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Snug Harbor Resort
THE RESORT
Snug Harbor was the name of a resort in Rockaway Beach from the early 1920s to the late 1980s. Built and maintained by Captain Lawrence Dunnigan and his wife Laura, the small cluster of cabins was a place for vacationers from all over California when visiting Rockaway Beach. Tourists traveled to Snug Harbor Resort in their new-fangled autos or by bus for weekends and vacations. People from Fresno, San Jose and Sacramento came for several weeks for vacations, and many camped on the beach in tents. The Dunnigans were a popular couple, and made many friends.
The Dunnigans
Captain Lawrence Anthony Dunnigan was born on April 6, 1871 in San Francisco, CA. He first went to sea when he was 13 years old, and later was a crew member on whale boats and sailing vessels that went to Alaska. He also was captain of the Ocean Wave, a stern wheeler, and ran a ferry boat, the San Pedro, in San Francisco Bay. Not unlike depictions of pirates in books and in film, the Captain carried a parrot on his arm that was known around Rockaway as a linguist. Bought from a Frenchman, she spoke French. However, the bird's favorite phrase, the one she most often heard, was in English: "Does she talk?"
The captain met Laura Blanche Richardson in 1918 when she was a stewardess on the Alameda, a ferry between Oakland and San Francisco. Laura lived in Berkeley at the time, and Captain Dunnigan lived in Rockaway Beach, Ca. They fell in love, and lived together for several years before marrying in San Francisco on September 29, 1925. He was 55, she was 37. Both had been married before; the Captain had three previous wives and two daughters by one of the marriages. Laura was married once before to a man named Richardson, which somehow earned her the nickname of "Dick" by many Rockaway residents.
PROHIBITION AND BOOTLEGGING
The Captain and Mrs. Dunnigan visited the seashore often. As Laura recalled: "We used to hike all over—we went to Bolinas Bay, Princeton, and Rockaway Beach for dinner. That's how we met my future boss, Herbert. When he found out I was a waitress, he wanted me to work for him. At the time, there were only 4 other buildings in Rockaway Beach, including Rockaway School, the White House restaurant (later to be home to Romano's), a blacksmith shop, and a small house behind the White House restaurant that the Prohibitionists burned down (the White House restaurant was also a bootlegging operation). Laura would commute to work from San Francisco on the Red Star Bus, a tourist vehicle with planks for seats. Herbert's Place was a restaurant and bar located on Old County Road. Herbert and his partner would anchor a boat at sea and send liquor in on a cable. Laura wore an apron with big pockets to keep liquor bottles in. Prohibition agents would inspect the premises often, but miraculously, Laura was never searched. That job didn't last for long.
The Cottages
Soon after, the Dunnigans bought a parcel of land at the end of Donaldson Avenue in Rockaway Beach, and built a cottage there in 1924. They hired Alvin Hatch and Manuel P. Dutra of Half Moon Bay to construct their home. The house cost a total of $750. After the first cottage was completed, the rest were built and named after the Santa Fe ferries Ocean Wave, San Pablo and San Pedro. The Captain called the resort: "Snug Harbor", a name that reminded him of a sailor's home in Alaska, where the Captain lived as a young man.
WWII
Mrs. Dunnigan had gone to work at the age of 50 for the new dining room that had opened at Reese's Dude Ranch. The year was 1938, and a full course dinner with oysters on the half shell was $1. "The bottle of wine was $1, too," she remembered, "they wanted to charge 75 cents, but I insisted on $1. I helped them design the dining room that's there now. They tell me the chandelier is still in the shape of a wheel." After Pearl Harbor, the mood along the California coast was fearful. Soldiers were all up and down the coast, in tents, in barracks, in "pill-boxes" and on horseback. "Irene Reese and I signed up to spot planes," Mrs. Dunnigan said, "..we went over to Mussel Rock after work—in the middle of the night and were to report anything suspicious. If you were not an American citizen, you were restricted—not allowed out of your house after dark."
SERVICEMEN and Celebrities
During and after WWII, Snug Harbor was home for servicemen who were assigned to the area with the Coast Guard. As Laura relates: "A lot of people in the Army came here—people would drive by and stop." Guests at Snug Harbor could cook in the cottage and for a refreshing bath there was a cold shower outdoors. Mrs. Dunnigan did the cleaning and laundry, which kept her busy, but when there was time, she often went horseback riding. "I kept a horse at Reese's Dude Ranch (later the Vagabond Villa) on Pedro Point," she said. "Some of the people who stayed here would go riding with me. The Gumps and the Floods came down — some of them went riding. "We ate outside a lot. My yard was my living room," she laughed. She recalled "...warmer days back then. I lived in my bathing suit. We rented to tourists from San Jose, a lot of people from the valley, the Santa Fe railroad and a lot of what you call `hideaway parties'," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "They'd stay a day; there were a lot of movie stars." Her most frequent celebrity guest was Dick Powell, who became acquainted with Rockaway Beach while filming a motion picture at the old Tanforan race track. "He used to bring a lunch from the Palace Hotel," she says, "I'd set it up for him—place linen on a tray, knock on the door and leave. He'd bring wine and he'd always tip you heavy." Powell even preferred Snug Harbor over any other place with hot showers. "He said my place was so clean and he liked the atmosphere," she smiled.
1950-1975
Then Reese's closed, and Mrs. Dunnigan considered working as a waitress in San Francisco. The Captain, who had ended a lifetime on ships and boats in 1933 when the bridges crossed the Bay, "...strapped on his guns, and went down to the waterfront to volunteer for security work." After considering the commute by bus to the city, Mrs. Dunnigan decided to take up an offer to work for Charles Gust in his restaurant. "It hasn't changed much, really. They had a bar and a room that could serve 100 guests. I knew how to make mixed drinks, like a Golden Fizz. I taught Charlie and Nick how to mix drinks. That Nick, he didn't want to measure things," she laughed. In her spare time, there were fund-raising events for the Allied Relief Fund and there was a war effort salvage shop nearby. "I helped work on it," she said.
The Captain died after a long illness on November 10, 1954 at the age of 83. He and Laura had been married for 34 years. The Captain was buried in the same plot at Holy Cross cemetery with the mother of his children, Louise Blanchette Dunnigan. Laura continued to manage the Snug Harbor property, and eventually, as the 1950s wore on, the tourist cabins became permanent rentals. Many of the tenants became like family to her. She had never had children, but she enjoyed having children around. "I love children! I have always taken care of other people's children. I love young people. They don't bore me. I like noise and everything that is activity." One of those children was Florence Graziani. "Florence used to say to me . .'when I grow up I want to live across the street from you and have you take care of my children and play with them'," she laughed, and that is just what happened. Florence became Laura's family; the Grazianis took care of Laura in her final years.
TRAGIC END
Laura Dunnigan's life was relatively peaceful and happy in her retirement. In her later years, Laura was an early environmentalist. She wrote protest letters to the county government about development of the quarry. One of Rockaway's pioneers, she enjoyed quiet days in her cottage near the sea where she had spent half a century. Laura also had a soft spot for the down-and-out. She was known for aiding, befriending and encouraging others. One of those was a young man that she met at church, the First Church of Christ Scientist. His name was Carl Casperson. They became friends for about a decade, right after he graduated from Terra Nova High school. Carl became a tenant in one of the Snug Harbor cottages, doing maintenance chores in exchange for rent while he attended Technical School.
Tragically, on Monday, March 3, 1976, at 5:30 a.m., 28-year-old Carl murdered Laura. He told the police that he had been unable to sleep for several days, and decided to go over to Mrs. Dunnigan's cottage in the early hours on Monday. She always left her door unlocked, so he sat in her living room for a couple of hours, praying. After that, he went into her bedroom to talk with her awhile, then went to the kitchen, got a knife and stabbed 87-year-old Laura Dunnigan to death. No motive was found. After his arrest and arraignment, Carl Casperson was deemed mentally unstable enough to be confined to Atascadero State Hospital. While waiting for trial, Casperson died suddenly on March 22, 1976.
Epilogue: The Snug Harbor property was inherited by Florence Graziani, the child who grew up in Snug Harbor, and a part of Laura's chosen family. In 1984, the Pacifica Historical Society put the Snug Harbor cabins on a list of ten buildings that should be protected as "historically significant". Graziani was not happy about Snug Harbor's inclusion on that list; she had plans to demolish two of the cottages. The City Council denied the historical society's request to include Snug Harbor among the protected structures, and the buildings were all eventually demolished for new construction.