No substantive changes in this update, just some additional detail in spots. It's fun that, by the time we reach post #49, each post contains multiple links back to earlier posts. That's my ultimate goal - to create a Wikipedia-like web of interlinked articles, photos and other information on Santa Cruz History that replicates my own journey of discovery from one source to another to another.
The Rise and Fall of Swanton House: 1883-87 (Dec. 14, 2013)
The middle years of the 1880s saw continued growth and
transformation in Santa Cruz .
Improved building techniques and more skillful local builders allowed
ever-larger buildings. In 1883, successful livery stable owner A. P. Swanton
(father of the more famous entrepreneur Fred) jumped into the hotel business
with the three-story Swanton House at the corner of Front and Water Streets.
The first photo above shows the brand-new building with its
brand-new bituminous rock street paving out front. To the right, you can see
the much-smaller 1851 Santa Cruz Hotel.
To get an idea how downtown was changing, compare with the early 1860s panorama view
of Front and Pacific (at left). In that photo, the Santa Cruz Hotel is the tallest
structure in sight, or at least as tall as the brand-new brick "flatiron" building across Front Street.
Unfortunately, Swanton House established a negative sort of
record that has perhaps never been equaled. The new hostelry lasted only three
years before it burned down. That 1887 fire also claimed the venerable Santa
Cruz Hotel next-door and the Franklin House (1859) - next building along Front
Street .
The intense heat and embers from the fire
endangered other nearby buildings but, with the help of the volunteer fire
brigades, most of them were saved. This photo, taken at the same time as the one above, shows firemen spraying water on the fire using a hose carried by one of the human-drawn hose carts that were in use at the time. The one in the photo may have belonged to the Alert Hose Company, which had its headquarters just a half-block up Pacific Avenue. Thanks to the Santa Cruz City Firefighters Union for preserving these two historic photos.
After the fire, for some unknown reason, the prime Swanton
House lot stood empty for the next 24 years, until the current Post Office was
built there in 1911. Here's a view of the near-new Post Office in 1917. The gathering in front was an official sendoff for Santa Cruz soldiers shipping out to fight in World War I.
Before 1989, that lot was home to a number of fondly-remembered buildings and businesses, including Bookshop Santa Cruz, Cafezinho, Santa Cruz Coffee Roasters and that funky smokeshop/newsstand/fishing tackle store (or was that farther down the street?), with Kelly's French Bakery behind (the two rear buildings were not damaged in the earthquake, but were demolished later in preparation for new construction that never happened). My favorite off-street al fresco dining deck was in the middle. Unfortunately, with real estate values being what they are now, whatever is eventually rebuilt there will probably be a four-or-five story, lot-filling monolithic block (sigh).
