CHRIS MERZ

Sacramento County

Biographies

CHRIS MERZ

CHRIS MERZ.--Widely famous as among the best-appointed, and most comfortable and attractive hostelries in northern California, and one that has done much to make the capital city an attractive center for both transients and more permanent guests, is the Golden Eagle Hotel, which was bought in 1913 by the late Chris Merz, who by natural gifts, developed talent and experience, was one of the most capable men of affairs to be found in Sacramento. He was a native of Germany, and was born at Aldingen, about seventy-five miles from Stuttgart, in one of the most romantic and picturesque mountain districts of Europe, not far from the Hardt and Linsenberg spurs of the Alb, the high-lying and well-cultivated plain of the Baar, and the long Heuberg, poking its brow 2,894 feet into the blue sky, as if in competition with the flattened cone of the Hohenkarpien, and bearing on its nearest peak, almost ready to topple over into the green valleys below, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche, or Church of the Trinity, erected there just how, in it dizzying environment, few if any persons nowadays can tell. He first saw the light on December 8, 1875, and came to the United States at the impressionable age of thirteen, when a lad is most likely to profit by all that he sees and hears. He had gone to the regular schools in his native country, and was not slow to avail himself of the fine opportunities afforded by the American night schools, in addition to which he found a stay of three years upon his uncle’s cotton plantation in Texas particularly profitable.

Leaving the Lone Star cotton-fields, he came north into California in 1897, and for eight years was at Los Angeles, for awhile as proprietor of the Palace Restaurant; but removing to Sacramento, he opened a café at 806 K Street, which he conducted until he bought the Golden Eagle Hotel, in 1913, an establishment which he improved more and more, by untiring application and wise, generous expenditures for better equipment and service, and which he continued to conduct, to the great satisfaction of the community, until his death.

In Sacramento, Mr. Mertz was married to Miss Alvina Welch, a native of Alsatian Strassburg, France, and a gifted, popular lady who had resided at the California capital since 1898; and their fortunate union was blessed in a son, Edward Mertz, now also an experienced hotel man. Mrs. Mertz is a member of the Eastern Star and the White Shrine, and she also belongs to, and is usefully active in the Ladies’ Aid Society at St. John’s Lutheran Church. Chris Mertz was a Republican in matters of national political import, and especially influential in civic circles because he was always willing to put aside partisan issues and boost for the locality in which he found himself. He was a Knight Templar Mason, and a member of Islam Temple, N. M. S., in San Francisco. He also belonged to the Foresters and the Red Men, and to the Turnverein. He was liberal to a fault, good to the poor, and helped wherever and whenever, and in whatever movement, the opportunity was afforded. He breathed his last in September 1921; and in his death the city and county lost an exemplary citizen, gentleman and manly man.

The Golden Eagle Hotel was established in 1863, but the name of its first proprietor, owing to the lack of orderly records of that formative time in the building of the Pacific commonwealth, does not seem to be known. From its beginning, however, it had a large and enviably lucrative patronage by the best people who lived in, or came and went to and from the city; and here all the notables of the times stopped,--the governors of the state, and all the high officials, the first governor of the state even making his home here for a while. Celebrities such as Buffalo Bill also made the Golden Eagle their headquarters when in Sacramento, drawing other notables hither, and leading men of international repute or lasting fame, from every quarter of the globe, have rested or feasted under the Golden Eagle’s hospitable roof, and the old register, a most highly prized souvenir, contains their historic names. Today, under the highly progressive and liberal management of Mrs. Merz and her son Edward, who affords valuable assistance to his mother, the hotel is conducted as a first-class hostelry, the managers continuing there the broad policies instituted by the long-experienced and lamented Chris Merz. It is indeed a thoroughly modern and first-class establishment, rebuilt and made up-to-date in every respect, with a capacity of 150 rooms. Sacramento will never forget Chris Merz, one of the true founders of the capital city, whose foresight led him to be an optimistic prophet of the future greatness of both town and county; and in the popular Golden Eagle Hotel the fast-developing and prosperous northern metropolis has one of the most interesting memorials and monuments.

Transcribed by Priscilla Delventhal.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 1003-1004. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.