(Note: I wrote this in 1977, although I am doing some editing now).
As late as 1916 [and when the Ocean Shore was four years from bankruptcy), it wasn’t unusual to see six trains whisking passengers down the coast on weekdays. On Sundays picnickers lined up to fill space on as many as eight trains.
Competing with the Ocean Shore was the Red Star Auto Stage, a “chauffer” service which kept five autos in their garage with a furnished waiting room in San Francisco.
They came to the Coastside to consider building vacation homes and to enjoy the climate and surf bathing. Surf bathing became all the rage leading the owner of a bath house on the cliffs of Granada Beach to add 40 more dressing rooms to his building to keep up with the demand of new “bathers.”
In 1916, on Sundays, as many as 3,000 autos were counted rolling down the coast, stopping here and there to catch a special ocean view. On one busy weekend, owners of the Mabey Hotel in North Granada publicized the grand opening of their establishment catering to visitors wanting to fish, hunt or boat.
………….to be continued……….