Centennial Story
Prince Gustav Adolph and his wife Louise dedicated the Sveadal summer resort near Uvas Canyon
Editor’s Note: The following is the seventh installment
in a series commemorating Morgan Hill’s 100th anniversary. The Morgan Hill Times is taking a trip back in time to 1906. From now through November, we will feature stories in Tuesday’s paper about the people, places and events instrumental in the founding of the city.
By Martin Cheek
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Morgan Hill – Several Morgan Hill residents still remember the day 80 years ago when European royalty paid a special visit to the town. Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolph and his wife Crown Princess Louise once journeyed here to help in the dedication of a summer resort in nearby Uvas Canyon.
In the summer of 1926, the royal Swedish couple were on a tour of the United States. They were scheduled to stay in San Francisco for a few days before crossing the Pacific Ocean by ship for Asia. The Swedish American Patriotic League in the Bay Area had recently developed its 106-acre “Sveadal” resort in the mountains just west of Morgan Hill, so the Swedish Consul General Carl Wallerstedt asked the 44-year-old prince if he and his wife would officially dedicate the new vacation spot. The royal couple happily agreed.
“When word of this planned visit was received by the people in the canyon, they became very excited and at once proceeded to trim the trees and clean up the brush that might in some way hamper the royal couple’s entourage,” wrote Dolores De Moro Sepeda in her book “Hills West of El Toro: A Story About the Uvas Canyon.”
One local Swede name Henry Dahlgren met with Henry Hecker, the county supervisor in the South Valley district, to obtain a large grader and tractor to prepare the dirt road to Sveadal for the royal visit. Using the equipment, two local brothers, Jack and Bill Ryan, soon started preparing Croy Canyon Road by pulling out stumps and removing rock and leveling the dirt.
On July 29, 1926, the big day arrived for the prince and princess to travel to the South Valley. In her book “Sveadal,” Muriel Nelson Beroza describes the historic event: “The royal couple toured the Stanford (University) campus and then drove to Morgan Hill. The small farming community was delighted with the opportunity to entertain royalty.”
On their arrival that morning, the royal couple were warmly greeted by about 500 local residents and members of the Swedish community in a procession along Monterey Street. The couple were soon taken to the downtown Skeels Hotel at the intersection of Monterey and Third streets and greeted warmly by Harry and Cynthia Skeels. The proprietors and some of the city officials then took the Swedish couple to a second-story corner room overlooking Monterey Street. There, the couple stepped out onto the balcony to wave at the crowd, and Adolph addressed Morgan Hill citizens in both Swedish and English. The locals noticed Princess Louise wore pink garters discreetly below her knees.
Norma Link, a lifelong resident of Morgan Hill, remembers the happy occasion. She was a 6-year girl whose father, Clyde Eades, was Morgan Hill’s mayor at that time. She carried the flowers presented to the royal couple.
“I had a bouquet of roses that I was to give to them,” she recalled. “It was my day of fame.”
Norma did not actually meet the couple. Someone else gave the flowers to them. “I didn’t know what was going on,” she said of the day. “This little one-horse town, all we ever had was floats and parades. As the mayor, my father was the only reason I was involved.”
Among the Morgan Hill citizens who witnessed the royal arrival was Robert Rice who had developed a severe case of sunburn when out picking prunes the previous day. “A local minister greeted Robert with a hearty slap on the back,” Beroza wrote. “Robert’s response was verbal, indecorous, and fortunately not too loud.”
After the Swedish couple had rested from their journey to Morgan Hill, they joined their entourage to continue by car to the Sveadal resort. Their journey over the newly graded Croy Canyon Road became an ordeal, wrote Sepeda.
“The winding road was made somewhat wider and smoother for the Crown Prince and his party,” she wrote. “It might also be added that all this activity resulted in the stirring up of more dust than usual. It was reported that after a mile or two, the road became so dusty that it was difficult to see it at all as the party traveled over it.”
The couple arrived at Sveadal at about 11am and were formally greeted by George Larson, the president of the Swedish American Patriotic League in San Francisco. The moment the Crown Prince’s foot touched the resort’s soil, Boy Scouts commenced playing a salute on their bugles and a chorus from the Bay Area’s Swedish Singing Society started singing an inspirational Swedish song.
The resort’s hosts served lunch on tables under the oaks on Sveadal’s expansive lawn. The meal was followed by dignitaries giving their dedication speeches. “The Crown Prince spoke briefly and it was the only time during his visit to this country that he addressed an audience made up primarily of his own countrymen,” Beroza wrote. “He brought greetings from the people of Sweden to their compatriots in America.”
His speech was followed by the crowd joining the chorus in singing “Du Gamla, Du Fria,” Sweden’s national anthem. Then the royal couple signed a plaster overlay that would be used later to cast a bronze plaque. It read: “This tablet was personally signed by their Royal Highnesses Gustavus Adolphus and Louise, Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Sweden, upon their visit to and dedication of these grounds of the Swedish American Patriotic League of California. July 29, 1926.”
The bronze plaque now hangs on display outside Sveadal’s clubhouse.
After the dedication ceremony, the couple left Sveadal to head to their next scheduled appointment at the Lick Observatory in the mountains east of San Jose.
Today, a history plaque on the wall of the old Skeels Hotel in downtown Morgan Hill serves as a reminder of the time European royalty graced our community with a ceremonial visit.
