Beechler’s Sanitarium

One of Soquel’s best-known landmarks had burned to the ground before anyone paid much attention to it, and yet today, photographs of the compound inspire a sense of mystery and a few remnants still standing on East Walnut Street can stir the imagination.

The original Mansard-roofed house—similar in appearance to the nearby Averon home in Capitola—was built in the 1870s and was owned by a local schoolteacher, Miss Matilda Baker. She sold it about 1900 to an aging surgeon who had served in the Civil War, Dr. James Beechler. He expanded the grounds with additional buildings featuring wide verandas, porch columns, and sturdy railings, and named it “Dr. Beechler’s Sanitarium.” It became a place where people in need of convalescence could recoup with supervised medical care, food, and lodging. By 1910, however, the physician was finding his own health a problem. Called into court to answer a contempt charge for failing to respond to a subpoena, Dr. Beechler attempted to explain that his actions to due to failing health. As he spoke, the doctor collapsed in the courtroom and was revived with difficulty. He soon announced his retirement and his sanitarium was managed by another physician from Omaha.

Dr. Beechler lived six more years until his death in March, 1921. Later, an itinerant junk dealer, L. T. Wallenbach, said the doctor and his wife had promised him the value of their estate in exchange for supervised care. But when he was unable to produce a signed agreement, the court declared the contract void.

Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Bays purchased the Soquel sanitarium in 1927. They ran it as an apartment house during the early years of the Great Depression. Suffering a loss of $2500 in a unexplained 1933 fire, the Bays lost all the main buildings of the entire complex in “blaze of mysterious origin” a year later, in February 1934.

Two members of the Capitola Volunteer Fire Department, Chief Ed Huber and Thomas Hayford, nearly sacrificed their lives when a water tank exploded as they entered the building in search for the source of the fire. Both suffered burns. The cause was judged to be either spontaneous combustion or a short circuit in the wiring. The Bays reportedly had little insurance, but with the help of fire fighters were able to save most of their personal belongings. The buildings were valued at $8,500.

Today a few outbuildings and apartments remain on the site of the sanitarium above Center Street, and mature trees suggest the size of the original building footprint.