Historic Sights in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz
Scenes from The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake | The California Powder Works

Bent but not broken, Santa Cruz, like the flagpole above the Cocoanut Grove, got straightened out after the Loma Prieta Earthquake. It took most of a decade for downtown to get back to near-normal, and some projects are still underway more than ten years later.

Badly shaken by the Loma Prieta Earthquake, Santa Cruz looked forward to a big rebuilding job. This man stood on the Soquel Avenue bridge four days after the big shake.

Downtown Santa Cruz was heavily hit by the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

More than a century before, on April 12, 1894 a fire of immense proportions had reduced most of downtown Santa Cruz to ashes. In the wake of that event, updated building codes called for non-combustible masonry. The ancestors of the Yankees who rebuilt downtown of brick had been in New England or Europe in 1800 when a big earthquake terrified one Spanish mission priest so badly he had to be replaced. Another in 1865 had shaken the combustible, but flexible, wooden buildings of that era's downtown without causing much damage. The unreinforced brick structures built after the 1894 fire were easy for the October, 1989 shaker to knock apart. Santa Cruz was caught in the web of history... but not tightly enough to know that its past was its future.


A landslide filled southbound Hwy 17 at Patchen Pass after the Loma Prieta quake. The road was closed to all but essential traffic for weeks.	A few homes in Santa Cruz, as well as other areas were damaged beyond repair by the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.

The Loma Prieta earthquake caused disastrous structural damage in several noteworthy locations in Santa Cruz County and points north. The majority of the population lost power and water for a period of time, but not their homes. Most Santa Cruzan's experience of the Loma Prieta quake was like this man's: damage and inconcvenience. After some period of time, most folks got more philosophical about the terror. This man seems to have gotten there sooner than most, but he only lost a chimney.

The California Powder Works,
On the Site of Contemporary Paradise Park

The Civil War interrupted flow of commercial goods from the east, and a key commodity in those days was blasting powder (a.k.a. gunpowder).

The beginning of our tour. This “U” shaped concrete bunker was a powder-grinding building. The walls are feet thick, built to withstand an accidental blast. The roof and one side of these bunkers was left open to direct the force of the blast in a direction where it would do little harm.

Many of the former grinding bunkers have been converted to garages or, like this one, homes.

The clever building strategey did not prevent all injuries. On April 26, 1898, the day Santa Cruz got the news that the US was at war with Spain, the Powder Works suffered an explosion so huge that windows were shattered downtown, two miles away. Nine of the dead, all Irish, are buried under this marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery. At least 12 were killed, but nobody was ever sure of the exact count.


Class members John and Lynne Caldwell emerge from a drive shaft tunnel. To reduce the risk of spark touching powder, the drive mechanism was built underground. This tunnel originally held metal drive shafts that transmitted water power to the grinding wheels above the floor. This is now the basement of a home in Paradise Park. Our thanks to the homeowner who invited the entire class to tour his basement!		Dirt on the floor of the basement still contains lots of dark charcoal dust. Charcoal was milled and mixed with sulfur and Peruvian saltpeter to make the blasting powder.

The author, having just emerged from the drive shaft tunnel, poses with a test shell . The Powder Works’ contract with the military required a specified explosive force. Shells like this were fired upriver to test velocity the powder would generate. The shell is solid iron, weighing about 90 pounds.

Our thanks to the classmate who took the camera to shoot this photo.


History student and master of limericks Ross Levoy spends a quiet moment beneath the covered at bridge at Paradise Park. The bridge was built in 1872 for the California Powder Works, and remains in use (with a bit of structural reinforcement) by cars and trucks 128 years later.

Upward view of the Paradise Park Covered bridge.	Walking through the covered bridge.

The house built for the Superintendent of the California Powder Works. Bernard Peyton, who ran the works for years, lived there; his son developed a formula for smokeless powder, which did not give away the location of soldiers using it. Today the house is the office of Paradise Park Masonic Club. The Masonic symbol is visible on the wall to the left.

Historians are strange folks. Just how strange became evident, as Prof. Lydon demonstrated his technique for doing research on the underside of toilet tank lid.

An early 20th century fuel pump still stands in front to the superintendent’s. The fuel was raised into the glass cylinder by means of a hand pump, where the quantity was measured against a marked stick: in effect a giant measuring cup. The fuel was dispensed through the hose and nozzle by opening a valve.