a portrait of santa cruz, part 2 - around town

This post is part of a series. To read the first post, click here. To see more Santa Cruz photos, click here.

EVERYDAY VIEWS

I have spent almost ten years walking around this town. I've never owned a car since moving here. I've always chosen habitations that would allow me to get to all the important things by hoofing it and taking the bus. The scenes pictured in this post are some of the most familiar sights in my daily life, so familiar that they are almost invisible to me now.

That's why it surprised me to realize that I had almost no photos to submit for the downtown Santa Cruz portion of our assignment. The City of Santa Cruz had asked us for shots of landmarks like the fire station, the historic homes on Walnut Street, the red church. I do frequently carry a camera with me, and I take pictures of things I see, but not, I discovered while looking at my archives, the items on their list. Photos of the ocean I had in plenty. Flowers, sure. Photos of the architecture? Very few. I had to go out and shoot the town from scratch. 

I was glad their list was comprehensive. It presented me with the perfect opportunity to study my town from the visitor's point of view, as if I were compiling a tourist's guide. A few afternoons of strolling around looking at the background scenery of my life, and I had what I needed to complete the photo project. As I took pictures of buildings I became increasingly aware of how little I knew about the history of Santa Cruz. How did it come to be the picturesque and progressive town it is now?

EARLY SANTA CRUZ

I decided to study up a bit on the history of Santa Cruz, and started trawling the library and the internet in search of easily digested tidbits of information. The more I read of this city's complex history, the more interesting it got. As I described in my earlier post about nearby Costanoa, this area was originally inhabited by various Ohlone tribes. Actually, that's not quite true. There were people here even earlier than that; archaeological evidence shows that people lived here as far back as 12,000 years ago. But we'll start with the Ohlone to keep this post from getting too long, and to keep me from sounding too ignorant. I did read a book recently about the history of native people in California, and it did cover those residents of 12,000 years ago, but I don't trust my memory enough to tell their story here.

The origin of the name Ohlone is uncertain; it was taken on by descendants of the surviving native coastal people to replace the Spanish-derived “Costanoan” appellation. The specific people who lived near where Santa Cruz is now located were called the Awaswas. They survived by hunting and gathering, relying on relatively plentiful plant and animal life in the area. Using their own acquired knowledge and tools to enhance the productivity and usefulness of their land, they made their home here for several thousand years, creating culture and lifeways that have unfortunately almost completely disappeared by now.

The Awaswas population numbered about six hundred in 1769, when the Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portola stumbled into the area while searching for Monterey. Portola named the San Lorenzo river and called the hills above it Santa Cruz, Spanish words meaning "holy cross." In the years to come, the Spanish built a mission here, and many of the Awaswas people were moved into it to be baptized and educated as so-called "neophytes" in the Catholic faith. As happened elsewhere in California, native people were not permitted to return to their ancestral lands once they had moved into the mission. Instead, they were "converted" and used for labor. Spanish-borne diseases killed many of the native population, and the efforts of Mission Santa Cruz wiped out much of the original culture and languages.

Today the descendants of the Awaswas are part of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. They are on the waiting list for official federal recognition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They're also active in preserving sacred sites and educating people about culture and history that would otherwise be forgotten.

TWO VERY DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES

Less than a decade after Mission Santa Cruz was established in 1791, another settlement called Villa Branciforte was created in the east side of Santa Cruz, right where the Branciforte Small Schools Campus is now located. Villa Branciforte was a civil settlement, outside the bounds of the Catholic Church, and was often at odds with Mission Santa Cruz. This civil center was one of only three established in Alta California– the other two became Los Angeles and San Jose. This post was meant to keep Spain's colonial foothold in the area and protect its conquest from encroachment by the Russians, the English, and the French.

The plan was for retired soldiers to live there, but instead, the first residents were convicts escaping from the law. Located less than a mile from Mission Santa Cruz, Villa Branciforte was a disturbing presence from the perspective of the padres. The two settlements trusted each other even less after a pirate attack in 1818. While the mission residents were running for the hills and hiding out at other missions, the villa colonists were supposed to collect and guard the mission's valuables. A gang of bad guys robbed the place where the goods were being stashed, and their actions were initially blamed on the villa's leadership. A massive argument followed that took a while to clear up. Even before this incident, the mission considered Villa Branciforte to be a terrible influence on the native people the Church was attempting to educate.    

Villa Branciforte never received adequate support from Spain, and in 1802 all help to these colonists was cut off. Still, they managed to keep the colony going for generations, and residents experienced more independence and democracy than was found at the time in California missions, Spain or Mexico. The colony's population rose and fell, with many colonists moving elsewhere to more thriving villages. Independence from Spain in 1821 put Mission Santa Cruz under Mexican control, but the Mexican government couldn't afford to keep the missions going. In 1834, Mission Santa Cruz was secularized and its land sold to Mexican citizens. Its adobe buildings, remnants of the mission era now gone, became the core of early Santa Cruz. The mission was merged with Villa Branciforte under the name of Pueblo de Figueroa, but the name didn't stick.

Over the next few decades, immigrants from America streamed into the area, an influx that was expanded even more by the Gold Rush of 1849. California was transferred to the United States from Mexico by treaty in 1848, and in 1850 it became the 31st of the United States of America. Now Americans rushed to acquire Mexican land grants here, often through dubious means, and began industrial endeavors in various locations. People had spotted the economic potential of the abundant natural resources here, and the landscape began changing rapidly.

THE INDUSTRIAL AGE BEGINS AND ENDS

By 1880, a mere thirty years after California's acceptance as a state, Santa Cruz had already become a well-known center of manufacturing. Things made here included lumber boards, lime for use in building, flour, sugar, glue, furniture, and tanned leather. Explosive powder was also produced, at the largest, most well-known manufacturing facility, the California Powder Works. Commercial fishing was yet another important factor in the city's economic beginnings. During the second half of the 19th century, Santa Cruz began to look far different from how it had appeared for thousands of years. Streets were laid, buildings erected, and the basic physical orientation of the city was established.

Santa Cruz became increasingly connected to the rest of the world during this time, which enabled it to grow quickly. Back then, the city boasted five shipping ports. Railroads came along between 1860 and 1880, linking Santa Cruz to the Southern Pacific Railroad and the South Pacific Coast Railroad. Business was booming, and some people were becoming millionaires. The possibilities for growth seemed limitless at the time, thanks to the river, abundant forests with their redwood timber and tan oaks, and limestone deposits. 

While this manufacturing frenzy was happening, the tourist industry was getting its start, prompted by attention from the San Francisco Bay Association. They held their convention here in 1862 in an attempt to avoid the frenzy of Civil War mobilization in San Francisco, and returned praising the beauty of Santa Cruz. The beginnings of Santa Cruz resort development were soon to follow. While local businesses were turning out timber and leather and gunpowder, railroads were bringing in tourists from inland cities, and locals were devising ways to entertain them and part them from their money.

For a few decades, Santa Cruz seemed to enjoy the best of both worlds, but the manufacturing-based prosperity was not to last. It only took about 60 years for this town to strip the hills almost completely bare of trees, and this shortatge cramped the capacity of industries that relied on timber for fuel and materials. Scientific advances in generating electrical and steam power, plus the completion of the railroads, meant that some industries disappeared or moved to urban centers. As the twentieth century began, manufacturing in Santa Cruz gave way to tourism.

At the same time, people began to make efforts to protect the trees that manufacturing had threatened, realizing that the scenic beauty of the area must be preserved if tourism was going to be a successful source of income for the town. This was the beginning of a conservation movement that gained strength as the years went by.

TOURISM AND THE BEACH

Efforts to attract tourists to Santa Cruz began in the 1860s, with the construction of various bath houses at the then-preferred swimming spot, the San Lorenzo River mouth. These bath houses offered heated saltwater tubs or pools and rented out swimsuits, beach tents, and umbrellas. 1868 saw the construction of Dolphin Baths by the Leibbrandt brothers, just east of where Neptune's Kingdom on the Boardwalk now stands. This venue featured a much bigger pool than had previously been built in Santa Cruz, and it was also the first saltwater plunge in the West. The plunge was heated by steam power and featured steam-powered calliope music next to the pool. Steam-powered calliope music! Can you imagine? I wish I could go back in time and experience it.

Early tourism in the city was greatly helped by the fact that Santa Cruz was becoming connected to the rest of the world by railroad. Also helpful was the sudden new popularity of swimming, which had been unknown to most people before then, as the Victorian moral code had declared it an improper, too-sensuous activity. Now it was considered healthful, and people were clamoring to learn to swim. Dolphin Baths offered swimming lessons, staged competitions, and attracted thousands of tourists to the area. The Leibbrandts expanded their business with funding assistance from Fred Swanton, making it a major vacation destination.

Dolphin Baths was the foundation of what would eventually be the first Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Eventually the Dolphin merged with a competitor, Neptune Baths, and was bought out by Fred Swanton, who dreamed of creating a lucrative tourist playground. This Brooklyn-born, Santa Cruz-raised businessman, greatly impressed by Coney Island, became the true founder of the Boardwalk. In 1903 his Santa Cruz-Capitola Railroad Company acquired a franchise from the City of Santa Cruz to build an electric railway along the beach, and as part of the contract the company paid two-thirds of the cost of constructing an esplanade there as well. The groundwork was now laid for Swanton to pursue his dream.  

With Coney Island and Atlantic City in mind, he created an amusement park with tent dwellings and traveled around promoting Santa Cruz. He used his business connections to recruit wealthy and influential patrons and customers for his venture, and relied on the advertising power of his railroad to help it grow. A fire in 1906 destroyed the Neptune Casino portion of the original park. An even larger complex was erected in its place, followed by rides and the famous Looff carousel. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk had arrived. Over the years it would acquire more rides, more games, more fried food and a worldwide reputation.  

Tourism in Santa Cruz wasn't just about the beach. Downtown Santa Cruz hosted conventions at three hotels, and this business became a major force in the local economy; the ever-energetic Fred Swanton was active in promoting this aspect of Santa Cruz, too. Tourism flourished in Santa Cruz for decades, but eventually it declined. The Great Depression wasn't too hard on the industry, but World War II caused Boardwalk visiting to fall off dramatically, and the flood and restaurant strike of the early 1950s destroyed the convention business entirely. By 1960 Santa Cruz was falling behind, and needed a new economic solution. 

THE UNIVERSITY ARRIVES

In 1960, the University of California Board of Regents chose Santa Cruz as the location for one of its new campuses. This was no chance occurrence. Local business leaders had lobbied hard and long to acquire the bid, offering 600 acres of land at Cowell Ranch for below the market price, along with other enticements. When the Regents' choice was announced, city officials were overjoyed, expecting a modern research university that would allow the city to grow in population and industrial capacity. New jobs, new housing, a massive revitalization: the city's hopes were high.

Things didn't turn out quite the way Santa Cruz expected. UC Santa Cruz was not a magnet for industrial development. It was a unique liberal arts school, with a pass/fail, narrative evaluation grading system, a lack of fraternities and sororities, and no athletic teams. The students were an idealistic, progressive bunch. The university's presence did help infuse the city with new economic energy, but not to the extent city residents had once imagined. What UC Santa Cruz did transform beyond expectation was the local politics. This happened in part because of the particular timing of UCSC's arrival on the scene.

The first quarter of enrollment at UCSC, in the fall of 1965, coincided with the escalation of deployment of combat troops to Vietnam. The already broad-minded students found themselves increasingly militant regarding this war and a host of other pressing issues of the day, including civil rights and the environment. UCSC became an incubator for progressive, left-leaning views and activism, the most liberal-minded campus in the UC system. As the business leaders who sought unlimited development in the area discovered, UCSC students and faculty were becoming active in Santa Cruz affairs, ready to join with local citizens to block many expansion measures. In 1971, the voting age was lowered to 18, and UCSC students gained new power in elections, able to support emerging progressive politicians in the county. The campus was influencing the local electorate in a politically leftward direction at a time when such a transition was more possible than ever before.

A landmark battle to protect Lighthouse Field from development was won through the efforts of several local activists, in part through the support of UCSC voters. The Lighthouse Field victory demonstrated the effectiveness of community self-government, and set the pace for the next few years of political activity, including the consolidation of progressive control of the Santa Cruz city council by 1981. In 1978, Measure J established county-wide growth management policies. As a result of all this community advocacy, Santa Cruz has been largely protected from environmental exploitation and the destruction of neighborhoods in favor of freeways. The leftist bent cultivated in Santa Cruz in the 1960s remains pronounced and powerful.      

MODERN TIMES

In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake rocked Santa Cruz, stunning residents and causing major losses for local businesses. The Pacific Garden Mall, the downtown shopping-and-lingering oasis that had opened in 1969, was severely damaged; almost all the 19th century buildings in the area were destroyed. The Mall had been an important addition to Santa Cruz. It had brought more commerce to the downtown area, created a public social space, and gave the local counterculture a place to develop. The earthquake that happened forty years later marked the end of an era, and led to a redesign of Pacific Avenue into the street I encountered when I moved here in 2004.  

Recovery from this disaster took years, and involved much debate between progressive and business interests. The rebuilt Pacific Avenue featured higher rents for retail tenants. Some shops were forced to close. I've met many people here who remember the Loma Prieta earthquake very clearly, and they've told me how things changed after 1989. Some of these changes are part of larger trends that are affecting the whole country, such as the tendency of chain stores to attempt domination of the retail scene. Other changes are specific to Santa Cruz, like the ongoing expansion of UCSC's student population and its implications for the campus and city following the university's 1988 Long-Range Development Plan. Santa Cruz is in a constant state of transformation.

When I started this post, I had no idea the evolution of Santa Cruz into its current form would turn out to be so absorbing. I thought I'd just grab a couple of books, do some skimming, and rustle up a few paragraphs to briefly summarize the local history. As it turned out, there were many surprising side trails to follow. I could have gone into much greater detail about countless facets of the city's biography, but I reminded myself that this is blog is for photography, not history. Also, I don't really know what I'm talking about. I'm sure I've gotten things wrong and left out important stuff. Fortunately for the curious, lots of people have written about Santa Cruz online and in print, so if you want to know more, just hit the public library and/or fire up your search engines.

It's been enormously satisfying to investigate and describe the history of a town where so much of personal importance has happened to me. I love having more context for my photos, information that's outside of my own little bubble of experience. Now that I know more about how Santa Cruz became what it is today, lots of stuff I've seen here has begun to make sense.

Of course, some things will always remain a mystery.