Instead of a giant box building, Capitola’s Venetian Court is individualized into a cluster of small units, with hand-made texture and artistic touches. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The late great La Bahia Apartments featured several sunny courtyards with intimate appeal, and cloistered seclusion in the midst of an active tourist area. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The Thomas J.
Weeks House at 724 California St. shows the artistic Eastlake details that enliven the facade. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) Fishing camps were popular downtown along the San Lorenzo River.
(Ross Eric Gibson collection) Instead of a giant box building, Capitola’s Venetian Court is individualized into a cluster of small units, with hand-made texture and artistic touches. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The type of Santa Cruz housing over the years may change, due to certain needs and refinements, yet the classics endure for their beauty and versatility. The Gold Rush brought an influx of prospectors to California, overwhelming the laid-back Spanish culture of adobe homes, with a transient population of Americans and others, who wanted to make a fortune in California then return home.
They often lived in tents or erected a wood-frame tent cabin on a platform, or a small miner’s cabin, with bunk beds built into a wall, plus a table and small cast-iron stove for cooking and heating. During the Santa Cruz potato boom from 1851 to 1853, Willow Street (now Pacific Avenue) was a row of farms and tent fra.