Interior of Ore Bercaw's Surrey Inn, built in 1911 on the west side of Bouquet Canyon Road. Undated photograph. Identification by Reynolds (1992:70).
Bercaw established a number of businesses both before and after he became the Southern Pacific's Saugus station agent in December 1906.
He opened a general store on April 25, 1906, on the west side of road near the Saugus Cafe, roughly across
Bouquet from the depot, and operated the post office inside it. (The post office was previously inside the depot.)
For reasons that are lost to history, the name of the post office — and the town — changed to Surrey in 1906.
Bercaw built an ice house in 1909, followed in 1911 by the Surrey Inn, seen here. The sign on the door at left says Dining Room. Bercaw also bulit a garage, ice cream parlor and family home.
The name of the post office and the town
changed back to Saugus on Sept. 4, 1915.
In 1908, Bercaw, along with Saugus Cafe co-owner Martin Wood and somebody named Osborn, contributed $100 each to build the (first) Saugus School on a section of
Charles and Anita Kellogg's farm. As far as we know, the school was initially called Saugus, not Surrey. The school expanded in place until 1978 when it was
abandoned and sold to a shopping center developer (26111 Bouquet Canyon Road today).