Jorhensen’s very scarce view of Bartlett Springs, CA.
Bartlett Springs. Lake Co. Cal.
$1,600
1 in stock
Description
California’s Premier Progressive Era Sanatorium.
This is a lovely c. 1890 view of the resort at the Bartlett Springs in Lake County, California, not ten miles from Clear Lake, which gives the county its name.
The view looks over the grounds of the springs resort, near Nice in Lake County, California, which included a hotel (eventually four two-story buildings like the one depicted in an inset at top-left), dormitories for workers, a sawmill, a recreation hall, a bottling plant, and more, in addition to the springs itself, depicted in an inset at top-right. In the view, people relax and engage in various leisure activities around the resort grounds, including partaking of its healing waters and playing croquet.
The springs, one of several set up around the same time in Lake County, became a destination after Greene Bartlett passed through the area on a hunting and camping trip in 1869. As he was suffering from rheumatism, he tries the waters to see if they would help his condition and was pleasantly surprised to see that they did. A return trip with some fellow convalescents showed similar results for them. The following year, Bartlett and a business partner bought the springs and the surrounding property, dubbed it Bartlett Springs, and began building accommodations there. These were fairly rudimentary at first, and the trip to reach them was no simple jaunt but a miles-long trek through the wilderness, hardly ideal for people suffering from ailments.
But Bartlett continued to marginally improve the quantity and quality of the resort’s accommodations and carve out a still-rough but much improved path from Ukiah and Lakeport, while also setting up a mineral water bottling plant, which was successfully marketed throughout California. By the late 1870s, other entrepreneurs were interested in investing in Bartlett’s resort and by 1887 Bartlett was bought out by his business partners, who quickly set to drastically improving the resort’s accommodations and constructing a toll road (built by Chinese laborers), which was connected by a steamer across Clear Lake to Lakeport, to make the resort more accessible.
Soon, the resort was the largest in Lake County and lauded as one of the best in California, if not the world. It continued to be a popular destination into the 20th century, but was hurt by the lack of a nearby rail connection (the nearest being Williams and Cloverdale mentioned in the subtitle, Lake County being the only county in the state to never be traversed by a rail line) and the unimproved state of the mountain road leading to it, making automobile trips a harrowing proposition. In 1934, a fire destroyed the resort despite the efforts of nearby Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) members to douse the flames, which would have spread further without their actions.
Publication information
This view was drawn by Chris Jorgensen, a celebrated artist of the era who frequently depicted California’s lovely vistas and landscapes. It is undated, but likely dates to the 1880s or 1890s. It is quite scarce, with only two known institutional holdings, a hand-colored example at the California State Library and an uncolored example in the Special Collections of the Meriam Library at California State University, Chico.
Cartographer(s):
Chris Jorgensen (October 7, 1860 – June 24, 1935), born Christian August Jorgensen, was a Norwegian-American landscape painter active in California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His depictions of the Yosemite Valley and other distinctive sites in California have become iconic and influenced later artists. Born in Oslo, Jorgensen’s father died when he was young and his mother moved the family to San Francisco where her brother had moved. As an adolescent, Jorgensen met Virgil Williams, who would soon become the director of the new San Francisco School of Design, who recognized talent in the young man. Through Williams, Jorgensen became connected to the burgeoning art scene in San Francisco and then toured and exhibited widely, being exposed to new artistic styles in the process. In 1881, Williams appointed Jorgensen Assistant Director of the School of Design and shortly afterwards Jorgensen married a student there, Angela Ghirardelli, heiress of the wealthy Ghirardelli chocolatier family. At the beginning of the 20th century, Jorgensen built two homes/art studios, one at Yosemite and one at Carmel-by-the-Sea, where he would spend most of his time in the coming years. In 1917, the family moved to Piedmont, near Oakland in Alameda County, to be near his wife’s family. Jorgensen has been appreciated by posterity as one of the definitive California artists of the era, and particularly for his role in popularizing the stunning natural beauty of Yosemite in visual form.
Condition Description
Some wear along centerfold. Repairs to chips along edge. Rebacked for stability; full professional restoration.
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