Bird’s Eye View of Santa Cruz, 1870 [highlights]

Bird’s Eye View of Santa Cruz, 1870 [highlights], A. L. Bancroft & Co. Lith, S. F.

(https://prezi.com/0jzehm8b43q2/birds-eye-view-of-santa-cruz-1870-highlights/) 

Go here for an overview of the "Six Panoramas" project.

These notes accompany a Prezi slide show presentation designed for the 2016 Santa Cruz County History Fair, focused on the most significant features. The “expanded” version includes all structures noted as being built before 1871 in Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture, by John L. Chase (3^rd edition, 2005). The information presented here is from Chase, unless noted otherwise. Text tags shown in the slides are underlined in the text below, in the order of their appearance in the animation.

Slide 1.

This lithograph is an early panoramic pictorial view of Santa Cruz. The original was 30” x 20”. A cropped copy of it hangs in the Archives office at MAH. A larger-than-original-size print hangs in Room 8 at City Hall. When studying this image, it’s important to remember a few things:

1. The airborne viewpoint is imaginary - the artist couldn’t actually see all the features shown from one place. That accounts for many of the inaccuracies.
2. It’s not a photograph. The drawing of most features is simplified, especially those farther away. Some streets, structures and landscape features are drawn incorrectly.
3. The artist manipulated perspective to get a wider field of view. In some spots the result is noticeable in skewed street directions and apparent distance. Some more distant buildings are drawn larger than life (e.g. Holy Cross church).
4. Judging from the inclusion of several structures built in 1870, it seems that this view must have been composed late in the year.  

Slide 2. - Zoom to title.

The “Bird’s Eye View” was a popular type of graphic image in the second half of the 1800s. Many of them have been collected by the Bancroft Library, digitized, and made available online for viewing and/or download.

Slide 3.

The original includes, in its bottom border, a key to 26 items number-tagged on the image. The key is split to left and right of the title. Just above the key is the name of the artist, C. [Charles] B. Gifford. (What is “Delt. S. J.”? Society of Jesus? San Jose?)

Slide 4.

To the right of the title is the second half of the numbered key. Just above the key is the name of the lithographer and publisher. A. L. Bancroft was the brother of historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, and publisher of his historical books.

Slide 5.

Using the number-tags as a starting point, it’s possible to identify a number of historical Santa Cruz features.

1. Coast Road. This is actually Bay Street, originally known as Lime Kiln Road because it was built to haul lime from the Lime Works to the wharf. The 1866 city map has both names. In this view, the shape of the road as it approaches the bay doesn’t show the actual bend that follows the bluff line above the lagoon (see 1857 Coast Survey map in Slide 7).

2. Road to Lighthouse. This is today’s Lighthouse Street. The field of view is not wide enough to show the lighthouse itself (built 1869). The road was new when this view was drawn (not shown on the 1866 map).

3. Davis and Cowell’s Wharf. Henry Cowell bought out Isaac Davis’ original partner A. P. Jordan in 1865.

·        The steeply-sloping upper part of the wharf may be the original “chute” built by Elihu Anthony in 1853, or a rebuilt version of it. Later photos show a less-steeply-sloped upper section.

·        Davis & Jordan added the lower part in 1857.

·        Santa Cruz’ first bridge (also built by Anthony, in 1849). Built with simple piles and spans like a wharf, the low bridge was replaced by a higher truss-type span in 1875, so that the new Santa Cruz Railroad trains could pass beneath.

Slide 6

Detail from the 1866 Foreman-Wright city map (copy in MAH archives). The following features are indicated by arrows, in this order:

• “Bay Street” and “Lime Kiln Road” names both shown
•  “Rountree’s Lane” was the access to the A. L. Rountree lands. Rountree sold Lighthouse Point to the government.
• The future Road to Lighthouse is not shown, as it was not built until 1869.

Slide 7 - back to the lithograph. Moving up Bay Street (with another number 1):

• Rountree’s Lane
• 1869 Bayview School building (SCPL 0546) can be seen at the intersection with Mission Street, where the school’s later incarnation stands today.
• Follow Lime Kiln Road on up to its end at the vaguely-indicated Lime Works – now the main entrance to the UCSC campus.
• The final leftward bend shows today’s Cardiff Place continuing straight (High Street not shown) to the 1864 home of original lime works partner A. P. Jordan. In 1865, the house (now called Cardiff House) passed to Henry Cowell.
• Where Laurel Street goes up the hill, one or more of the smaller buildings may be remnants of the old mission grist mill, first constructed in 1796 (Chase says the mill buildings were all gone by 1866).
• The cluster of buildings with the smokestack is the R. C. Kirby tannery complex, located on Majors Creek – the original Arroyo Santa Cruz and today’s Laurel Street Brook. Kirby moved to this location in 1863. The middle of the smokestack is about where Emily’s bakery stands today. Another view of the Kirby tannery can be found on page f14 of Elliott. Note that Elliott’s 1879 view shows considerable differences in the tannery buildings.

Slide 8

  Farther to the right:

• In 1870, Walnut St ended at Mission, with a short private drive beyond.
• The approximate creekside location of the Joseph L. Majors mill (grist) is perhaps indicated by the disembodied mill wheel (There are photos and drawings of the mill in Marion Pokriot’s biography of Majors).
• On the higher terrace, the one large house may represent the one Majors built.

Slide 9

  Beach Hill and vicinity:

4. Laurel Street Public School. An 1862 Santa Cruz Sentinel article noted that construction of a school was underway. The school is shown at the corner of Laurel and Washington, where the park is now.

5. Pacific Avenue. – called Willow Street before 1866. The evenly-spaced trees shown around the junction with Laurel St could be some of the last remaining willows, originally planted by the padres to delineate and fence the mission’s food-crop fields.

Notice also how the wide bend of the San Lorenzo River, unconstrained by today’s levees, swung over almost to Pacific Avenue near the end of Laurel St.

6. California Powder Company’s wharf. Originally built by David Gharkey in 1857, the wharf was acquired by the Powder Co. in the 1860s. Powder Company buildings cluster around the top of the wharf near today’s intersection of Main and 1^st (back corner of La Bahia). For more wharf info, see the article by Frank Perry, Barry Brown, Rick Hyman, and Stan Stevens (http://limekilnlegacies.com/pdfs/Notes-on-Santa-Cruz-Wharves.pdf).

Note: 2^nd Street – shown running behind the Powder Company warehouses - provided the only road access to Beach Hill in 1870 (from Pacific), and is not shown clearly in this view. Neither Beach Street nor Riverside Avenue existed.

• Powder storage. The small box structure off the side of the wharf was added by the powder company for storage of explosives awaiting shipping (thanks to Frank Perry for that tidbit).

Slide 9 (cont.)

  Also in this area:

• Blackburn residence, built c.1854. The location shown, opposite the end of Washington Street, is too far west. The structure remains today as the Blackburn House hotel, located between today’s Center and Cedar Streets.
• Chinatown. The 1^st Santa Cruz Chinatown was on the west side of Pacific between Lincoln and Elm. The structure with a smokestack may be the cigar factory located in that area.

Slide 10

  All of the early downtown Protestant churches are in this view:

7.   Episcopal Church. 1865 Calvary Episcopal is the oldest Santa Cruz church building still standing.

8.   Congregational Church. Church Street got its name because this 1858 church was built on it, located between Cedar and Center streets.  

9.   Unity Church. (1868) Built on Walnut Street, just off Pacific (See SCPL photo #339).

10.  Baptist Church. On Locust Street, up on the terrace, built in 1867 (later moved to Center St). Note that both Locust and Union streets continued up the hill at this time, and Union appears to have steps on one side.

11.  Methodist Church. Shown is the second iteration of the town’s oldest Protestant church, built in 1863 at the corner of Mission and Green streets.

Also in this area:

• Boston and Jones (formerly Kirby and Jones) tannery, with the tall smokestack, which developed from the original mission tannery. Boston’s widow closed the tannery for good in 1875 and subdivided the land, but the 60’-tall smokestack remained for another ten years. Homes nearby included:
• R. C. Kirby (1850s), still standing at 117 Jordan St. – not shown.
• Rafael Castro-Joseph Boston (1836 adobe with frame 2^nd story added). Formerly located on today’s High Street, it may be the large structure partly visible behind the tannery. Note that High Street is not shown to the west beyond this point.
• Alexander McDonald house (1867), still standing at 330 High St. This may be one of the two structures shown to the left and behind the tannery.
• John B. Perry (1850s), still standing at 114 Escalona Dr. (then called Davis St.) It may be the one house shown on the short street in front of the tannery. Perry designed and built many early frame buildings, including Cardiff House and the 1866 County Courthouse.
• Pope House hotel on Mission Street (see SCPL photo 0019). The street to the left appears to be today’s Storey Street, which no longer connects with Mission.
• Field. The Storer and Lucy Ann Field house (early 1860s) remains today, at the top of the Locust Street stairway.
• Kunitz. Johann Kunitz moved his soap and glue factory to River Street before 1872, when F. A. Hihn built his mansion. This block is now the City Hall complex.

Slide 11

  Mission Hill:

12.  Roman Catholic Church.  Shown is the wooden Holy Cross Church built in 1857 (see Elliott, p.f6).

• The repaired remainder of the adobe chapel, with a wooden façade, is to the right.
• Adobe?. The location and shape of this building suggest that it may be a small remaining section of one of the long mission residence buildings, similar to the Neary-Rodriguez adobe. The building is included in the mission model on display at Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park.

13.  Upper Plaza. Note the lack of any landscaping at this date. According to Chase, the area had just been remodeled in 1870. Streets were laid out on three sides of the plaza and the old mission water supply ditch was under-grounded.

·        The 1850s Alzina house still stands on the plaza.

14.  Mission Street.

15.  Sisters’ School.  The second home of the Sisters of Charity School.

·        The school’s previous home can be seen behind the newer. The old adobe “juzgado” had previously been repurposed and enlarged as William Blackburn’s Eagle Hotel in 1848 (see Elliott, p.f6). The Sisters first used it as a school, then as a student dormitory, and finally as a convent.

·        Neary-Rodriguez adobe – originally one of the mission neophyte dormitories. The street shown parallel to the near side did not exist.   

16.  Public School. Shown is the first Mission Hill School, built in 1857 and replaced in 1875.

17.  Temperance Hall. A public meeting hall built in 1861 by a local temperance society (see photo in Chase p.87).

Also:

·        Schwartz - 214-222 Mission. – Louis Schwartz built three 1½ story houses in 1867 that remain today.

Slide 12

Downtown:

18.  Lower Plaza. Many buildings are identifiable from photos.

·        Pacific Ocean House hotel (1865). Next door on the right: Lulu Carpenter’s (1865), which remains today.

·        Across the street is the Zoccoli’s building (1866), which remains today (see SCPL photo 0093).  

19.  Stage Road to San Jose – Water Street bridge, first across the San Lorenzo River at Santa Cruz. Shown is an early iteration of the bridge, built on piles.

20.  IOOF Hall and Post Office. The building indicated is not what we remember today as the Oddfellows building (where the town clock was originally), which was not built until 1873 - on the other side of Pacific. A photo in Chase (p.143) shows this building but the text does not identify it. Partly visible behind is the 1868 Duncan McPherson building, which still exists.

21.  County Courthouse – This is the first courthouse, built in 1866. It burned down in 1894 and was replaced by the “Cooper House” building. The empty corner of Cooper and Main is where the Octagon building is now. (See photo in Chase, p.178)

22.  Main Street. The first city street map (Foreman and Wright, 1866) showed the name changed from Main to today’s Front Street, but no doubt many still called it Main Street in 1870. The section south of Cooper Street was still relatively new in 1870 (see SCPL photo 0093) 

23.  San Lorenzo River - meandering prettily but prone to flooding before levees.

25. Branciforte River. Now called Branciforte “Creek”, it retained the name of the original Spanish pueblo.

·        Ford 1. The old ford can still be seen at Branciforte Creek / San Lorenzo. The location marked ford 2 appears to be another ford.

·        Bridge. Brand-new (in 1870) wharf-style bridge at today’s Soquel Avenue, replaced in 1874 with a covered bridge.

Slide 13

  Ocean Street area:

19.      The second “19” label is on today’s north Ocean Street, just above the intersection at Water Street.

24.      Watsonville Road. Today’s Soquel Avenue follows the old Spanish road.

·        The horse-drawn wagon is starting up the hill from the intersection of today’s Ocean St. and Soquel Ave., past the first Branciforte School (today’s Branciforte Plaza).

·        At far right, Branciforte Avenue (original main street of Branciforte) follows the top of the bluff.

25.      Branciforte River. The second “25” is a short distance upstream from the bridge at Water Street.

Slide 14

  River mouth area:

23.  San Lorenzo River. The lower river didn’t yet have any roads following its frequently-flooded shoreline in 1870, and Ocean Street simply ends at river’s edge. There was no railroad bridge crossing the river near its mouth until 1875.

·        Barson. Fred Barson had just bought this property, and had not yet built the Riverside Hotel (1877).

·        Beach Flats. Nothing built there in 1870.

·        Ocean View Avenue was laid out the next year. Ocean Villa (shown prominently in the 1876 Trousset painting) was built at the end.

26.      Bathing House –The structure shown is not one of the more-permanent “baths” (e.g. Dolphin, Neptune) built later and closer to where the Boardwalk is now. The rope or cable shown extending out into the surf was a safety precaution, in the days before lifeguards.

• The artist? Many landscape artists put themselves somewhere in the scene.