Brookdale Lodge Brookdale, California

The Brookdale Lodge sits along Highway 9 in Brookdale, California. It was built in 1870 and initially served as a headquarters for the Grover Lumbermill.

 

By 1900, the Lumbermill was sold to H.J. Logan, who converted the property into a campground and hotel.

 

Between 1922-1945, Dr. F.K. Camp took over operations, building the well known Brookdale Room with the natural creek running through the middle of it. That creek also saw the drowning of Sarah Logan (neice of H.J. Logan) she is said to haunt the Brookdale Room.

 

In it's heyday, the Brookdale was the second most popular resort in California, with many Hollywood Stars (Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Temple, Joan Crawford to name a few) to President Herbert Hoover having stayed at the Brookdale.

 

That soon ended, the 1940s and 1950s saw the place becoming a hangout for gangsters and other shady characters.

 

In 1956, a fire destroyed the Brookdale Room, leading to it being rebuilt in a Hansel and Gretel style (apparently to match the nearby and now defunct Santa's Village) The campground also went away at this time, to become a parking lot for the hotel.

 

By 1964, the Brookdale's owner filed bankruptcy and the property sold to Developer Archie Cline to construct condos on the property. Cline lost the permits to build after some rock concerts.

 

R.T. Burger then bought it in 1976, intending to restore it, as it currently was operating as a half shuttered residential motel.

 

1977-1987 saw multiple owners come and go, along with a flooding and subsequent use of the Brookdale as a shelter by the Red Cross.

 

By 1989, Bill Gilbert, a lieutenant with the San Francisco Police Department bought the Brookdale and began restoring it, operating it until 2007, when it was sold to Sanjiv Kakkar for $5.3 Million.

 

So began a new page in the Brookdale's history, though it would not be very long or good. Many issues began to surface with the new owner and the way the Brookdale was ran. In 2008, a pipe backed up, dumping chemicals into the creek and killing off many of the fish in it. Refuse and construction debris also began to pile up around the property.

 

In 2009, a fire destroyed 20 of the apartments on the property, prompting an apparently still ongoing arson investigation.

 

In 2010, a lawsuit came about; employees filed one against Kakkar for bounced checks, failure to provide meal periods, and for wrongful termination.

 

By October 7, 2011, the Fire Department Red tagged the Brookdale Lodge and the Santa Cruz County Sherriff’s office began the closure after numerous fire and health code violations were discovered, from unpermitted construction, monitors in the guests rooms, altered/removed panic hardware on lobby doors

 

By March 2012, the lodge still remained closed and more charges filed against the owner, this time for more Insurance fraud and other charges, many stemming from the 2010 lawsuit by the employees. The county still has a pending civil case against Kakkar as well due to the outstanding violations on the property.

As of today, as seen, the Brookdale sits empty and likely now serves as homes from squatters and transients (given several of the rooms appear to have been broken into)

 

That is basically the entire Brookdale History in a summed up (but still rather long) version. Sources include the Santa Cruz Sentinel and monterybay.org for history of the property along with it’s violations and legal troubles. Only time will tell what will become of the Brookdale.

 

 

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