Press "Enter" to skip to content

Wendling/Navarro — The Deep End

(Excerpts from the book "Then and Now: An Anderson Valley Journey" by Wes Smoot & Steve Sparks. Available at local stores. All proceeds go to the AV Museum and Historical Society.)


The photo below, taken in 1906, shows the main downtown Navarro business area, or Wendling as it was called at the time. This, and the mill town nearby, is where the majority of the people lived during the early boom days of the sawmills and logging industry. These buildings were built around the early 1900s or so. It was the Valley’s main town, connected to the ocean by the railway to Albion, providing everything from lodging (four hotels), restaurants, bars, and perhaps inevitably, a brothel and a jail.

Wendling/Four Hotels, 1906
Wendling/Four Hotels, 1906

To the extreme far left in the old photo is the corner of the Twin Hotels. Next, to the right, is the ‘Toscano Hotel and Saloon,’ owned and operated by the Pasero Family.

In the center of the photo is the third hotel called “The Hotel D’Italia.” The Stearns Lumber Company constructed this building intending to use it as a hospital for their workers, however it never was used for this purpose. Soon afterwards, Mr. Alciede Bacci, of Vinegar Hill, remodeled and converted it to a restaurant, bar and hotel. In 1907, Joe and Sabatina (Mama) Pardini purchased it and it became known as “The Pardini Hotel.” For the next 50 years, Mama, the paternal grandmother of current Valley Pardini residents — Donald, Eva (Holcomb), and Robert, and great-grandmother to their offspring etc — and her sister Beppa served the finest Italian food that could be found in this part of the state. Later on, around 1962, there was some major remodeling done to the building and it became the Navarro Inn. Then, in 1974, it burned to the ground. To the far right of the photo is the fourth hotel, the Ainslie Hotel, owned by Joe Ainslie. There is not much that could be discovered about this building’s history.

There has been much talk over the years of there being five hotels in the heart of Wendling/Navarro. Our research has found this to be unreliable information and it appears that there were just four. The fifth hotel was thought to be called the Navarro Hotel, located at a building a little to the south, but this turned out to be the Pasero family home and was never a hotel. Perhaps the confusion came from the fact that the Pasero family owned the Toscano Hotel. Or perhaps it was because in later years, as mentioned above, there was the Navarro Inn (not Navarro Hotel), but this was not a fifth hotel, it was one of the original four, formerly the Pardini Hotel.

The little town of Wendling had its name changed to Navarro during the year 1913. The town originally took the name of a gentleman by the name of George X. Wendling. Mr. Wendling started up a shingle mill here on the banks of Soda Creek sometime around 1903. About 1906, or shortly thereafter, the Wendling shingle mill was purchased by a Mr. A.G. Stearns and the mill became known as Stearns’ shingle mill. Stearns was a good businessman and expanded the shipping of shingles all over the country. Once a firm in San Francisco sent a very large order for shingles to Stearns in Wendling but the order was mistakenly sent to Wendling, Oregon, located about 50 miles northeast of Springfield, Oregon. This meant that Stearns missed out on a very large order that amounted to a lot of money lost. When he found out about the error he was heard to say, “We must change the name of Wendling.” He contacted the United States Postmaster General in Washington DC and requested permission to use the postal stamp from Navarro-by-the-Sea, which was located at the mouth of the Navarro River and was by now an abandoned ghost town with its postal stamp no longer in use. As a result, in 1913, thanks to A.G. Stearns, the town of Wendling was officially renamed Navarro and remains as such today.

Navarro, 2015
Navarro, 2015

By the late 1930s, the demand for lumber slowed significantly and the Wendling/Navarro boom came to an end. All of those big old buildings have either burned down or have been torn down over time. Clearly today Navarro is a very different place to what it once was.


Hwy 128: 14.20 mile marker

In the early years of Wendling, there was a company store run by the mill that served all of Wendling with food and supplies. During that time, a little to the south of the mill town, there was a brickhouse manufacturing the bricks needed for the mill’s furnace—as shown in the photograph below.

Mill Brickhouse, Early 1900s
Mill Brickhouse, Early 1900s

At this location, in 1908, a second store was built that was owned and operated by Jumbo and Betty Zannoni. Many years later it also housed the Navarro Post Office after the closure of the mill. The Zannoni’s home can be seen on the rise in the background of the first photograph (this is the Navarro Mill guest house today), and the store was operated by the family for many, many years. It then stood empty for several years until it was sold to Mr. Dave Evans in the early 2000s and he continues to run a remodeled version to this day.

Navarro Store, 2015
Navarro Store, 2015

This store is located where it has always been, on the bank of Soda Creek just at the north entrance of Wendling Street, next to a beautiful grove of redwood trees, and it remains a gathering spot and the hub of activity in the “Deep End.”


Hwy 128: 13.88 mile marker

Wendling Mill Town, 1915
Wendling Mill Town, 1915

The photograph above, taken in 1915, shows an overlook of the mill town of Navarro. The superintendent at the mill was James Reilly — original owner of the majestic red house on Hwy 128 between Navarro and Philo: Reilly Heights. The mill finally closed in 1929 and, apart from the residence that was the former Laurel schoolhouse and the Navarro Mill guesthouse mentioned above, all of these buildings are gone. In fact, many of the shacks were moved to Caspar on the coast. In a remarkable transformation, the vegetation has grown back completely—as seen below — that shows the area on the east side of Highway 128 just northwest of ‘central’ Navarro as it is today.

Navarro Hollow, 2012
Navarro Hollow, 2012

3 Comments

  1. David Eyster April 19, 2016

    1. Ukiah Republican Press, Friday, March 11, 1910, page 1: “HOTEL AINSLIE AT WENDLING. Joe Ainslie has opened the Hotel Ainslie at Wendling. Joe has renovated the place and installed new furniture and now has one of the finest places in the county. He is a particular friend of the traveling public and is assured of a good run. Joe believes in courteous treatment and lots of it backed up with a good square meal and this is what the guests want.”

    2. Ukiah Daily Journal, Friday, December 30, 1910, page 2: “BLEVINS HAS TAKEN THE HOTEL AINSLIE. Word received from Wendling this week is to the effect that the Hotel Ainslie, conducted for several years past by Joe Ainslie, has changed hands, Sam. E. Blevins, a brother-in-law of Mr. Ainslie, having assumed the ownership. This is one of the best country hotels in the county and is the headquarters for commercial travelers covering the route to the coast by way of Anderson valley. In addition to this it has gained a reputation as a first-class resort for campers and summer tourists, inasmuch as there is the best of fishing and hunting in the vicinity, and it enjoys a good patronage through the summer months from this class of trade. It is an ideal for an outing. Mr. Blevins is a painstaking host and spares no effort to obtain the best that the market affords for his tables and his guests are treated with the greatest deference. It is a foregone conclusion that he will make a success of the business, for under his management the cuisine and service cannot but please.”

    3. Ukiah Daily Journal, Friday, December 24, 1915, page 2: “FIRE AT NAVARRO. Navarro, Dec. 8 — The hotel occupied by V. Giannini, known as the Ainslie hotel, was destroyed by fire Monday night about 9 o’clock. The origin of the fire is unknown, but it is supposed to have started from a defective flue. Mr. Giannini’s loss was considerable as he had just laid in a winter’s supply of provisions. The building was insured. — Beacon.”

  2. Dave Sandmire July 20, 2022

    This is from p. 1016 of “History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California, with Biographical Sketches” (1915) – Could this be the fifth hotel???? Do you know of any photos that exist of it? See below:
    THOMAS KENNEDY.—A resident of ^Mendocino county for almost a third of a century, having come hither in 1882, Thomas Kennedy was born near Montreal,Canada, in 1862. He was reared on the farm and attended the public schools.
    Desiring to try his fortune in the west; he came to Nevada in 1880, and followed teaming until 1882, when he came to Mendocino county, locating first at Westport. Here he purchased an outfit and engaged in teaming on his own account, hauling lumber for twelve years in this vicinity. Then he removed to Bear Harbor, northern Mendocino county, where he was engaged in hauling ties and tanbark for about ten years.
    Next we find Mr. Kennedy at Hardy Creek, where he was proprietor of the Hardy Creek hotel for three years. On January 1, 1914, he came to Wendling and opened the Wendling hotel, which he is conducting in first- class shape and meeting with success. In connection with the hotel he con- ducts a livery and feed stable.
    The marriage of Mr. Kennedy occurred in Eureka, Cal., where he was united with Miss Virginia Ainsworth, a native of Shawano county, Wis., and they have two children, Edna E. and Berwin Margaret. Politically he espouses the cause of the Democraticparty. Mr. Kennedy is well known and highly respected on the Mendocino coast, where he has hosts of friends.
    Dave Sandmire (davidsandmire@gmail.com)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

-