Princeton by the Sea

Princeton-by-the-Sea is a place filled with legends and tall tales.

An oft-asked question: Who burned down the beloved Crab Cottage?

As the legend goes, John and Slim were two characters that slept in a wood pile. They didn’t bother anyone….unless having way too much to drink counts. One day John and Slim woke up and heard from a passerby that the Crab Cottage wasn’t open for breakfast that morning. The Crab Cottage was always open for breakfast and it not being open on that particular morning irritated all three men.

John and Slim didn’t work at a regular job unless walking around and checking on the goings on in Princeton counts.

As the day turned from light to dark, John and Slim kept talking about the Crab Cottage being closed for breakfast. They bought some cheap wine and bought some more and by the time the moon was up, the men were outraged.

Something had to be done, they said. So they took matters into their own hands, and with plenty of matches zig zagged their way to the Crab Cottage….and burned it down.

In John and Slim’s mind, they had solved the problem of the Crab Cottage being closed for breakfast. They would never be disappointed again.

 [Note: There is no correspondence leading up to this letter from R. Guy Smith, who was head of the Chamber of Commerce of San Mateo County, with headquarters in Moss Beach. We are walking into the middle of something that sounds interesting.]

Coastside Chamber of Commerce of San Mateo County

September 10, 1937

Dear Mr. Wilson,

Your letter of Sept. 6th addressed to Chamber of Commerce, Half Moon Bay has been forwarded to me [R. Guy Smith, Moss Beach.]

We do not have tract plate of the sub-divisions listed in your letter. You might be able to obtain copies from County Engineer, U.S. Marshall at Redwood City, the county seat. A full set of these maps is on file in the County Recorder’s office.

You inquired as to advisability of improving same. Just at present, houses to rent in these localities are quite limited, some people having to live as far as ten miles or more from their work. The Shell Oil Company has just recently put to work oil well drilling crews south of Half Moon Bay, these new families have just about wiped out all  available places for occupancy.

Sometime in November, it is expected that a new highway being built around Pedro Mountain, between here and San Francisco will be open for travel. This will eliminate about five miles distance to San Francisco over twelve hundred feet of climb, about 286 curves of short radius giving us a modern highway connection along the coast to San Francisco.

It is expected that this will stimulate improvement of our district by inducing more building, some for weekends, and we hope a good measure for permanent residents who will go back and forth to work at their jobs in San Francisco. Rentals are now running, I believe, from about $20.00 up per month, depending upon the type of place.

I hope this information will be of assistance to you and do not believe one could not go wrong at this time with reasonable conservative building.