Brookdale, California

Brookdale Lodge, a historic resort complex, is the main business in Brookdale. It was famous for decades, known especially for the stream running through its primary restaurant, the Brook Room (closed for renovation as of 2019). It currently has a reputation for being haunted by numerous ghosts.[4] Started by Judge Logan, by 1922 it was owned by Dr. F. K. Camp, a Seventh-day Adventist physician, who envisioned a dining room spanning the creek and hired Horace Cotton of San Francisco to design it.

In its day, the Brookdale Lodge was the second most popular resort in California and hosted the rich and famous ... Hollywood stars, prominent families, foreign diplomats, and even President Herbert Hoover visited the scenic lodge. Famous persons passing through Brookdale Lodge included: Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Tyrone Power, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, and President Herbert Hoover. Shirley Temple and Johnny Weissmuller had homes nearby. Herbert Hoover visited often, and enjoyed fishing off the dining room bridge. And during the San Francisco conference establishing the United Nations, world leaders and diplomats came to the lodge to relax. The lodge was also famous for its first rate entertainment, attracting the best big band and swing groups of the era. There are at least three swing era songs written about the Brookdale including, My Brookdale Hideaway, A Place Known as Brookdale, and Beautiful Brookdale Lodge.[5]

The lodge has changed hands many times since, and was condemned after a fire in 2009. Since 2016 it has been owned by Pravin and Naina Patel. The lodge appeared on the paranormal show Ghost Adventures in 2012.[6] The property has once again been sold and is undergoing intensive renovations.[7]

There have been three large fires at the Lodge, the last of suspicious origin.

The first occurred on October 24, 1956. In that fire the dining room and an adjoining 12-room house were destroyed. A group of stores adjacent to the dining room were also badly damaged. Damage from the 1956 fire was estimated at $200,000.

The second occurred in 2005 in the same area of the main hotel as the 2009 fire.[8]

Damaged section of the lodge after the 2009 fire

On August 18, 2009, a fire engulfed a two-story section of the lodge near the rear of the main building that contains apartments mostly occupied by lodge employees. There were no reports of injuries to anybody staying at the inn, though some firefighters suffered minor injuries while fighting the blaze.[8]

The origin of the fire is still under investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is helping to determine the cause of the three-alarm fire. According to the Boulder Creek Fire Chief the fire started under suspicious circumstances.[9]

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Brookdale has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.[10]