|
| 100 years of a room with a view By Stacy Trevenon [ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 12:48 PM PDT In 1909, German schoolteacher Richard Schirrmann took students on a trip to the country and launched a phenomenon. His idea — to create simple lodging to allow young people affordable travel — resulted in the first hostel in Altena, Germany, in 1912. That first step, which grew into a worldwide network of thousands of hostels, will be spotlighted in a centennial celebration of the hostelling movement, concurrent with a celebration of the 75th anniversary of Hostelling International USA, in the week of Aug. 22 to 30. Celebrations at local hostels include the Point Montara Lighthouse hostel, from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, and the Pigeon Point Lighthouse hostel on the coastline south of Pescadero, noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30. “This is a beautiful chance for the community to come here and celebrate the hostel for what it is and what it does,” said Janice Pratt, manager of the Montara lighthouse hostel along with husband Christopher Bauman. The couple also raise their children, ages 7 and 5, in the multicultural whirlwind that is a hostel. Their hostel surprised both inhabitants and local historians when clues to its age were unearthed last year. Managers thought the lighthouse was first established in 1875 as a fog signal station, following the pre-1868 wreck of nearly 90 vessels on the rocks off Montara, including two major losses. Its first light was a lantern with a red lens hung on a post. A fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed in a skeleton tower in 1912 and electrified seven years later. The current cast-iron tower was built in 1928. But in 2008, said Pratt, journalists analyzing an old photo unearthed evidence indicating that the current lighthouse was built in 1881 and pieced together in Cape Cod, Mass., where it stood until it was decommissioned in 1922. Five years later, she said, it was brought to the San Francisco Bay, and installed in Montara in 1928, the first lighthouse to have served on two coasts. It was brought figuratively up-to-date in March 2009 as a Certified Green Business through the Bay Area Green Business Program. To come into compliance, the hostel installed equipment to decrease water flow in sinks and showerheads to conserve water, energy-saving lighting and heating, biodegradable cleaners, fluorescent lights, onsite composting, recycling and filtered instead of bottled drinking water. Now the oceanside hostel has shared spaces and private rooms in former Coast Guard quarters, from World War II days when military and K-9 personnel kept an eye to the west. It also has lounges, access to native-plant gardens and beachside scenery, for travelers of all ages from around the world. Point Montara also hosts Bay Area school groups all year, particularly in spring and summer from mid-February to mid-September. What’s it like to raise young kids at a hostel? “It can be hectic, it can be stressful, but it’s amazing,” said Pratt. “It’s about balance.” She and Bauman see to guests’ needs at all hours while getting their kids to class at Farallone View Elementary School. The nonprofit hostel, part of the Golden Gate Council of Hostelling International, will hold a multifaceted celebration on Aug. 22. Live Celtic and folk music will be played on harp, harpsichord and more by the local TBD Attic Band. An art show will exhibit works by students of local watercolor teacher Mary Kay Jolley. There will be crafts for children, door prizes of hostel-related goodies and an open house to show visitors what hostel facilities are like. For information, call 728-7277. A few days later and several miles south on Highway 1, Pigeon Point Lighthouse hostel will hold its own celebration from noon to 3 p.m. Aug. 30. Begun as a hostel in 1981, the 58-bed Pigeon Point hostel is the site of an annual lighting of its own Fresnel lens, which boasts more than 1,000 prisms. The hostel follows a mission of “helping all, especially young, to gain a greater understanding of the world and its people through hostelling,” said general manager Jeff Parry. Its celebration will be enlivened by the island sounds of Dr. Steelgood, an all-acoustic trio performing a blend of reggae, Afro-Cuban, jazz and Americana with Kevin Di Noto on lead steelpan and the trio on bass steelpan and percussion. Other festivities include a puppet show performed by Exploring New Horizons, an outdoor school which includes the Pigeon Point Environmental Education Program. The show focuses on hostelling but also on elephant seals, regular visitors at nearby Año Nuevo State Reserve. Tours of the hostel grounds will also be offered, though the lighthouse, the second tallest on the West Coast, is closed. There will also be free barbecue, other snacks and beverages, prize giveaways and entry to a drawing for a three-night private stay for two at any council hostel, a video camera, two one-year Hostelling International memberships, two stainless-steel canteens or two organic cotton hoodies. For information, call 879-0633. |