50 years ago I always thought East Baseline was a way underrated street There was a lot going on, The things I remember are K/MEN, the Baseline Drive-in, Van Wyk Volkswagen, San Bernardino Racing Equipment, a furniture store owned by the father of Ted Ziegenbusch, a cooler supplier called Desert Service, (and later) Skater Crater.
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The building in this picture is one I always wondered about, because it was really different from all the others, but never knew much about.
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Recently I received a batch of old radio commercials that were run on KFXM and produced by their super sales lady Helen Jones. The one in this video was one of those old commercials.
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The building was built with (mostly) scrap and recycled lumber, and furnishings from many area buildings in 1963. It started out as a restaurant called the San Franciscan. Even though the restaurant only lasted 4 years, judging from Google Streetview, it looks like it is still going strong.
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From what I found in old issues of the Sun, it has 2 fathers. The first one was a gentleman named Ross Browning who the article said owned the White Sands and Dunes in Riverside. The other article when it closed said the person who built is was another gentleman named Sam Howard who said in the article he was the one that owned and built it. I would guess the true story is somewhere in the middle.
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Being a business owner all my life (I started my first one at 11) I always admire people with the passion and ambition to start a business. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, most businesses do not make it. Growing up I always thought that companies like Sears, Penny’s, and K/Mart would be around forever. I always feel bad for people whose dreams do not make it. As one of my mentors once told me “Business is a very risky business”
– Mike Kunert
Arrowhead 