Historic Building Burns Closing Popular Restaurant
By Kevin Newhouse
By now I’m sure you have heard about the devastating fire at the popular Aptos restaurant, The Hideout. Thankfully nobody was hurt and the fire didn’t spread to the neighboring buildings or down to Valencia Creek. However, the restaurant did employ close to 50 people and Aptos lost one of its older buildings whose story dates back more than 90 years.
In 1927, Martin Jongeneel built his family a home on three acres of land. It was one of very few buildings along Soquel Drive in the 1920s. It had a circular driveway and a large basement. The home was called Beth-Mar. They had a rhododendron and azalea nursery on the property. There was a greenhouse and lath house to the east where the front office building stands today. To the west, there was an orchard and a fox farm where foxes were raised for furs.
Martin Jongeneel came to San Jose to prepare himself for a job with the California Fruit Canning Association. Martin’s wife, Elizabeth Van Kaathoven, was born in Leiden, Holland and came to America in 1889, with her mother and two brothers. One of the brothers, Kess (pronounced, “Case”) purchased the Aptos Cash Store (today’s Café Sparrow) and operated the business until his 90th birthday. Martin and Elizabeth were married in San Jose in 1895 and moved to Evergreen, where their two eldest children were born. Martin Jongeneel was a talented horticulturist who worked on the development of varieties of seeds suitable for canneries. They continued to move around before settling in Aptos in 1927.
Before his death in 1931, Martin had developed one of the most extensive rhododendron gardens in the county and his wife had gratified a long standing wish to have a house surrounded by trees and shrubs as in her native Holland. One pine tree, which they had planted when they first moved, now towers over the house.
In 1934, Elizabeth started a new career, giving piano lessons. She taught up to 20 lessons per week and even gave recitals at her home. She passed away in 1958 at the age of 83.
During WWII, Peter and Olaf Harken, along with their mother, stayed with Elizabeth Jongeneel in her Aptos home. The Harken family lived in Indonesia, which was invaded by the Japanese. They had escaped on an American freighter but their father stayed behind to destroy materials from his factory in an effort to prevent the Japanese from using them. As a result, he became a prisoner of war.
In 1967, the Harken brothers started Vanguard Sailboats and Harkens Yacht Equipment. They built medal winning Olympic Class boats and today remain the category leader in sailboat hardware.
On August 1, 1996, Peter and Olaf Harken visited the Aptos History Museum to tell us their story. It was the first time they had been back to Aptos in 53 years! The town had changed so much that they weren’t even able to recognize the Jongeneel house in which they lived.
The Beth-Mar served as a home to the Jongeneel family for 31 years. The building then became a nursing home. It served as a church from 1965-1969 and was then converted to commercial use. It has been the home of many restaurants including Charles Dickens Restaurant, Chez Renee, Ma Maison, and a catering business called Southern Exposure.
The Hideout opened its doors in January 2015 when owners Pete Vomvolakis and Austin Welch’s dream of opening a restaurant came true. That dream hit a bump in the road when fire broke out in the early morning hours on May 20th.
The accidental fire, which started in the back of the building, appears to have destroyed most of the structure but it is still too early to determine if they will need to rebuild from scratch.
We do know that 3 mementos that were kept behind the bar in memory of Erik Pederson, Jeff Rindone, and Eliott Brown (friends of The Hideout family) were saved from the fire’s destruction. I take this to be a sign that The Hideout is meant to survive and will fully recover from this fire.
A Gofundme page as been set up to help with repairs and lost wages for the employees. To contribute, please visit: www.gofundme.com/f/the-hideout-fire.
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For more information about the Aptos History Museum, upcoming events, or becoming a member of the museum, please visit www.aptoshistory.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram @aptos_history_museum.