PERHAPS IT WAS DESTINY that brought My Life in Pacific Grove by Wilford Resselaer Holman from a sheaf of mimeographed memories he gifted to family and friends in 1979 to a book published this year by book editor Heather Lazare. Lazare was born at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, which means the address on her birth certificate reads “23625 W.R. Holman Highway.” Lazare says the Holman family, and thus Holman – the founder of Holman’s Department Store and a prominent civic leader who shaped the town’s future – have circled her entire life up to and including marrying Holman’s great-grandson, Ben Lazare.
If Lazare, as a book editor living in the home that had been in the Holman family for generations, was the right person in the right place to give the words of Holman new life, then the Covid-19 pandemic presented itself as the right time. Lazare sifted through 15 boxes stuffed with family memorabilia, newspaper clippings and photographs that helped shape the book published by Pacific Grove Books.
Lazare read through Holman’s mimeographed memories and organized them into chapters that made sense, beginning with how Holman’s father, Rensselaer Luther Holman, transplanted himself from Vermont to Sacramento in the 1870s. After a memorable week spent by the family vacationing along the shore in Pacific Grove, the elder Holman moved the family there in 1888, although sadly after the death of his wife when Holman was just 4 years old.
Holman’s memories from 90 years earlier are fond ones, exploring the forests and beaches of P.G,. and as he grew up, other parts of Monterey County from Moss Landing to Big Sur. “I learned to love every mile of this lovely territory and its nearby towns,” Holman said.
Besides his father, Holman was raised by his Aunt Minora Laurena Holman and the family’s cook/housekeeper, Lee Chong. It was Lee Chong, a Chinese immigrant, who took Holman on errands to Chinatown – the Chinese fishing village at Point Alones, now home to Hopkins Marine Station. His love for Lee Chong and his encounters with the people of the village were formative experiences that led him to believe that “the Chinese were the rightful owners of this property.”
That statement is key, stemming from Holman witnessing the burning of the village in 1906. Holman was a volunteer firefighter who rushed to put out the fire. He later watched as a city employee torched a building that initially did not burn, then cut a hose with an ax. “That was the end to old Chinatown,” Holman simply stated.
He said nothing publicly then, Lazare says, though he knew it was wrong. He was 22 and “walked a delicate line” she says, having only recently taken over his father’s business in a small town where everyone knew each other.
He transformed a struggling dry goods business into Holman’s Department Store, the largest store between San Francisco and Los Angeles for decades. It flourished thanks to Holman’s gift of marketing. He once hired a man to rollerskate on top of a 60-inch-wide disc held up by a pole on the rooftop of the store. (John Steinbeck included the stunt in his novel Cannery Row. The book includes letters Steinbeck wrote to Holman’s wife, Zena.)
On another occasion after a 1926 Ford rammed through a store window, instead of having it cleared away, Holman roped off the car and left it for six weeks so people could come and see it. He also created the Santa Claus Train, a few extra cars attached to the Del Monte Express from Monterey to Pacific Grove. Only children were allowed to ride, and parents would pick them up and, of course, stop at Holman’s to shop, Lazare says.
Mostly absent from the memoir are Holman’s civic activities, other than a copy of the town’s charter, which he campaigned for in 1927. The voters approved it 614-570. Lazare includes the charter, plus numerous news articles and campaign materials. As P.G. residents are set to vote on Nov. 8 to possibly amend the charter, Lazare says it’s relevant even today.
Holman never ran for elected office himself, but he did serve on the city’s Planning Commission for 11 years. “I’m sure people wanted him (to run) but he was president of Holman’s up until his death,” Lazare says. “It was quite a lot of work and I don’t think he fancied himself a politician.”
Lazare gives readers further background on Holman’s history, including his seven-year fight to get a highway built between Pacific Grove and Highway 1, arguing it was for safety to give people another way out should there be “trouble” at the Presidio. What he didn’t say out loud is that it also provided a way for Carmel customers to get to his department store.
She also includes stories about Holman’s beloved wife Zena and her philanthropic and civic contributions, as well as Holman’s love of holly that became a thriving holly farm outside of Watsonville. Lazare writes in the book that the holly growing in people’s yards in P.G. probably came from Holman. He was also known for his fight to save abalone from disappearing through over-harvesting, among other contributions. Zena died in 1980, and Holman died a year later.
Lazare dedicated all book proceeds to the Pacific Grove Public Library Friends and Foundation. “It’s my gift and W.R. Holman’s gift to Pacific Grove,” she says.
Reception to the book has been positive. After talks she’s given, Lazare says she is almost always approached by someone with a warm memory to share of the store and the generosity of its founder. One woman told her that after Holman learned her family was experiencing hard times, he showed up at their house with a large turkey in time for Thanksgiving.
“He was certainly frugal but he was generous of heart and spirit,” Lazare says.