Stations: New Brighton

Much like Robroy to the east, New Brighton served as a resort flag stop throughout its entire existence, catering specifically to a hotel and campground situated on a coastal terrace roughly midway between Aptos and Capitola stations. This area had been granted to Martina Castro as Rancho Soquel by the Mexican government on August 2, 1834. On August 28, 1850, Castro partitioned her property between her eight children, with this specific section passing to her second child, María Luisa Cota, wife to Jean Richard Fourcade, a French immigrant who adopted the Spanish name Ricardo Juan. While the subsequent sequence of events is not entirely clear, on January 19, 1863, the Fourcades’ 124-acre property were sold at a sheriff’s auction to Jeremiah David Hyde. Hyde was co-owner of the Santa Cruz Sentinel but left the next year for Visalia, where he became a prominent entrepreneur. His brother, Richard Eltinge Hyde, who ran a mercantile store downtown, briefly took over his brother’s affairs and properties before following him to Tulare County around 1867. Why the Hydes were interested in this section far away from downtown Santa Cruz is unknown—it may have simply been a real estate investment.

Pathfinders at New Brighton Beach, circa 1929. [Courtesy Pathfinders Club of San Jose – colorized using MyHeritage]

Prior to leaving Santa Cruz, Richard sold the property on April 20, 1866, to Thomas Fallon. Fallon, a brother-in-law to the Fourcades, wanted to harvest, process, and ship timber cut on his lands in the Soquel and Aptos forests. Hyde’s property was a perfect solution and was large enough for a sawmill and lumber yard. He also purchased an easement through Benjamin Porter’s adjacent land to the north to allow him to transport timber from his forest tracts to his mill and yard. Down a gully along the east border of the property, Fallon built a road to the beach where he may have erected a short pier. Little is known about this lumber operation or how long it operated.

The Chinese fishing community near New Brighton Beach, likely after it had already moved east toward Aptos or beyond, circa early 1880s. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In 1874, grading crews of the Santa Cruz Railroad wrapped around the northern boundary of Fallon’s property. Even before the railroad was completed in 1876, former Chinese laborers set up a fishing colony on the beach just to the west of Fallon’s property, which soon became known as China Beach. Hundreds of boxes of fish were sent seasonally to nearby Soquel and Aptos Stations, with up to half of the county’s fish exports derived from this colony in 1877. The Chinese lived in ramshackle plank buildings constructed directly on the beach and used shallow hulled boats and seine nets to catch their fish. The close proximity of the colony to Fallon’s property led his property manager to evict the camp in 1878, even though it was technically on Hihn’s property. The fishermen moved east of the property boundary toward Aptos and continued moving annually until forced out of the county entirely in 1888.

Map of the Fallon Estate and New Brighton resort, undated. [Santa Cruz GIS A11-014]

The removal of the Chinese from the beach coincided with Fallon’s second attempt to profit off his scenic clifftop property. In the summer of 1877, he hired Captain J. W. Hammond & Son to run a resort called Camp San Jose, likely reflecting Fallon’s desire to attract wealthy families from his hometown. Hammond built several rustic cottages and cleared and leveled an area for a campground overlooking the bay. He also erected a modest boarding house on the cliff. It provided year-round lodging for guests and its dining room doubled as a dance hall in the evenings. The former haulage road down the gully became the campground beach access path, while a pier was built or the former one restored. Hammond personally ran a charter tour boat service from the pier. The San Jose Republic noted that the beach was pure sand with no undertow, two praises that were repeated over the years.

A group of people picnicking on New Brighton Beach, circa 1910s. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Santa Cruz Railroad probably established its flag stop at Camp San Jose in 1877, though the first mention of it is in the following year. While no photographs or official information regarding a station structure exists, the Sentinel reported in July 1880 that several San José boys vandalized the depot by tearing off the railing. The same article suggest that the structure was not railroad property, but rather Fallon’s. Andrew J. Hatch’s Official Map of Santa Cruz County, published in 1889, also implies a structure was located on the northeastern corner of the estate. The station appeared on public timetables from June 1881, shortly after the line was taken over by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Only the daily train in each direction stopped there.

Santa Cruz Sentinel advertisement for the New Brighton Hotel at Camp San Jose during the time of the Mangenbergs' management, published July 15, 1882.

The Hammonds ran Camp San Jose through the summer of 1881. By the end of their tenure, the resort had seen better days. As soon as Fallon took control of his property, he began making improvements. He planted thousands of ornamental and shade trees and laid out new pathways. He improved the camp’s large barn and outbuildings, and erected a two-story addition to the boarding house that could now support thirty bedrooms, in addition to several cottages. Fallon also probably demolished the pier at this time. A Sentinel article at the time likened the property to Brighton, England, because “as the visitor looks up and down the beach and out on the endless expanse of the ever-moving ocean, he, in imagination, sees the elite of Europe gathered on the deep-sounding sea shore.” Prior to the start of the 1882 season, Fallon leased the property to Kimball & Company, who hired Guido Mangenberg of San Francisco to run it. One of them, although it is unclear who, christened the boarding house the New Brighton Hotel.

Two women posing wearing seaweed dresses at New Brighton Beach, 1925. [Courtesy Capitola Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

The hotel was opened in a grand celebration in June 1882. With the new additions came a bar room designed in imitation of a Comstock mine, which the Sentinel noted “is a beauty in its way.” The Mangenbergs began pushing the New Brighton Hotel as a destination resort, moving Camp San Jose down a line in advertisements. Fallon, either leading the charge or following the Mangenbergs’ lead, announced in December that Camp San Jose would be permanently rebranded New Brighton. Southern Pacific also acknowledged this change from October 28, 1882, when it renamed the station “New Brighton (Camp San Jose)” on timetables. Almost all mention of the old name disappeared by mid-1884. The Mangenbergs only lasted two seasons. They left in November 1883 and opened Avalon Gardens in Capitola the next year. Even before this, Fallon was planning his next move. In fall 1882, he announced a plan to subdivide the property into lots to sell to seasonal campers, much like Pacific Grove across the bay. Fifteen of his San José friends pledged to buy lots. The predecessors of the homes on the beach today may have begun at this time.

Women preparing food at New Brighton, 1931. [Courtesy San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

Still not ready to switch from resort owner to property developer, Fallon hired George Bailey of San Francisco to run the hotel and campground “as a quiet family resort” for the summer of 1884. He also left his bodyguard, Charles Barr, in New Brighton to act as his local agent. Barr assisted Bailey in daily operations there, though he was not known for his customer service etiquette. Prior to the start of the season, Fallon announced that a large and elegant new hotel would be erected. Tragically, these plans would never be realized. Fallon fell terminally ill from liver disease in the summer of 1884 and died on October 25, 1885. Immediately before his death, he leased 35 acres of the property—presumably encompassing all of the resort—to Barr for a five-year-span at $100 per year beginning November 1. Shortly afterwards, Emmanuel T. Trout sued Fallon’s estate to recover nearly $2,000 that he had spent maintaining the New Brighton resort, though when precisely he was responsible for this is unclear. Trout may have been hired to upgrade the property after the Hammonds left in 1881, or he may have served as property manager before Barr leased the property.

Landslide on the Southern Pacific track west of New Brighton along Park Avenue, 1909. [From the Neil Vodden Collection, courtesy Jack Hanson – colorized using MyHeritage]

The aftermath of Fallon’s death led to the temporary collapse of New Brighton as a resort. The name quickly became associated with the beach rather than its namesake hotel on the cliff’s edge, though the boarding house remained a feature until it was demolished in 1939. Despite its seeming decline, in January 1887 the station appeared in Southern Pacific agency books for the first time, while on July 10 it also appeared on employee timetables. However, the station structure disappears from all sources shortly afterwards and was likely demolished sometime in the early 1890s. In July 1890, the resort was subdivided into five lots averaging eight acres each and transferred to Emmanuel Trout, William Fallon, Isabelle Brittan, and Fallon’s ex-wife, Carmel. Following the death of Trout in 1897, Carmel sued his estate to reclaim the property and by February 1898, she had purchased the other three lots. Earlier, in November 28, 1896, the public railroad timetable was reformatted and New Brighton disappeared. It was removed from agency books and employee timetables the next year. Carmel transferred her newly-consolidated property sometime in the early twentieth century to a niece, Amelia Littlejohn, and her husband, Robert Parker, who continued to run the resort as a campground and picnic area.

Map of the Partition of the tract of land known as New Brighton, January 31, 1898. [Santa Cruz GIS 012M16]

The enduring popularity of New Brighton’s beach in the early 1900s prompted Southern Pacific to re-establish the station, although the location was only marked with a simple sign and never featured any services or facilities. It was first listed as an additional stop on employee timetables on December 1, 1901. In September 1907, it was added to the schedule of stations, while in January 1908 it returned to agency books as well. Despite this sudden elevation in status, nothing seems to have changed at New Brighton during this time—the nearby beach remained a tourist destination each summer, picnickers returned year after year to Fallon’s forest for feasting and dancing, and campers continued to pitch their tents on the old Camp San Jose site. The old hotel and dance hall may have returned to purpose, but neither are mentioned in the sources. From all appearances, the resort had evolved into an informal venue for countless summertime events and the railroad took advantage of this fact.

Clifftop cabins at New Brighton resort, early 1930s [Courtesy Harry Kay – colorized by MyHeritage]

Amelia Parker’s death in November 1924 led to Robert’s retirement the next year. The property was acquired by a cousin, Geraldine G. Moore, a granddaughter of Thomas Fallon. She leased the resort to Frank Thrane of San Francisco, who planned to add a service station, grocery store, and ice cream stand. It is unclear if these were ever built, but Thrane built a new dance hall, erected new cottages atop the cliffs, and added an electric-powered community kitchen. In 1933, the adjacent property once belonging to Frederick Hihn was sold to the State of California to create what would eventually be named New Brighton State Beach. The large undeveloped western half of the Fallon estate, which had long served as the Parker family’s farm, was soon acquired by the state and developed into the state park’s campground. The resort, though, remained separate despite the fact that the state park took its name as its own. Over the next several years, waves of Civilian Conservation Corps recruits operated out of nearby Camp New Brighton (the National Guard’s former Camp McQuaide) to build seawalls, nature paths, camp sites, and parking lots for the new state park.

The Civilian Conservation Corps station at Capitola called Camp New Brighton, 1938. [Annual Report of Fresno District, CCC – colorized using MyHeritage]

This heavy activity in the area may have helped keep railroad passenger service on the Santa Cruz Branch alive through most of the Great Depression. Indeed, New Brighton Station survived beyond the end of regular passenger service in 1938. It remained available for excursion trains, but few likely stopped there, especially after the United Stated entered World War II. Southern Pacific petitioned for the station’s abandonment on April 9, 1946, stating that no passenger or freight business had been transacted there for over two years. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved and the station was abandoned on May 5. Because there were no structures other than a sign, there is no surviving evidence of the station today. The area is now heavily overgrown with eucalyptus and ivy.

Map of the Lands of the Potbelly Beach Club, October 1982. [Santa Cruz GIS A80-658]

The New Brighton resort property contracted gradually from the 1950s. Before 1955, the single-road subdivision along Pinetree Lane in the forest Thomas Fallon had planted seventy years earlier was developed. Geraldine Moore and her son, John W. Sinclair, also sold several lots atop the cliff, where they kept their own home as well. Meanwhile, Moore and her predecessors had leased out portions of the beach for shacks and cottages. In an attempt to head off an eminent domain land grab from the state, which hoped to annex the New Brighton resort property to the state park, mother and son sold the beach in 1965 to their tenants, who organized themselves into the Potbelly Beach Club. Moore and Sinclair remained members of the club and residents until their deaths in 1973 and 1988 respectively. The Potbelly Beach Club survives today as a private seaside community, a last reminder of a simpler time when vacationers spent the entire summer at the beach.

Members of the Ludden and Franich families at their beachhouses on New Brighton Beach, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel August 12, 1962. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

Citations & Credits:

• Robert R. Baldwin, “Record of Survey Map of the Lands of the Potbelly Beach Club, located in Soquel Rancho” (May 1967). [Santa Cruz County GIS A80-658]
• Henry E. Bender, Jr., “SP Santa Cruz Branch [SP72]” (December 2017).
• Margaret Koch, “Ripples From The Past,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, 10/21/1973, 21:1-5.
• Sandy Lydon, Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region, 20th anniversary edition (Capitola, CA: Capitola Book Company, 2008).
• “Map of Partition of the Tract of Land Known as New Brighton, Part of the Rancho Soquel in the County of Santa Cruz,” surveyed July 1980 by Wright and Pioda, filed for record January 31, 1898 by Edward Martin, county recorder, by B. R. Martin, deputy recorder. [Santa Cruz County GIS 012M16]
• "New Brighton Road, Soq. Ro." [Santa Cruz County GIS A11-014]
• Ronald G. Powell, The Tragedy of Martina Castro: Part One of the History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation (Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, 2020). [Amazon link]
• Railroad Commission of the State of California, Decision No. 38845 (April 9, 1946).
• Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz Sentinel–News, and Santa Cruz Surf, various articles.
• Southern Pacific Railroad, timetables and agency books (1887–1908).
• Carolyn Swift, "Draft Historic Context Statement for the City of Capitola" (June 24, 2004).