As Sheriff Truman’s crew searches Jacques Renault’s apartment in episode 1005, Agent Cooper opens a cabinet with a variety of photos, cards and clippings affixed to the inside of the door. I recently identified another prop in Jacques’s collection from this set.
SPOTTING GRUNDY’S REDWOOD TERRACE RESTROOM POSTCARD
One of the items is a vintage postcard featuring a unique outhouse on Northern California’s Redwood Highway.
The linen-finished card was produced in 1936 by Curt Teich using a printing process called “C.T. Art Colortone” to colorize a black and white image.
The giant log pictured had been hollowed out and converted into a restroom at Grundy’s Redwood Terrace, a resort with a restaurant and cocktail lounge that was located in Leggett, CA.
GRUNDY’S REDWOOD TERRACE
The resort was founded and run by Robert M. Grundy (1911-2011). Though I was unable to determine the exact dates of operation, the business would presumably have opened before the postcard was printed in 1936.
Funnily enough, most of the information I found on Grundy’s came from eBay listings for other post cards. You can see the souvenir shop to the right of the restroom in this image, and the next shows more of the lot with the actual Grundy’s sign.
According to Gene Barnett, innkeeper of the nearby Bell Glen Resort, Grundy’s cocktail lounge eventually became known as Howling Wolf and the kitschy restroom was removed sometime before 1995.
NORCAL JACQUES?
You may recall that another postcard from this cabinet which I previously identified is also connected to Northern California. The image on the postcard directly above the log restroom was taken by Bay Area photographer Bill Owens at the KNBR Good Times Parade in Pleasanton, CA in 1972.
We don’t know much about the Renault brothers’ background, but we do know that they are French Canadian. So why does Jacques have such a fascination with Northern California?