Coburn Mystery: Chapter 33 (Original Draft)

By June Morrall

To see a pendant from Pebble Beach, click here

In 1872 H.A. Schofield, the San Mateo County Gazette editor, stayed overnight at the Swanton House and his report gives us a glimpse of how Sarah Swanton ran the bed and breakfast business.

When he arrived the hotel was buzzing with mostly women and children talking about going to nearby Pebble Beach. They were discussing travel arrangements: they could take the hotel’s wagon or wait for the stage or contact the former Santa Cruz sheriff who rented teams of horses at any time of the day.

(Silas Swanton, brother of Charles, left Massachusetts for Pescadero where he bought a half-interest in the Pescadero Livery Stable. Silas lived in the house, later bought by Loren Coburn.}

The Swanton House was also a popular wedding spot. The Swanton’s son, Frank, was married there in 1877. (Sadly, when only 30, he died of a heart attack.)

Ask anybody in town and they would tell you that Sarah Swanton ran the hotel. It wasn’t a good idea to cross her. Her official domain included the kitchen, parlor and billiard room. Assisting her was pretty daughter, Eva, who later wed Pescadero businessman Peter Stryker.

Not to be missed in the dining room was the magnificent collection of pebbles and a cabinet filled with marine and geological curiosities, all said to be from Pebble Beach.

Where are the Swanton House pebbles and curiosities today?

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