Joseph Silva Neto was born in 1844 on Sao Jorge Island, the Azores. He came to California when he was 20 years old, first working in the lumber mills of Humboldt county. In 1875 he married Maria S. Armas, who was also from the Azores Islands.
Joseph’s brother George had a hotel in Mendocino and, when he needed a hotel clerk in 1878, he sent for Joseph. Not long after, however, George closed the hotel and moved to Stockton. Maybe because he “showed a reluctance to pay his bills,” according to the “West Coast Star” of 1875. Joseph got a job at the lumber company and soon became the planer boss. He kept this job until his health failed. Remembering his experience in his brother’s hotel, Joseph decided to open a hotel of his own.
Neto Hotel, 1884 – 1890. (Gift of Emery Escola)
The Neto Hotel was completed in 1884 on west Main, east of Woodward Street, on the same property the Big River House had occupied before it burned down in 1878. Joseph and Maria ran the hotel and served at the bar just inside the front door. The photo indicates that the business was well patronized. [It was the hub of social activity for the Portuguese population until Crown Hall was constructed in 1902. During the winter, many woodsmen made this hotel their home, enjoying the hospitality of the Netos.]
When Joseph died July 14, 1912, his obituary read, “Besides a faithful and most devoted wife, he leaves a son, Dr. J. R. Neto, a dentist in Oakland, and two step-sons, J. L. Armas of San Francisco and R. R. Armas of Mendocino. In the passing of J.S. Neto to the Great Beyond, the community has lost a most respected and upright citizen. He was known among his friends as Honest Silva. His word was as good as his bond.”
John J. Vieira, a 31 year-old friend of the Netos, married Maria Armas Neto on October 4th, 1913. Four years later, when she was 69 and no longer able to work, Maria Armas Neto Vieira sent to the Azores for her niece, Mary Armas. Sometime after Mary arrived, she and John Vieira became “more than friends” and before Maria’s death on December 17, 1929, a son (John “Jackie” Vieira) was born to Mary. Mary and John married soon after Maria died. The situation was only discussed sotto voce in Mendocino, but it has lived in people’s memories long enough to appear in the files of Mendocino Historic Research.
[In 1946, John Vieira had the upper story torn off the hotel and the bar fronting on Main Street removed, replacing it with a sunporch. The Beacon reported, “What was once the Neto Hotel, but is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Vierra [sic], is being made into a cozy cottage under the supervision of Herman Fayal. The second story has been removed making a one-story structure. The original lobby and bar room which was flush with the sidewalk on the front has been removed and a smaller sun room added. This will allow more yard space. When finished it will make a very attractive home in that section of the town.”]
After John Vieira died in 1951, Mary Armas married Joseph Vieira, John’s brother. The Neto hotel was remodeled again in the 1960s, when the upper deck was restored. [Today, the Neto Hotel building is the home of Mendocino Sandpiper.]
— Excerpted and annotated from “Mendocino’s Hotels & Saloons,” by Dorothy Bear and Beth Stebbins, Mendocino Historical Review, June, 1980.
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