From Hanover, Germany to San Francisco, CA
Behrend Joost had high hopes in 1891 for his “creme de la creme” of subdivisions, naming the streets in the Sunnyside neighborhood he created in San Francisco after millionaires: Flood, Spreckels, Mangels, and Joost himself. Behrend Joost, Claus Spreckels, Claus Mangels, and his sister Anna Christina, were all from Hanover, Germany. Anna Mangels and Claus Spreckels were childhood sweethearts in Hanover and married in 1852. Anna’s brother, Claus Mangels, married Emma Zwieg.
Mangels house at 2518 Howard, taken about 1890. The partially visible house to the right belonged to J.D. Spreckels. Courtesy Tillmann Family Archives / Mark Reed.
Mark Reed, a descendant of Claus Mangels’ daughter, Emma, recently shared more family history with me. “Claus Mangels arrived in San Francisco about 1860 (Spreckels arrived earlier, about 1856) and during his last years Claus Mangels lived at 2518 Howard near 20th (Howard was renamed S. Van Ness after 1906). Next door to Claus Mangels on Howard lived J.D. Spreckels, son of Claus Spreckels. Before 1896 Claus Spreckels also lived on Howard near 16th, and the Zwieg family also lived nearby. In 1896 Claus Spreckels moved to a new mansion on Van Ness. The Howard street houses are all long gone.”
Claus Mangels Home in Aptos
Mark Reed adds, “Claus Spreckels purchased the Aptos Rancho (about 5000 acres), and sold his brother-in-law Claus Mangels about 550 acres, now most absorbed by the adjacent state park. This is the Claus Mangels home in Aptos (left). Claus Spreckels built a near identical house in Aptos too. Claus Mangels was closely associated with his brother-in-law in brewing, sugar refining, and shipping enterprises, and was a director of Spreckels’ Hakalau sugar plantation in Hawaii. However, Mangels also owned significant commercial property downtown (SF) in his own right, including a major hotel. I’m not aware of the exact relationship between Mangels and Joost, could be either social or business. However, I do remember reading somewhere that Joost held Mangels in high esteem. Claus Mangels died in 1891, and Claus Spreckels died in 1908.”
“The grandsons of Claus Mangels were Ernest & Oscar Hueter, and in the 1920s the Hueter brothers purchased and developed the area in Balboa Terrace surrounding the Aptos school. Boxton-Zwieg built the homes designed by Architect Harold Stoner in this neighborhood further west along Monterey Blvd. which includes a street named Aptos. Learn more about the Spreckels, Mangels, and Zwieg connections at http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/407/.
Original Sunnyside Neighborhood Map
Spreckels Avenue was later changed to Staples. Another millionaire was added to Sunnyside when Moulton was changed to Hearst. Weiland was changed to Judson, Milton became Marston, and Sunnyside became Monterey Boulevard.
Posted June 20, 2017