CRA News October 2008

Selected articles from the newsletter of the Carmel Residents Association

From left, Sandi and Greg D’Ambrosio caught up with Skip Lloyd at the August Fiesta.

CRA October General Meeting:
Larry Hampson and Darby Fuerst
Water problems and solutions,
plus history and ecology of the river

President's Message
Enid Sales – a woman of substance
1922 - 2008

by Roberta Miller

Many years ago, while Monte and I were visiting San Francisco, we went to see an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – a showing of beautiful photographs of the "Painted Ladies" of San Francisco. In the gift shop, we found a book entitled Painted Ladies: San Francisco's Resplendent Victorians by Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen with lovely photographs by Morley Baer. The authors described these old Victorians dating back to the 1850's and early 1900's by saying "the facades crumbled with age, the powder cracked; the mascara ran." The author went on to say that by the 1960's (remember that psychedelic age), expression through color became the rage and people began painting their houses with the colors of the day. By the mid 1970's these "Painted Ladies" began to show their true colors and became the talk of the town. With a map and book in hand, Monte and I knew this was going to be the beginning of a lovely day. A quest to find as many of these beautiful restored Victorian houses as our feet would allow.

I did not know Enid Sales then, nor her contributions to the renaissance of the "Painted Ladies," by saving over 350 of them. Nor the story of her trucking, in the middle of the night, 13 Victorian houses across town to a new location, as part of San Francisco's residential rehabilitation program. But, that was soon to change.

With the passing of Enid, I was reminded of this memorable day in San Francisco, and wondered if Enid, at least in terms of spirit, just might be Carmel's Painted Lady. She saw life in great buildings that invited you in, evoked visions of other times, stirred your love of beauty and sense of connection with past lifestyles. I think that within these buildings her humanity found a home.

Enid was a woman of substance. An extraordinary woman. She cut a colorful swath. The first woman in the state to pass the test for a contractor's license, a well-known preservationist and advocate, who helped characterize and shape the modern movement for historic preservation. Her career spanned more than 50 years. She was hard working, courageous, controversial, authentic, mysterious, independent, determined, resolute, tenacious, a cut above, a force to be reckoned with and never took her eye off the prize – the need to preserve the historic buildings of the past for future generations to enjoy and appreciate as part of their collective heritage.

The saying, "actions speak louder than words," certainly applied to Enid Sales. In Carmel, Enid was known for her fierce advocacy for the preservation of arts and crafts cottages and her willingness to resort to lawsuits when all else failed. A warrior, ready to do battle and steadfast in her resolve.

The First Murphy House, slated for demolition, was saved by Enid, rescuing it from its original Mission Street location with another flatbed truck.

She fought to save the Flanders Mansion by placing it on the National Register of Historic Places.

When the Door House, a cottage constructed entirely of old doors, was about to be demolished, Enid had it temporarily moved and ultimately found a home for it on the property of Karyl Hall and her late husband Fred Nelson.

She also placed Sunset Center on the National Register and successfully advocated against demolishing the building. Her efforts were instrumental in creating the stunningly-restored building we enjoy today.

Enid was the founder of the Carmel Preservation Foundation, which over the years has worked diligently for city policies to protect Carmel's history. She was honored as Preservationist of the Year in 2006 by the California Preservation Society.

And, in 1990, Enid was named Citizen of the Year by the Carmel Residents Association.

The Herald's Rants & Raves column recently said, "Enid Sales was the opposite of a one-woman wrecking crew. She was a one-woman preservation crew, saving enough historic structures from Carmel to San Francisco to qualify herself as a national historic monument. Others, plural, will be needed to carry on her work."

Carry on we must. There is unfinished business, Enid's unfinished business.

She was vocal in wanting to save the architectural integrity of the Burde bank building and keep it from being demolished. She wanted to rescue the Scout House from "demolition by neglect," restore it and give it back to the public. She envisioned Carmel having a Historic Downtown District. She always had another project in mind, waiting for her to roll up her sleeves and lead the charge. Like those "Painted Ladies" in San Francisco, Enid has left a lasting legacy.

Now, the torch has been passed to those who remain. We are the keepers of the flame. Who will answer the challenge? Mary Austin said, "It is not I that belong to the past, but the past that belongs to me."

by Tom Parks

Ars Gratia Artis

Eleen Auvil is a tiny lady working large. It's not the least unusual to find sculptures reaching eight or ten feet in her studios. She works in bronze, often with a blow torch in one hand and a hankie in another. She admits that the making of art is her life's work. Still, she finds time to cook, garden, sit as president of the board of directors of the Carl Cherry Foundation, serve whatever needs to be served at CRA events, travel, read and be a good friend to countless residents of this village. Her output is prodigious.

Whether installing a four hundred pound bronze tree with sitting birds or a delicate pastiche made of Carmel beach sand, weeds and paper, Ms. Auvil makes her distinctive statement.

Busy all the time, she agreed to give us an hour recently to ask a few questions. Once she had put aside the blow torch, we settled down with a glass of sherry.

When did you come to Carmel and from where?

I moved to Monterey County in 1975 and settled in the hills of Corral de Tierra where I built a house and a large studio. In 2002 I built another house and studio in Carmel where I live now.

You're a well respected artist. Is Carmel conducive to the making of art?

It is, of course – who wouldn't be happy to make art here. Actually, I do what I call my 'clean work' – paper, clay – in the studio at my house, and the 'dirty work' – bronze – at my second studio in Sand City, a wonderful refuge for artists of all bents.

In what mediums do you work?

I work in several mediums, as I've said: bronze and wax, handmade paper, stone, oil ...

You support this community. What are your interests outside your own work?

I do a great deal of reading on all subjects. And I love gardening. I find myself in the garden when I'm satisfied with my work output; when I seek the peace of the soil.

Known for Bohemians of the past, do you believe that Carmel remains a center of culture and artistic excellence?

I think that's a highly romantic take on this village. The truth is most serious artists can't afford to live here. Or even on the Peninsula for that matter.

Would you care to comment on the existence of 120 art galleries in this little village of under 5,000 people?

(A chuckle) That's about one gallery for every 40 citizens. And if you deduct the second home, sometime residents, that's one for every 20 residents. Anyway, the vast majority of galleries are not devoted to Carmel artists.

What is your feeling concerning public art? How is it chosen? Who are the arbiters? Is this art by committee?

Sadly, the Arts Commission was disbanded sometime ago.

Art by committee is always risky. That's when art becomes political in the sense of what is good, respectable, imaginative, even profound. I haven't seen anything of the sort in the public places in this village.

What about city government? Are you satisfied with our elected officials? Are they, in your opinion, doing the jobs they were elected to do?

They are doing the jobs they were elected to do.

What strictly Carmel issues interest you the most – the beach, the forest, the arts?

The arts, of course. And the beauty of the beach and the forest and the parks. Mission Trail has been so improved lately.

The Flanders Mansion is vacant. It can't be sold. It's an asset to some, a burden to others. Any ideas for its future use?

What a wonderful museum, for local art owned by the city, the Flanders would make. With special exhibits by serious Peninsula artists. There are many of them. This does not mean that the Carmel Art Association is not first class. It seems to me there would be no conflict with the existence of a Carmel Museum of Art.

How would you best describe the experience of living and making art in Carmel-by-the-Sea?

A wonderful experience. I feel I belong here.

[Eleen's art can be seen at the Carmel Art Association (inside, as well as three sculptures in the garden), in the sculpture garden of the Cherry Center and at Hauk Fine Art in Pacific Grove.]


Tom Parks, a Carmel Residents Association board member, is a well-known writer of fiction, essays, book reviews and plays. Over the last ten years, he has produced a number of musicals and plays locally. He is currently working on a novel and a new play, What Fresh Hell Is This? The Wit and Wisdom of Dorothy Parker, for a spring, 2009 opening at the Carl Cherry Center.

OLD CARMEL
by Connie Wright

Jack London, the Superman

Jack London was born in San Francisco in 1876. Evidently illegitimate, he was raised along the Oakland waterfront, and attended school only through the eighth grade. As a teenager, he and his gang raided oyster beds about the Bay. In 1893 he went to Japan on a sealing cruise, then on a tramping trip through the U.S. and Canada, followed by one semester at Berkeley. He returned to the Oakland waterfront with an interest in sociology and the Socialist Party. He read Spencer, Darwin, Marx and Nietzsche. When he met George Sterling in 1901 at a picnic, Jack was seven years younger than George but more sophisticated and experienced and a successful writer.

George and Jack soon became best friends, addressing each other as "Wolf" (London) and "Greek" (Sterling), because of his Grecian profile. George found a house for Jack near his own in Piedmont. They made the San Francisco Bohemian scene, trolling after women. On one occasion, they ended the evening fighting with tong members for the favors of a sing-song girl in Chinatown. Their wives were furious.

Jack always wrote 1,000 words a day. He published The Call of the Wild in 1903 and The Sea Wolf in 1904, which were great successes. He made a lot of money from his writing, had a Japanese valet, drank Martinis and ate fine beef or rare duck, while the Carmel gang ate mussels and abalone and drank cheap Muscatel.

Jack and his second wife Charmian visited George and Carrie Sterling in Carmel in 1906 while Jack was building The Snark, a fifty-foot ketch on which they planned at least seven years at sea. On Jack's first visit to Carmel, Arnold Genthe, the professional photographer, noted, "Jack London had a poignantly sensitive face. His eyes were those of a dreamer, and there was almost a feminine wistfulness about him. Yet at the same time he gave the feeling of a terrific and unconquerable force." The Carmel gang turned out for the occasion and they swam, hiked, ran and dived for abalone, and talked, and talked and talked. Jack believed that an occasional love affair was necessary for the creative artist, but Mary Austin vehemently disagreed. She later asserted: "Women flung themselves at Jack, lay in wait for him."

The Snark, an unreliable tub, set sail in December, 1906, with six people aboard and the Carmel gang in attendance at the Oakland wharf. Jack and Charmian returned in July, 1909, without The Snark or her crew. Seems the crew, who hated the boat, bailed out in Hawaii and the Londons abandoned the craft in the Marquesas Islands.

George wanted Jack to move to Carmel, but Jack was busy building his baronial mansion, the Wolf House, in Glen Ellen, where he wanted to breed cattle.

Jack and Charmian visited George and Carrie a second time in 1910. This time Jack was quite subdued and the physical games gave way to bridge, which George, Jack and friends played almost interminably for the Londons' ten-day stay.

The unfinished Wolf House burned down. Jack had gotten heavy, was drinking a lot, became increasingly hypochondriacal, and said that he hated writing. He died in 1916 either of kidney failure (Charmian's version) or by taking a cyanide pill (Elsie Martinez' and others' version).

DID YOU KNOW?

Police Dept. has dog brochure

Cindi Mitchell, the city's animal control officer, has been handing out a delightful brochure published by the Police Department listing Carmel-by-the-Sea dog ordinances. Here are some of the rules:

• Dogs must be on a leash, held by a person or secured to a stationary object everywhere in town except the beach and Mission Trails Nature Preserve. The only exceptions are guide dogs engaged in guiding a blind person. When running loose on the beach or in Mission Trails, dogs must be not more than 25 feet away from you and must return to within 3 feet of you on command. You must always be in control of your dog, responsible for its behavior and have a leash with you.
  
  
• Owners must pick up after their dogs.
  
  
• If a marine mammal is on the beach, please keep your dog away from it.
  
  
• For emergencies or questions, call the Carmel Police Department at 624-6403.

Remember that your City Council is on T.V.

City Council meetings are taped and re-broadcast
Sundays, 8 a.m. - 12 noon on
KMST Channel 26