Santa Cruz Survivors: Ten Local Landmarks That Are Still Standing

Big Basin State Park

The August 2020 wildfire devastated 97 percent of Big Basin State Park, including most of the old-growth redwoods, but not all. She is known as the Mother of the Forest and towers almost 300 feet tall with an enormous girth. The old girl has survived a lot in her almost 2,000 years but many wondered if she’d make it through the inferno. Some of the bark was scorched but will have no effect on future growth so that ol’ mother will be here long after we are gone.

Stagnaro Bros. Seafood on the Municipal Wharf

Many of the 1.5 million visitors who visit the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf this year will want a take-away crab cocktail or fried calamari. They’ll most likely get it at Stagnaro’s, which began as a small fish market founded in 1937 by brothers Giovanni and Ernesto Stagnaro. Future generations added a snack bar and finally a restaurant.  For a cheap date, grab some chowder in a bread bowl, find a bench, and listen to the barking sea lions.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Built in 1924, the Giant Dipper roller coaster isn’t the oldest ride at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk but certainly the most iconic. Its postcard-perfect silhouette against the sunset has remained the same even though every piece of wood has been replaced over the almost 100 years of its existence. Amusement rides continually evolve with scarier, fancier and more gimmicky thrills, but count on the Giant Dipper to keep doing what it’s always done. Up, up, up really slow and down, down, down really fast.

This funky neighborhood bar has changed locations and names since Frank and Elsa Henfling opened what began as an inn in 1924. Over the years Sidecars and Manhattans gave way to Pink Squirrels and White Russians and now Chocolatinis and endless microbrews. The town’s favorite watering hole almost closed its doors in 2018 but a couple stepped up as new owners and the good times and booze continue to flow.

Watsonville

The dilapidated house is hard to miss as you drive south on Highway 1 and approach the Riverside exit. Look to your right and you’ll see a 19th-century Queen Anne Victorian, an anachronism among the steadily encroaching commercial buildings. Designed by William Weeks, the house has gone through a multitude of owners since it was built in 1887, and many of those years it’s been vacant. Those owners have ended up scratching their heads as to what do with the designated historic landmark, but it may turn out that time, vandals, and squatters will solve the dilemma.

Soquel

This is the little library that could. It looks just like it did when it was built in 1912 with only one room and a big stone fireplace to warm the patrons. The Soquel branch was shuttered in 1978 due to budget cuts and would probably be just another trendy bistro today were it not for the local citizens. Two years later the doors reopened with an all-volunteer staff dedicated to serving the community with donated books, author readings, and ice cream socials. 

Davenport

The Davenport jail was built in 1914 for simpler times when the area’s whalers and loggers were hauled off to the pokey for fistfights and public drunkenness instead of mass murder and drug-dealing. Its two jail cells were only used twice and now serve as a museum that is open Saturdays noon to 5pm.

Watsonville

Martinelli’s has been around for more than 150 years, selling apple juice and sparkling cider worldwide. What makes this business a remarkable survivor is that it’s successful and still family-owned. Unlike other rags-to-riches businesses like Odwalla juice (bought by Coca-Cola and discontinued) or Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (sold to Unilever), it has resisted the fat cats circling and just keeps crushing the apples.

The story is not how long the Capitola Mall has been here (about 45 years), but how long it has been slowly dying to the point where it’s time for hospice. The mall’s arrival in 1977 was the biggest thing to hit Santa Cruz at the time, filled with dozens of chain stores. Since then, Mervyn’s, JCPenney, Sears, the Limited, Kay Jewelers and a whole lot more have gradually disappeared while the growing number of empty spaces host a rotating roster of businesses as one shuts down and another takes the leap.

Merlone Geier Partners became the new owner in 2016 with grand plans to transform our outdated mall as a “destination experience,” the latest trend of an outdoor mix of shops, high-end restaurants, movie theatres and a skating rink or some such unique attraction.

We don’t know what the present owners have planned, as so far soliciting input from the community is about all that’s happened in the last six years.

Seacliff State Beach

The 7,500-ton oil tanker had outlived its usefulness by 1930 and was towed to Seacliff beach with plans to repurpose it for entertainment. Even with a saltwater pool and big dance floor, the venture went bust after only two years. Ninety years of storms and battering waves have worn the S.S. Palo Alto down to bird-poop-laced jagged pieces rising here and there above the water. Although it is no longer recognizable as a seagoing vessel, it’s still here and will always be known by locals as the Cement Ship.