building of the Donner City Hotel and it may mention that it used the Pollard Hotel site. The Donner City Hotel goes back to at least June 1911, when it was mentioned in an article.