Back in the late ’70s, Dave Wilderotter opened his first Tahoe Dave’s store in Oliver Henrikson’s Tahoe City building with no money down and the agreement that rent would be due when Wilderotter started making money. After two years, Wilderotter moved to a new location at the opposite end of town when he needed more space and street frontage. Henrikson promptly sued him.
“If you weren’t looking to get something from him or make him do something he didn’t want to do, he was great,” Wilderotter said. “He could be as generous a guy as ever, then the next day turn around and sue you.”
Henrikson won the suit in small claims court, but told Wilderotter he didn’t want financial compensation.
“He didn’t want any money; he just wanted to be right,” said Wilderotter. “He said, ‘Give me a pair of skis instead.’ I said, ‘But Ollie, you don’t ski anymore!’ It was all about his pride and what was right in his mind. It got him into a lot of hot water with the community and the county.”
Wilderotter’s story of Henrikson, who passed away on July 8 at age 90, is an apt tale about a man who was known for both stubbornness and generosity, a stern commitment to his beliefs, and a determination to forge his own path regardless of the rules. Henrikson, who was one of the last of the “Old Tahoe” generation, generated both fans and foes by building and managing his numerous properties his own way. But of all his assets, it was his blue and white O.M. Henrikson Poplar Trees Mall at the west end of Tahoe City for which he was infamous. The property, more than half of which was constructed without permits, and thus illegal for occupation, was a testament to Henrikson’s strict anti-government libertarian philosophy. It fostered a decades-long battle with Placer County and caused ire among many residents who yearned for a more aesthetically appealing and functional edifice at the gateway to Tahoe City. Henrikson’s death comes at a time when Tahoe City community leaders are in the midst of a planning and visioning process for the town’s future, and some see his passing as a historic opportunity to reshape the west end of town. But will his heirs cooperate?
The Last of the Last
Henrikson, who was born to Swedish parents in 1922, came to Tahoe at the age of 2. His mother was the only nurse in the Tahoe Basin, and, according to Henrikson’s daughter Heidi “H.H.” Hunter, he and his brother Charles were often left alone while their mother traveled around the lake tending to the sick and injured. During World War II, Henrikson served as a radio operator in the Pacific, where he contracted malaria. He had to take anti-malarial sulfur pills for the rest of his life. In 1948, he married his wife, Carolyn, whom he met in Tahoe through a ski club. They had six children together.
“He was the last of old-time Tahoe, the very last,” said Hunter.
Henrikson’s memorial, which was held at Bacchi’s restaurant on July 18, was a “who’s who of the good old boys of Tahoe,” said Wilderotter. Attendees included such iconic Tahoe names as the Pomins, the Bechdolts, and the McBrides.
“Half of them said he sued them,” said Wilderotter, “but they were still there. The rest ran from him because they owed him money.”
An engineer by trade, Henrikson bought the Poplar Tree Mall property in the 1950s, the first of many land purchases to come. His original intent was to build a hotel for the 1960 Winter Olympic Games.
“We started from scratch, dug holes, did everything by hand,” remembered Carolyn. “We worked very hard on it. We would finish concrete late at night and then bundle six children up and take them home.”
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Henrikson went on to buy land in Tahoe, Truckee, and Northern California, including properties in Crystal Bay, Tahoe Park, Portola, Lake of the Pines, and on West River Street in Truckee, where he constructed a building similar to the one in Tahoe City. In the 1970s, the U.S. Forest Service used its power of eminent domain to take Henrikson’s property at the entrance to Squaw Valley, where he had a sand and gravel quarry. He sued the government, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Henrikson lost.
When Hunter was asked if this event helped to shape her father’s strong libertarian beliefs, she said no.
“He has always been a man of his beliefs, and always stood up for it,” she said.
It’s My Property
Standing up for his beliefs often put Henrikson at odds with local government. In the 1980s, he added a second floor to the Tahoe City building — a ramshackle structure of white stucco, blue metal railings, red and blue trim, and a bright turquoise, corrugated tin roof — and in the ’90s he built a swimming pool, which remains empty, all without permission from Placer County. In 1993, a judge ruled that the second floor could not be occupied, and because of that and other unresolved issues, the county stopped issuing new business permits for a while. That’s one reason the popular Naughty Dawg restaurant and bar closed in 2004 after 11 years in business — it was unable to get the permits to expand. That year, Henrikson put up a sign on his property that read: “All I wanted from the fascists was fairness.”
“Mr. Henrikson didn’t like working within the system,” said Lolly Kupec, who did consulting work for Henrikson to develop a sign, color, and landscape plan for the building. (The plan was never implemented due to unclear property lines.) “He worked right to the edge of the envelope; he pushed it as far as he could.”
Alan Breuch, an associate planner for Placer County Code Enforcement for more than 14 years, had frequent encounters with Henrikson. He recalls the time he got a call from the fire district after Henrikson had set the building’s trash on fire because he didn’t want to pay for more trash pick-up. In the early 2000s, despite his illegal second floor addition, Henrikson tried to build a third level. Breuch went to the district attorney and got an injunction for him to stop.
“He didn’t like to be told what to do,” said Breuch, now the county’s supervising planner. “He liked to have his own agenda. Regulations were a bump for him.”
Despite Henrikson’s contentious relationship with Placer County, his offer of cheap rents and his willingness to give tenants a break helped many Tahoe City businesses get started before moving to bigger and better locations. These include Ryrie’s Gallery & Frame Shop (now Pablo’s), The Backcountry, Basecamp (precursor to Alpenglow), and Pass It on Thrift. Nevertheless, Henrikson’s refusal to comply with county rules deterred many business owners from entering his building, and fewer than half of the now-legal suites are occupied. The Naughty Dawg space sat empty for five years before the Thai Kitchen moved in after spending $60,000 to get the room up to code.
“He wanted things done his way only; that was the way it was, or it wasn’t,” said Carolyn. “He was consumed by his property. The [Tahoe City] building was his baby.”
The Key to a New Tahoe City?
Henrikson may have loved the Poplar Tree Mall, but not many other people did.
“It’s an eyesore,” said Kupec. “It would be better for the community if the whole building complex was leveled and started over.”
But what should be there in its place, and who gets to decide?
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Tahoe City residents and leaders have been fantasizing for years about the property’s potential.
“We always said, ‘When Ollie dies, what will we do with that building?’” said Wilderotter. “But we never thought Ollie would die. He was going to live forever just to spite the county.”
According to Cindy Gustafson, Tahoe City Public Utility District general manager, in surveys community members have stated that they would like to see more lodging in town, especially a full service hotel, like a Cedar House Sport Hotel or a Marriott. But most importantly, say community leaders, any future plans for Henrikson’s property need to be considered in the context of the bigger picture.
“What could happen there? Sky’s the limit,” said TCPUD Board Chairwoman Judy Friedman. “But we need to look at the town as a whole; it has to be vibrant and dynamic and competitive.”
The opportunity to consider something new for the site happens to occur as the county, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and Tahoe City are all going through planning processes for the North Shore’s future. This includes the TRPA’s Master Plan update, Placer County’s Tahoe Basin Community Plan Update, and Tahoe City’s visioning process.
“His property is central to the refurbishment of downtown Tahoe City,” said Ron McIntyre, who sits on the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association board and has been working for years to improve Tahoe City. “And not just his property — there is a lot needed to redevelop and refurbish in order to bring us up to the standards that a visitor expects to have when they stay in a place like Tahoe.”
With the TCPUD’s purchase last year of the Tahoe City Golf Course, which sits behind the Henrikson property, and the North Tahoe Fire station’s relocation to its new building, leaving its old facility across from the Henrikson building vacant, the opportunity is ripe to revamp Tahoe City’s west entrance.
“The potential for that building, oh man, there is so much we can do now.… If we could connect the golf course to town, that would be fabulous,” said Wilderotter, who co-founded the Tahoe City Downtown Association. “The whole area is a bunch of strip malls. It could be a cool community center or live-work relationship.”
No matter what the dreams of Tahoe City community leaders and residents, it will be up to Henrikson’s heirs to decide the future of the property. His wife, Carolyn, who said she was divorcing him after discovering his extramarital affairs, says the Tahoe City building was left to her; but daughter Hunter said her father’s will designated her the sole inheritor of the property. Henrikson’s other daughter, Aleta Henrikson Okada, said her father’s will may end up in probate. Henrikson’s sons Erik and Gregg did not return Moonshine Ink’s calls.
If the building ends up in Hunter’s hands, Tahoe City should prepare for the property to remain the same.
“I would like to keep it just as it is, as Dad wanted it,” she said. “It will still be there when everything else is leveled. What he built, he built to last.”
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