Above: "A Business Section" - Corner of Commercial an Main Streets, looking Southwest to Van Hotel, Willits c. 1930. Photographer unknown, Mendocino County Museum.
The Van Hotel
Long before this landmark building was constructed, Hiram Willits trained his horses among oak trees on an open lot there in the 1860s, reported Bertha Cook, born in 1880. ( 1. )
Decades later, in 1924, Gustav Van Cleemput, who owned the Hotel Willits across the street, constructed the Van Hotel. With the train bringing so many travelers to town in the early 1920s, Willits needed more rooms, so Van Cleemput created an annex to the Hotel Willits, with the Van’s main entrance on Commercial Street. Expecting the town to keep growing, he reinforced the building with steel so that four more stories could eventually be added. And with fires a constant threat in the wooden Hotel Willits, Van Cleemput built the Van with brick.
The stylish interior had marble floors, wrought iron embellishments, redwood balustrades, and Grecian styled trim. In 1926 the bottom floor was remodeled to provide shops.
So elegant was the Van that The Willits News reported on September 13, 1929, that Winston Churchill (then the British Chancellor of the Exchequer) and other officials spent a night there en route to San Francisco from Canada.
Gordon Wagenet, who moved to Willits in 1946, could still call the Van Hotel “Willits’s finest, situated across from the weather-beaten old Willits Hotel.” However, he added, “it, too, was slowly sliding into oblivion. Our room cost $4 per night. A bare 40-watt light bulb hung over the bed and one chair completed the furnishings. The bathroom was down the hall.” ( 2. )
Left: The Van Café can be seen in the background of this parade photo. The Willits News Archives, collected by Rena-Lynn Moore, Mendocino County Museum.
( 1. ) The Willits News, Dec. 5, 1973, p. 6. ( 2. ) My First Eighty Five Years, p. 118 (Gordon Wagenet, 2006).
By 1944 the Van Cleemputs had sold the hotel to Mr. and Mrs. T.H. Dearr, who later sold the Van Hotel to Al Greenberg. Al’s bar, the Redwood Room, originally located at the Hotel Willits, had migrated to the Van for a safer location. Al’s daughter, Joan Greenberg Papantoniadis, fondly remembered visiting Mary Van Cleemput, known to her as “Auntie Van,” and playing cards with her. “Mrs. Van” lived her last years on the second floor of the hotel.
Larry Strathman remembered his parents lovingly managing the Van for many years in the 1950s and ’60s and his own fascination with the train crews who stayed there, played cards, and swapped stories on the mezzanine.
Long after the trains stopped their regular runs, many another early Willits resident stayed in the Van for weeks before finding local homes, like David Drell who recalled the lovely marble floor in the lobby still there in the 1980s.
A kaleidoscope of businesses passed through in the Van’s shops downstairs, including the clothing stores Sidney’s and Natural Choice. Recently the Van has helped young and old look their best in beauty shops.
In discussions of the future of Willits, this building won the most love and wishes for renewal in ways that will bolster the community. An empty lot across the street on West Commercial is already designated for parking. The steel infrastructure and elevator shaft make the Van one of the strongest buildings in town and capable of adaption for elevator use. Senior living with easy access to downtown businesses? A culinary and hospitality institute with a “tasting” restaurant downstairs? What a dream come true it would be!
Right: Contemporary photo of the Van Hotel building by Steve Eberhard, courtesy of Steve Eberhard.
Created in collaboration with Kim Bancroft and Judi Berdis and based the 2016 Mendocino County Museum exhibit "Main Street Willits: Then and Now. "Text prepared by Kim Bancroft and select photos prepared by Judi Berdis. We are grateful for their ongoing efforts to preserve our local history.
Special thanks to Kiersten Hanna for project support and assistance.