Yes, it’s aggravating. But let’s bear in mind that this amount comes out to $1,633 per household over the year. We’re told that is substantially less than single family homeowners in our area are charged.

During budget season last year, the Association’s property management company warned that insurance increases would be difficult to estimate because of the number of insurance companies abandoning coverage in California and the rising costs of wildfire and other natural events. Apparently some HOAs have been unable to obtain coverage.

On April 8th, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that State Farm will be issuing non-renewal notices to 55% of its residences in an Orinda zip code and 30% in a Lafayette zip code, noting in both cases that it was because of perceived fire risk.

The Association’s insurance runs from March 31 of each year rather than on a calendar year. The proposal sent to the board by Association broker LaBarre/Oksnee in late March listed 23 carriers it contacted to obtain quotes. Only one made an offer. Most carriers declined for no reason; 8 declined “due to brush.”

There’s another wrinkle. Last year’s annual policy included a $10,000 deductible per unit for water damage. This year’s policy has raised that deductible to $25,000 if it is water damage.

Reminder: No vehicles in common areas

We’ve been asked to reiterate that no vehicles are allowed in the common areas behind our homes during the rainy season. There have been several instances of both Association contractors and homeowners’ contractors opening the gates and driving (or getting caught) in the mud and grass.

This causes significant damage when the ground is wet. The ruts will need to be filled once things dry out. There also may be damage to the v-ditch drainage in some areas.

Please don’t lift the fence rails, even when the fences are not locked, without calling the property management company to get permission. Thank you!

DID YOU KNOW…

Stagecoaches & carriages traveled on Castle Rock Road twice a day in the late 1800s?

Where were these stagecoaches and carriages headed, you may ask?

Between 1874 and 1891, they were on their way to a popular 16-room resort hotel near the top of Mount Diablo called the Mountain House.

In its heyday, celebrities from Europe and across America were among the visitors to Mountain House, and wedding ceremonies were a frequent occurrence.

According to the current Mount Diablo State Park brochure, in those days, “it was widely held that you hadn’t seen the West if you hadn’t watched a sunset, sunrise, or full moon from the upper slopes” of Mount Diablo.

Visitors from all over the Bay Area, the majority of them wealthy San Franciscans, wanted to visit the mountain hotel with the spectacular view. They would take a ferry and/or train to the East Bay to catch the stagecoach up the mountain.

Kate Nevins, an employee in the late 1800s, wrote at that time that “citizens from all over the state made pilgrimages with wagon loads, journeying to the Mountain House and then hiking to the observatory at the top. They stayed sometimes for weeks to enjoy Pine Canyon, one of the finest beauty spots on earth with its magnificent views of the Castle Rocks.”  

The hotel was the idea of Joseph Seavey Hall, a former guide in the White Mountains of New Hampshire who came to California in the late 1860s after fighting in the Civil War.

He knew they would first have to build roads, so in 1873 he and some partners formed a toll road company. They spent $22,000 to buy the right of way from ranchers and constructed two roads up to the proposed hotel site, one from Walnut Creek and one from Danville.

Above, an advertisement for the hotel, with a picture of its owner, Joseph Hall. Below, an article from page 21 of the June 4,1944, edition of the Oakland Tribune.

What is now Castle Rock Road, then Stage Road, was one of the original stagecoach line routes on the mountain. The dirt road on this side was eight miles long and 12 feet wide and ran along Pine Canyon before heading up into the mountain. The route is now the Stage Road hiking trail in Mount Diablo State Park and still leads to the hotel site. 

Hall then purchased 23 acres in December 1873 and built the Mountain House hotel over the next four months. It opened on May 2, 1874, the same year the toll roads opened. For many years there were two stagecoaches every day connecting Walnut Creek and Danville with the hotel.

Although the trip could be done in a day, many tourists stayed overnight, eating a five-star dinner in the evening and then waking up early the next morning to hike to the summit for the sunrise.

Hall installed a large tent with a wooden floor at the summit for people who wanted to spend the night there. According to Rich McDrew, who along with co-author Rachel Haislet wrote the book, “Mountain Lore,” the reason to go was to hike to the summit for the incredible views.

“The hotel had a kind of uniqueness to it and a kind of adventure to it,” McDrew told Patch reporter David Mills in 2012. “Business was quite good for awhile. It was a pretty popular thing.”

In “Mountain Lore” a letter from Hall to his siblings is quoted as saying 2,000 people had come up the roads in the first four months Mountain House was open.

In 1878, Hall ran into financial problems and sold the hotel to Margaret Sloan, who operated the facility for another 14 years with her son, Horace. By 1890, the novelty of the hotel had started to wear off. The platform at the summit burned down in 1891. The hotel was abandoned in 1895 and fell into disrepair. In 1901, it burned to the ground in a fire many believe was set by neighboring ranchers who were tired of people hiking through their land to reach the abandoned structure.

Now you know…

Sources: “On Mount Diablo: The Old Hotel at the Top,” by David Mills, Patch, June 19, 2012, : https://patch.com/california/dublin/on-mount-diablo-the-old-hotel-near-the-top-6ac07d8d; “Mountain Days,” Oakland Tribune: https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-mountain-house-mt-diab/14925154/; “History of Mt Diablo,” Seth Adams, Mount Diablo Review, Fall 2000, https://www.mdia.org/history-of-mount-diablo

(Thank you to Shirley N for bringing this wonderful story to our attention!)

No news on when the pool’s going to open. Stay tuned.

You asked ... They answered

Q: I haven’t been able to successfully call into any board meetings via Zoom this year. Is there a new virtual meeting login? 

A:  There is no new login. First Residential told us homeowners can attend the board meetings virtually and using the same Zoom connection that has been used for the last three years. Try it again!

Walnut Creek celebrates 50th anniversary of the bond initiative that protected its open spaces

Fifty years ago, Walnut Creek passed a historic bond initiative that allowed the City of Walnut Creek to preserve its natural environment as the city continued to grow.

Thanks to community participation and grassroots activism, the city and its residents raised 6.75 million dollars to buy and protect almost 3,000 acres of open space in four unique habitats in and around Walnut Creek, known at the time as Contra Costa Service Area R-8. 

The purchase included the Lime Ridge, Shell Ridge, Sugar Loaf, and Acalanes open space areas, as well as two community parks. Those four very different parcels now have offers more than seven miles of public neighborhood trails just outside our back doors.

Photos of Shell Ridge by Sarah Mott

The City of Walnut Creek has announced plans to celebrate. the anniversary throughout the year with various events.

One of the first, on June 8th, will be a Heritage Day celebration at Borges Ranch with food trucks and activities for the whole family. 

Visit the city’s website for more information on Walnut Creek’s open spaces and other events this year: https://www.walnutcreekca.gov/government/departments/open-space