Companies: Coast Drum and Box Company

In the decade after the closure of the San Vicente Lumber Company plant at the northwestern boundary of the City of Santa Cruz, several small agricultural-oriented businesses sprang up along the Davenport Branch on the West Side between Natural Bridges Drive and Almar Avenue. One of the earliest was the Coast Drum and Box Company.

The Coast Drum and Box Company factory on Mission Street on fire, September 4, 1953. [Santa Cruz Sentinel-News – colorized using MyHeritage]

From early in its history, the business had a close relationship with the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company, which was incorporated in February 1923 in San Francisco as a packaging material maker catering to vegetable growers operating along the San Mateo County coastline. The business was initially run by Louis G. Pardini, A. Bartolozzi, R. Tomei, and C. Raffanti. Not much is known of the firm in the 1920s, but its main facility was located on Battery Street until March 1930, when a catastrophic fire leveled the three-story building. The firm rebuilt in Daly City, where it operated a large factory until May 1939, when it too burned down. Though the company continued to exist, it shifted its focus to the south.

The Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company and Colma Vegetable Packing Association plants on fire in Daly City, May 28, 1939. [San Francisco Examiner – colorized using MyHeritage]

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz County, the agricultural industry, especially along the North Coast, was growing rapidly. Artichoke and Brussels sprout, along with peas, had taken off as an industry in 1915. By the 1920s, it required its own packaging plants and related industries. Thus, sometime in the late 1920s, a group of farmers formed the Coast Drum and Box Company in Davenport beside the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The purpose of the business was to make drums, crates, boxes, and hampers for local growers, a task that employed seven men during the harvesting season. In August 1932, the group completed construction on a much-enlarged plant on property they had purchased property from Gilbert Caiocca. This was located on the east side of Davenport across from the main village and was erected by Palmer & Balsiger of Santa Cruz for $1,700. Archie Marracci of San Francisco served as manager of the plant during this time.

Things became more corporate in January 1934 when R. Willis of San Francisco took over the company. While daily operations did not change, new blood from the Bay Area was brought in that shifted the focus of the business. In 1935, Ed Marracci became owner of the company. Yet elsewhere, the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company was making inroads. Louis Pardini was named an officer of the Coast Drum and Box Company by September 1935. In May 1937, he took over, turning the company into a subsidiary of his own firm. Pardini appointed himself president while Albert A. Axelrod became secretary. Feeling that there was too much competition on the North Coast with the nearby Davenport Drum and Box Company, Pardini made the decision to move the company’s operations south.

Aerial photograph of the Coast Drum and Box Company factory, showing the railroad spur with boxcars and the new additions to the original plant, 1940. Photograph by Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Pardini immediately set to work finding a site for a new drum and box factory within the Santa Cruz city limits, ultimately settling on a site near Swift Street on Mission Street beside the railroad tracks. He hired Wilson & Castagnola, a local firm, to build a new plant for $15,762.50. The new drum-making facility and packing plant was jointly run by the company and farmers of the Santa Cruz Artichoke Growers’ Association, who had been advocating for a new plant closer to their fields. As a result, the facility catered to customers from West Side Santa Cruz to Laguna Creek—the boundary of the Coast Dairies property. In early September 1937, the Santa Cruz City Council authorized the installation of a spur across Swift Street to cater to the packing house. The facility was formally opened on September 19, 1937, and Thomas McCambridge, manager of the packing house in Seabright, was given management of this new plant as well.

The Coast Drum and Box Company did well on the West Side. Within just two years, it petitioned the City Council to build a $10,000 annex that more than doubled the size of the existing facility. The new buildings provided space for a dedicated box factory and a paraffin house where Brussels sprouts could be sealed. Due to the destruction of Pardini’s facility in Daly City in May 1939, the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company merged its operations with the Coast Drum and Box Company in Santa Cruz. This led to the year 1939 becoming the Santa Cruz-based company’s biggest year yet, with all of the artichoke and sprout harvest from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz packed and shipped from the Mission Street plant. The company employed around 80 workers that fall, making it seasonally one of the largest employers in the county. Each day, four to five boxcars left from the company’s siding on the Davenport Branch. The cars were loaded with hampers and containers made out of strips of basswood, each of which contained a bushel of vegetables.

The company was it its peak in the 1940s, with few events of note happening other than small fires breaking out occasionally at the plant. A minor addition to the complex was the erection of a machinery shed detached from the other buildings, which cost $5,000 when it was built in 1944. A small addition to the main building, costing $1,500, was made in November 1945. The company broke away from the Half Moon Bay company that same month, with Axelrod elected president and Gladys C. Okerstrom and R. J. Hecht joining as officers. Pardini stayed on as general manager until his death in 1951. A larger, albeit unremarkable addition to the complex came in April 1947, this one costing the firm $9,000. When Maywood Manufacturing Company relocated to Santa Cruz in December 1949, it leased space from Coast Drum and Box until it was forced out in mid-1951 to make room for corporate offices relocated from San Francisco.

More fires and lawsuits over workplace injuries and other incidents dominated the news throughout the 1950s. Emil C. Nissen of the American Box and Drum Corporation succeeded Axelrod as president of the company, effectively turning the business into a subsidiary of another firm. Daniel A. Whitehead, his son-in-law, became vice president and took over as general manager following Pardini’s death. By August 1953, the partners had managed to buy the shares of the Capurro, Chiappari, Falco, Marracci, and Church families, giving them an 80% controlling interest, with Margaret Bard the only notable holdout. Shortly afterwards, a catastrophic fire erupted in a warehouse at the factory causing $25,000 in damages, primarily to nailing machines, two cranes, a small lumber mill, and the warehouse itself. Fortunately, the plant was insured and the warehouse was quickly rebuilt.

A log being prepared for processing at the lumber mill inside the Santa Cruz Veneer Products factory on Mission Street, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on June 17, 1956. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

In December 1954, the company changed its name to the Santa Cruz Veneer Products Company. By this point, Nissen seems to have left the business and Whitehead was in full control. Nissen passed away in May 1967. In 1959, Whitehead made another expansion to the buildings, a $3,000 addition to the main complex to increase its lumber-making capacity to 45,000 board feet per day. This resulted in high quantities of basket bottoms, with excess timber being used for lumber, which was sold commercially. Despite the shift in focus getting the reluctant approval by the city planning commission, the lumber products failed to find a market. Whitehead listed the machinery for auction in 1961.

Aerial photograph of the Santa Cruz Veneers Products facility at its maximum extent, 1965. Photograph by Clyde Sunderland. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Santa Cruz Veneer Products Company ceased to operate sometime in late 1966 following repeated complaints by neighbors over trash smoke and a slump in the labor market . Whitehead trialed running the business exclusively as a veneer manufacturer but this proved unprofitable. He went on to found Dan Whitehead Travel Agency, which he ran with his wife until his death in June 1981. In June 1967, the Santa Cruz Veneer Products property was listed for rent, with the railroad spur included as an incentive. The expansive yard in front of the building was soon leased for storing mobile homes, trailers, campers, and boats. With no patronage, the railroad spur was cut back around 1970 to the edge of the property, only catering to the adjacent Mondo Brothers warehouse. In June 1976, the City Planning Department rezoned the complex from industrial to commercial use, but few seemed interested in using the buildings on a long-term basis. Finally, in September 1983, Mission Industrial Lands, Inc, acquired the property and began its slow transition into a creative arts venue. In 1994, it was rebranded Mission Industrial Studios and began hosting art studios and workshops. Several arts and crafts businesses now use the space for woodworking, sewing, metalworking, sculpting, glass working, and art conservation.

Citations & Credits:

• Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Recorder, San Mateo Times, Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Santa Cruz Sentinel–News, various dates 1923–1994.

Companies: Maywood Manufacturing Company

Everett W. Eyer liked the name of his hometown so much that he brought it with him to Santa Cruz. In 1931, he began producing commercial-grade unfinished furniture from a small workshop in the south Los Angeles suburb of Maywood. The Great Depression caused prices for finished goods soar making do-it-yourself furniture a popular alternative. Maywood at the time was a hive of activity with small-scale industries. But by the end of the World War II, Eyer found himself crowded out. He decided it was time to find a more spacious venue for his business.

Everett Eyer inspecting an unfinished chair with Ed Scofield, plant superintendent, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel August 3, 1955. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

It is not known why Eyer chose Santa Cruz over other options, but upon his arrival in December 1949, he rented space in the newly-enlarged Coast Drum & Box Company warehouse on Mission Street near Swift Street. This site was ideal since it already had a Southern Pacific freight spur, allowing him to ship out products quickly and frequently. However, his rental agreement was only for a short time and by early 1951, the Coast Drum & Box Company wanted him out. Eyer, dependent on railroad access for the profitability of his venture, began searching for a new home along the line.

Maywood Manufacturing's new complex under construction on Thompson Avenue, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel–News August 9, 1951. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

After a few fruitless months of searching, Fred Morris, a member of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, convinced Eyer that it would be better to build a custom warehouse beside the tracks. Eyer recruited new partners in his venture—George S. Morden, Reginald Moore “Pat” Booker, and Mannis N. Dick—who together incorporated Maywood Manufacturing Company, Inc. They purchased 5.5 acres of land at 1115 Thompson Avenue in Live Oak from Albert Knauer. The location had room for a 13,200 square foot warehouse and plant, as well as a small lumber mill. A railroad spur was installed around September, directly paralleling the main warehouse. The entire facility cost the firm around $30,000 to build.

Workers preparing a workshop within the new Thompson Avenue facility, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel–News August 9, 1951. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

The company picked up a new partner in July 1952 in the form of Lottie Henry. Only three years later, though, in April 1955, Morden and Dick left the firm leading Eyer, Booker, and Henry to divide it into three entities: Maywood Manufacturing, Maywood Properties, and Maywood Milling Company. Shortly afterwards, an entirely new board of directors took over, including Kenneth Ferguson, Robert J. Pedder, George A. Andrews, Jr., A. L. McDonnell, and H. R. Ketterbaugh. Eyer remained as manager, guiding the company through its first decade in Santa Cruz. He ran a staff of around 70 employees and produced about 350 separate items, including chairs, desks, cabinets, and dressers. In August 1955, he oversaw a massive $75,000 expansion that saw the addition of over 30,000 additional square feet of space for a conveyor belt system, processing rooms, and a painting annex. The company also expanded into select finished products.

Maywood Manufacturing advertisements, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel February 10, 1970 (left) and February 28, 1971 (right).

In March 1959, William H. Raley took over all three companies as president and manager. He remained at the helm for nearly two decades. By this point, Maywood was producing over 50,000 pieces of furniture a year and selling from more than 600 stores across Central and Northern California. Raley expanded distribution to Hawaii and Alaska, and began trialing plastic lamination techniques. While most products were produced using ponderosa pine, Raley began importing hardwood from Taiwan for use in stools.

L. S. Melindy and Dale Shultz working a machine at Maywood Manufacturing, published in the Santa Cruz SentinelAugust 3, 1955. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

Maywood was not immune to problems. The company suffered countless burglaries and several fires, though none of them were overly successful or damaging. By the mid-1970s, people were turning away from do-it-yourself furniture. Cheap imported furniture and increased family incomes meant that the target market for Raley’s firm was no longer profitable. On September 2, 1977, he sold the business to two couples, James H. and V. Joyce Elliot, and John T. and Caroline K. Shook, all of San José, but they could not keep it afloat. In early 1980, Maywood went bankrupt and all of its equipment and chattel was put up for auction.

A Maywood Manufacturing worker preparing a dresser for shipment, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel February 2, 1968. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

In February 1981, Tom Bowers purchased the property and turned the warehouse into Bowers Park, a light industrial business park. It was probably at this time or shortly afterwards that the railroad spur was removed. Among the first occupants of the former warehouse were SAE Automotive Enterprises, Microalgae International Sales Corp (Miscorp), Light Force Spirulina Company, and Santa Cruz Cabinets.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.968, -121.971
1115 Thompson Avenue, Live Oak

The site of the Maywood Manufacturing Company freight spur began at the end of Thompson Avenue and went west alongside the south side of the warehouse still located at 1115. All evidence of the spur has been either removed or buried beneath dirt and asphalt. Bowers Park remains in use today and is home to several light industrial firms.

Citations & Credits:

• Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz Sentinel–News, and The Daily Breeze, 1931–1981.
• Southern Pacific Railroad records.

Freight Stops: Walti-Schilling Slaughterhouse

Just north of the Santa Cruz city limits along the Davenport Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad between Moore Creek and Shaffer Road once sat an impressive slaughterhouse owned by Walti, Schilling & Company. The company had been founded in 1897 by Frederick Rudolph Walti of Zürich, Switzerland and his father-in-law, Henry Schilling of Oregon. Walti had worked for years running the Santa Cruz Brewing Company before partnering with Joseph Bourcq in 1895 to open the El Dorado Market, a butcher shop, on Pacific Avenue. Walti eventually bought out his partner and then asked Schilling to come on as a new partner. The two incorporated Walti, Schilling & Company on December 22, 1904. A decade later, on July 7, 1914, Schilling died, followed three years later by his daughter and Walti's wife, Frieda. Feeling his age, Walti passed management of the company to his son, Fred Jr., in 1922 and entered semi-retirement. The young Fred Walti had ideas for the company he now found himself in charge of, and the first of these was a substantial expansion.

Workers on the killing floor of the Walti, Schilling & Company processing plant at Orby, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel-News 1953. 

Since the 1890s, Walti, Schilling & Company had owned a slaughterhouse and stockyard on 7th Avenue beside Woods Lagoon and the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. By 1922, this facility had become run down and could no longer keep up with demand. To rectify this, Fred purchased a large 70 acre property near Orby Station on the Davenport Branch from Stella Tolle for $16,000 in November 1922. At this new site, Walti-Schilling intended to build a cold storage plant and modern slaughterhouse on twelve of the acres. It also planned to lease the remaining acreage to two artichoke growers, G Marcucci and P. Guidotti. The initial estimates to build the facility were around $45,000. To help cover this cost, Fred reached out to the United States military in a bid to win its meat contract for all Central Coast military facilities.

New El Dorado Meat Market advertisement, published in the Santa Cruz Evening News May 13, 1919.

The firm relocated to the new facility in September 1923, abandoning its previous slaughterhouse at Twin Lakes. The Evening News described the facility in 1924, explaining that the main building is a two-story concrete structure with eighteen foot ceilings. Wood was only used on doors and window frames to make sanitizing the facility easier. Hot water taps were also available throughout the facility for cleaning. Meat was conveyed throughout the facility on overhead tracks and uncut meat was stored in a room kept at ~37˚F. Employee housing was provided along today's Shaffer Road in the form of cottages which included sewage, tap water, baths, and lighting. 

Advertisement for Walti-Schilling meats, published in the Evening News August 9, 1924.

The company contracted the county's first meat inspector, F. H. Totman, who checked the quality of every animal that passed through the slaughterhouse. At the time, this was a voluntary option, but one an increasing number of customers preferred and that many other counties required. By March 1924, Walti-Schilling was importing most of its cattle from Denver and Omaha, although meat continued to come in from other western states as well. Meat was processed in many different ways throughout the facility, with some salted, some turned to sausages and cured meats, some smoked, and some converted to fertilizer, soap, or other products. In 1925, a bone mill was added to the factory to produce bone meal for poultry.

Aerial photograph showing the Walti-Schilling plant at Orby with the Davenport Branch and its spur, 1953. [University of California, Santa Cruz]

Fred Walti paid the Southern Pacific Railroad to install a 47-car spur track along the Davenport Branch for $3,000. A random week's summary published in the Evening News in 1924 reported that two carloads of cattle, two of lambs, one of hogs, one of crude oil, one of hay, and one of barrels were received on this spur. The majority of meat was shipped out via truck. In 1929, Southern Pacific officially removed Orby as a passenger stop and transferred control of its to Walti-Schilling company, although in 1949 three other businesses were added onto the list of local customers. Orby was removed from station lists in 1954 as part of a slow reduction in the railroad's list of registered stations.

Walti-Schilling beef cows at the stock yard, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel April 24, 1949.

The slaughterhouse at Orby underwent three major overhauls throughout its lifetime. The first happened in 1930. It increased processing times to either 8 cattle per hour, 30 lambs per hour, 20 calves per hour, or 30 hogs per hour, with space within the freezer for 225 hanging beef cattle carcasses. Just a year later, on the morning of December 1, 1931, an electrical appliance ignited a fire in the tallow warehouse beside the slaughterhouse. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the flames and $50,000 in damages were accrued. The warehouse was completely destroyed, as well as several expensive pieces of machinery that were being stored there. Fortunately for the company, the main slaughterhouse sustained only minimal damage. Repairs began at once with the warehouse rebuilt over the following months.

Eugene and Leona (née Hansen) Ranconi on their 50th anniversary, published in the Sentinel March 3, 1970.

A minor expansion followed in 1934 and then, in May 1936, a fire at the downtown El Dorado Market led Fred to abandon the retail wing of Walti-Schilling, shutting down a business that had operated for forty-two years under the Walti-Schilling name. Fred Walti, Sr., meanwhile, died on December 7, 1940, leaving the company entirely in the hands of the next generation. Fred Jr. accomplished his father's dream of winning the Central Coast meat contract during World War II, becoming a primary supplier of meat products to all the Army and Navy bases throughout the greater Bay Area. The company retained these contracts after the war, as well. Fred and his sister Clara Pearson, as well as their children, sold their shares in the company to Ed and Allan Peterson in January 1949, leaving direct management of the facility to their business partner Eugene Ranconi, who had joined Walti-Schilling in 1917. This put an end to Walti family influence within the firm.

Butcher crews hanging up beef carcasses on the overhead conveyor, published in the Sentinel-News 1953.

Now in charge, Ranconi and the Petersons substantially renovated and expanded the Orby facilities in 1952. The project cost $375,000 and the renovations were overseen by James M. Smith and Kermit J. McGranahan. The primary new features of the remodel were a more efficient killing floor, expanded cooler space, and electronic conveyors and sanitary equipment. Statistically, the new facility could now slaughter in an hour either 20 cattle, 40 calves, 60 hogs, or 100 lambs. The freezer could hold 250 beef or 500 lamb carcasses. Walti-Schilling also paid for a permanent meat inspector, Dr. Frank S. Palmer, to be stationed at the slaughterhouse. This had become necessary to secure government contracts, and about 75% of meat consumed at Fort Ord in Monterey was processed at the Orby plant in the years following the war. It is likely that the spur was also decommissioned, although not demolished, since it appears disused in aerial photographs of this time. An earlier statement in 1949 suggested that most of the company's freight came in and left via truck by that date.

Dino Ceschi, Larry Wolfsen, and Ray Pogiatto in the Walti-Schilling plant freezer, published in the Sentinel December 23, 1962.

The Petersons sold their interest in the company to Lawrence G. and Henry B. Wolfsen in mid-1960, although Ranconi remained vice president and general manager. Wolfsen Feed Lots, Inc., owned extensive cattle interests in Los Banos and Dos Palos and its majority share in Walti-Schilling marked the first time that the company had been owned by an outside interest. Early the next year, Wolfsen oversaw a $100,000 minor upgrade to the cooler and freezer rooms, to increase the storage capacity of the facility. Wolfsen died suddenly in San Francisco on December 2, 1962, leaving management of the company to his son, Larry, and brother, Henry.

The Walti-Schilling processing plant undergoing remodelling, published in the Sentinel 1965.

Five years after purchasing the company, the Wolfsens and Ranconi oversaw a third and final remodel of the facility in 1965 when they invested $500,000 to expand the production, packaging, and processing buildings, which were upgraded but not replaced in 1952. Most of the remaining original structures were demolished at the time to make room for the new buildings. The increased capacity allowed up to 1,600 beef cows to be processed per week, making the slaughterhouse among the top three in Northern California. 

Advertisement of Walti, Schilling & Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel September 12, 1971.

Despite the expensive remodel only a decade earlier, the Walti-Schilling plant shut down on July 1, 1977. Ranconi died in December 1973, leaving sole control of the firm to the Wolfsens. At the time, Larry Wolfsen stated that the business “has been barraged with cost increases from all sides. Rising costs to cattlemen has shortened the supply of cattle to slaughterhouses.” He added that the situation was “aggravated by recent labor disputes.” Around 120 workers were laid off but most went to work for butchers in the Santa Clara Valley. Wolfsen Feed Lots, Inc., did not immediately dissolve, however. It remained involved in the farm and livestock industries, primarily in Los Banos, for two more years. On June 16, 1978, the directors elected to dissolve the firm, which was implemented January 15, 1979.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:

~36.9577N, 122.0647W

1201 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz

The site of the Walti-Schilling slaughterhouse is now occupied by Future Motion and the Pacific Shores apartment complex off Shaffer Road, accessible via Mission Street or California State Route 1 northwest of Santa Cruz. Reytek Inc. took over the facility in 1982 and converted the former slaughterhouse into an office building, which it remains today. The site of the spur is more easily accessed from Shaffer Road via Delaware Avenue, although note that the tracks are owned by Santa Cruz County and trespassing is not encouraged. Other than an unusually wide right-of-way along the north side of the tracks, where the spur once sat, no evidence remains of this spur.

Citations & Credits:

• Southern Pacific Railroad. Officers, Agencies & Station Book, 1929-1954.
• Various articles from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Evening News, and Sentinel-News.

Companies: Watsonville Fruit Packing Company

The arrival of the Santa Cruz Railroad to Watsonville in 1876 did not immediately lead to an expansion of the agricultural industry in the Pajaro Valley. Most fruit grown on the Santa Cruz County side of the Pajaro River was still delivered to Pajaro for drying and shipping. By 1887, however, the situation had improved. More people were flocking to the region and the purchase of the railroad by Southern Pacific, which promptly standard-gauged its new line, meant that trains could run without transfer from Watsonville to San Francisco and elsewhere in California.

Advertising postcard for Luke G. Sresovich & Company at the Midwinter Exposition in San Francisco, showcasing the Chinese Building, 1894. [WorthPoint]

The Watsonville Fruit Packing Company was incorporated in June 1887 to capitalize off the growing agricultural industry of the Watsonville area. The initial capital stock for the firm was $10,000. Early the next month, John Kennaugh sold the company 1.619 acres of land between Beach Road and the railroad tracks for $450—below market value. The directors also purchased for $1,100 a twelve-section Fleming Dryer, which George A. Fleming personally helped assemble. Because of the size and style of dryer, it was installed on the property first with the building erected around it. Initial estimates predicted a capacity of 7,000 to 9,000 lbs. of fruit could be processed daily. The building itself was composed of brick and wood with a corrugated iron roof. A mid-sized warehouse was erected near the railroad tracks, likely along a short spur.

In 1887, there was no cannery in the Pajaro Valley and refrigerated boxcars were still in their infancy, so all the fruit grown for export in the region was evaporated (dried) for shipment. Popular local fruits included German and French prunes, plums, peaches, apples, apricots, and nectarines. The Watsonville Transcript hoped that the success of the Watsonville Fruit Packing Company would lead to the opening of a cannery within a few years. With such a facility, a wider range of products could be shipped from the Pajaro Valley.

Sanborn fire insurance map showing the layout of the Watsonville Fruit Packing Company, 1888. [Library of Congress]

The Watsonville Fruit Dryer opened on August 2 with an optimistic goal of producing eight to ten tons of dried fruit per day. Their first production run was five tons of apricots, which was lower than intended because the company only had twenty staff initially. Ultimately, they ended up with between thirty and forty-five workers at any given time receiving an average pay of $7.00 per week.

The first season’s run was an indisputable success. The company paid top rates to farmers for their crops, with crates of apples selling for 25¢ to 30¢, resulting in $250 to $500 per acre profits for apple growers. By mid-November, the dryer had produced 40 tones of dried apricots, 25 tons of peaches, 30 of prunes, and 195 of apples. The success was so great that the company paid dividends of 25% to its investors in October. People in Santa Cruz began clamoring for their own dryer since so many fruits were discarded at the end of the season due to too high demand from farmers.

At the Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics’ Institute of San Francisco in October, an elegant arrangement of a range of local products were displayed including contributions by the Martinellis, Struves, Tuttles, Charles Gallerly, and F. Ceschi, among others. The Pajaro Valley exhibit won a Special Silver Medal award and the Pajaro Valley finally entered the ranks of internationally-known agricultural production zones.

With the first year under its belt, the company planned for expansion in 1888. Its goal was to triple the refinery’s capacity to twenty-five to thirty tons of fruit per day and employ 100 staff to manage the enlarged facility. The dryer’s second season began in mid-July with a large stock of apricots. Unlike the first year, the Watsonville Fruit Packing Company appears to have expanded to working directly with local farmers to dry their fruit rather than buying the fruit outright. At least one local firm, Besse & Still, did this to create novelty fruit boxes for the Eastern market in September. Little else is known about the company in its second season, however. Two Sanborn Fire Insurance maps imply the dryer was permanently closed from February 1888, but other evidence suggests this is incorrect. Nonetheless, competition began heating up with other fruit growers, who saw the financial potential of establishing their own dryers.

Business card for L. G. Sresovich & Company of San Francisco, ca 1895.

June 1889 saw the dryer leased for the season to L. G. Sresovich & Company, a San Francisco-based fruit dealer. Lucas G. Sresovich was born in Dalmatia (modern Croatia) on August 18, 1848 and immigrated to the United States around 1866. Upon his arrival in California, he enrolled in a program at Santa Clara College to become a bookkeeper, a course in which he excelled. He expressed an early interest in the local fruit industry and quickly put his bookkeeping skills to use when he founded L. G. Sresovich Company in 1870.

The earliest advertisement for the company’s wholesale domestic and imported fruits business appeared in the Daily Alta California on June 17, 1872, at which time it appeared to be new. The company based its operations in San Francisco but eventually owned properties across the Central Coast of California. Sresovich achieved renown for its Pioneer brand of desiccated coconut. However, the firm also dried or canned bananas, citrus, dates, onions, and other fruits from around the Pacific Ocean. Their largest market was Hawai’i, where advertisements from the firm appeared regularly in newspapers for nearly thirty years. The company won many awards of the decades for its different fruit varieties and was well respected in California.

Pioneer brand desiccated Cocoanut, sold by L. G. Sresovich & Co., from Los Angeles Herald advertisement, April l25, 1890.

Luke Sresovich first visited Santa Cruz County in 1876 to buy apples that he could pack and ship. Through this and future exchanges, Sresovich became one of the first Slavs involved in the local agricultural scene. Initially, the company shipped fruit out of Pajaro, likely to avoid transfer charges from narrow- to standard-gauge trains. It boxed fruits in rented buildings in Watsonville before shipping them to San José and San Francisco.

By 1884, Sresovich was the largest fruit buyer in Santa Cruz County with apples the primary product purchased. In August, the firm purchased land on Main Street in Watsonville for an apple packing house. It also began leasing and buying orchards in Watsonville, Pajaro, Corralitos, and Green Valley. For the 1885 harvest season, it employed thirty boys to pack 20,000 boxes of apples for shipment. By 1887, it was considering moving its primary drier to Watsonville, but financial problems led to the collapse of his business in late 1887. The company quickly regained its footing and resumed leasing orchards.

Sresovich first attempted to dry fruit locally through its lease of the Watsonville Fruit Packing Company’s plant in June 1889. Curiously, the company did not use the facility much and instead dried most of its apricots and prunes in the sun. In 1890, the firm decided to build a new packing plant in Capitola.

1889 proved to be the last year for Watsonville Fruit Packing Company. A new board of directors was elected in April composed of J. S. Menasco, A. Lewis, Otto D. Stoesser, M. A. Hudson, William McGrath, H. K. Goodwin, and John A. Burton—likely all members of the original board. A month later, on May 13, the directors filed for disincorporation, with a hearing before the Superior Court set for June 20. Why the business wanted to close after only three years is unknown, but several new fruit dryers had opened in Watsonville and Pajaro since 1887. The directors likely wanted to get out while the going was still good and they could maximize their profits. Approval was granted on June 30 and the directors cashed out their shares at $26.70 each, a rich payout assuming the shares initially sold for $1.00 each, as was standard at the time.

The Watsonville Fruit Packaging Company’s property, including the evaporation plant, was sold to the Pajaro Valley Railroad Company, a subsidiary of Claus Spreckels’ Western Beet Sugar Company. Spreckels purchased the property because of its location—it sat immediately beside the path of his new railroad and would provide a perfect spot for the company’s passenger depot and freight house. The Pajaronian suggested the plant was being used for something other than drying in 1890 but would be moved and returned to its original function in the near future. It is unclear what it was being used for but it likely never reopened. The only part of the plant that was used was its small warehouse beside the railroad tracks, which was moved to become the depot and freight house for the railroad. The drier was removed at some point after May 1892.

Sanborn fire insurance map showing the layout of the Watsonville Fruit Packing Company's dryer shortly after it was taken over by the Pajaro Valley Railroad Company, 1892. [Library of Congress]

The Sresovich Company, meanwhile, completed its new packing house in Capitola in 1892 and situated near the railroad depot. It employed around fifteen boys. Its first shipment was pears sent to Chicago, and the Sentinel noted that it was the first fruit ever shipped to the East from Soquel. On average, Sresovich exported two carloads of fruit a week from the Capitola house during packing season. The facility was upgraded into a full dryer by October 1892. By November, the house had shipped out 20,000 boxes of apples, and the newspaper advised growers that Sresovich would buy apples any time of the year. A second packing house was eventually built beside the first to deal with the excess boxes.

For the next few years, operations continued like clockwork, with Sresovich’s fruit buyers leasing orchards or buying fruit stocks and then hauling them to Capitola for packing. Around 1894, the company leased space in M. N. Lettunich & Company’s packing house beside Watsonville Depot. In total, 24,000 boxes of apples shipped out that year. However, competition with other local fruit buyers and growers had become fierce and somebody in the county had it in for L. G. Sresovich Company.

In October and November 1897, all of Sresovich’s fruit packing houses in Santa Cruz County were burned down by arsonists. Over 55,000 boxes of apples ready for shipment were destroyed between the three structures. Undaunted, the company pledged to rebuild, but financial realities got in the way. By March 1898, Sresovich was facing increasing financial problems from years of heavy borrowing during a recession, when fruits were not making as much money as his costs.

A partial recovery may have come through the purchase of the fruit-buying company of his longtime rival, Marko Rabasa, in 1898. By the second half of the year, Sresovich resumed purchasing fruits for export. Business continued for the next five years as if nothing had happened. At some point, the company must have rebuilt its Capitola packing house and dryer because it was set alight again on August 2, 1900. Five days later, the adjacent barn was also destroyed by arson. A new packing house must also have been built in Watsonville since once was operating in 1901 and shipping out 35,000 boxes of apples in 1903. Meanwhile, yet another fire burned down a packing house in San Francisco in November 1901, amounting to $15,000 in damage.

Portrait of Luke Sresovich from his obituary in the San Francisco Call, May 13, 1908.

Despite suggestions that Sresovich was doing better financially, a poor fruit market followed by several condemned shipments in early 1904 revealed that the company remained in substantial debt. In April of that year, Luke Sresovich also suffered a personal tragedy with the sudden death of his wife, Mary Caroline, in a streetcar accident in San Francisco. Bereft and with few options, Sresovich allowed the company to fall into insolvency on April 3, 1905. As before, he soon attempted to revive his fruit empire with a shipment of apples from Capitola to Los Angeles, and he continued the next year by buying a large quantity of cherries in Santa Cruz.

Still, Sresovich was haunted by the memory of his wife. Her estate in Capitola was listed for sale in January 1907, but much of the property burned down in a suspicious fire in May. Suffering increasing bouts of depression from the loss of his wife, Sresovich likely committed suicide during a hunting trip at Brentwood in Contra Costa County on May 10, 1908. Since 1905, his company had operated within Santa Cruz County under the name of his son, L. Geo. Sresovich Jr., but his son sold the company to the Santa Cruz Produce Company in June 1907.

Citations & Credits:

• Circa Historic Property Development. “Historic Context Statement for the City of Watsonville.” Final report. Watsonville, CA: Circa Historic Property Develop-ment, 2007.
• Ninkovich, Thomas, ed. The Slav Community of Watsonville, California, as reported in old newspapers. Watsonville, CA: Reunion Research, 2014.
• O’Connell, Daniel. The Inner Man: Good Things to Eat and Where to Get Them. San Francisco, CA: Bancroft Company, 1891.

Download expanded and fully-cited versions of these articles:

• L. G. Sresovich Company
• Watsonville Fruit Packing Company

Freight Stops: Ocean Shore Maintenance Yard

The existence of the Ocean Shore Railway in Santa Cruz County was in hindsight such a fleeting thing that it is often forgotten how important the project once was to the county. From anticipated electrification of the entire system to a substantial pier at the Main Beach to a massive viaduct over the Southern Pacific Railroad's yards to extensions of the route north to San Francisco and south to Fresno and beyond, the company had a grand vision and aspirations to something great. And while all of those dreams vanished in the fires of the 1906 Earthquake and the financial crises that followed, the railroad did successfully build some infrastructure in the county. The heart of that infrastructure was the company's maintenance yard on the West Side of Santa Cruz.

The Ocean Shore Railroad's maintenance yard near Garfield Park with a locomotive in the engine house at right and the remains of Ocean Shore #2 in the center with its tender at left in front of a passenger car, ca 1910. [University of California, Santa Cruz, Legacy Digital Collections – colorized using DeOldify]

Permission to construct the yard was granted by the city in June 1905 and building began shortly after. The completed yard encompassed several blocks within David Gharkey's old tract between Lighthouse Avenue to the east, Gharkey Street to the north, Centennial Street to the west, and Oregon Street to the south. Through this section, the Ocean Shore's track curved gently southwest from its bluff-top passenger shelter. From just south of Gharkey Street, the track split, with double-track running all the way to Garfield Avenue. A crossover was located near the junction of Delaware Avenue and Colombia Street, although the double-track continued to Garfield, where it stopped abruptly. Presumably, this was the start of the long double-track that was intended to continue up the coast to San Francisco, but only this short section was ever built along the Southern Division. Where the double-track broke off, a second track also detached to form the southern wye, which stretched south to Oregon Street. The wye allowed the railroad's locomotives to turn around without the need of a turntable, which was not available along the Southern Division. The other wye on the Southern Division was located north of Davenport at Folger beside Scott Creek.

Only complete layout map of the Ocean Shore Railway's yard in the Gharkey Tract from microfilm, showing curve angles, spurs, the wye, and support structures, ca 1907. [California State Library]

In addition to the double-track and wye, the maintenance yard had four other spurs throughout the area. The northern most of these, measuring 415 feet in length, broke off from the wye track and crossed Santa Cruz Street where it paralleled Laguna Street before stopping at Monterey Street. Another 450-foot-long spur broke off from the main line near the same place but turned west to stop at Liberty Street. A structure near the top of these spurs sat alongside Laguna but no purpose for this building is described on the only available map of the area.

The final two spurs more clearly related to the engine house and maintenance yard, which was located on the north side of Monterey Street midway between Centennial and Liberty Streets. The spurs flanked the buildings with a 466-foot-long spur snaking over them to the north and a straight 337-foot-long spur cutting through the engine house, with both ending at or in Centennial Street. The engine house was capable of housing two locomotives but no additional rolling stock, and no other covered areas were provided in the yard. Three tanks capable of holding 310,000 gallons of water stood beside the engine house to refuel locomotives. Two maintenance shops in an L shape were connected to the engine house. Most of these features can be seen in the photograph at the top of this page, with a tender and car parked on the longer spur and a locomotive in the engine house.

The yard limits for the Ocean Shore's Santa Cruz operations spanned from the end of track above the Southern Pacific yard at West Cliff Drive to the city limits at Moore Creek and the San Vicente Lumber Company's millpond (Antonelli Pond). Within this area were three stations—Santa Cruz, Garfield Ave. and Rapetti—the middle of which was composed entirely of a small 8' x 10' wood frame passenger shelter located at the southwest corner of Garfield (Woodrow) and Delaware Avenues. This structure served as a transfer point with the Union Traction Company's electric streetcar line between Vue de l'Eau and the rest of its network and, as such, was a regularly scheduled stop. No photographs of the shelter exist, unfortunately.

Subdivision map of "Marx's Property" within the Gharkey Tract, showing details of the Ocean Shore Railroad's freight yard, October 13, 1913. [California State Library]

The maintenance yard was linked directly to the operations of the Ocean Shore Railway and may not have survived much into the Ocean Shore Railroad's existence after 1911. The San Vicente Lumber Company, which had its mill on Shore Investment Company (an Ocean Shore subsidiary) land at Rapetti Ranch beside Antonelli Pond is noted on a Sanborn map in 1917 as having a long car shed and a separate car shop. These were not present in 1911. It is possible that these were or became the new maintenance facilities for the Ocean Shore Railroad in the mid-1910s, especially since the railroad only operated two locomotives at a time on the Southern Division during this time. The Rapetti property certainly served as the maintenance yard after October 1920, when the railroad sold its southern rolling stock to the lumber company and abandoned any remaining stations and shelters in Santa Cruz County. If the original maintenance yard survived until the end of the railroad's existence, it was decommissioned at some point in late 1920 or early 1921. Most of the property remained undeveloped until after World War II, when it was subdivided into housing parcels.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:

36.9580N, 122.0315W

The location of the company's shops were at 404 Centennial Street, which today is occupied by a private home. No visible trace of the Ocean Shore's maintenance yard survives but there are relics that can be found on property lines. Indeed, the entire route of Delaware Avenue between Columbia and Santa Cruz Streets is due to the Ocean Shore's alignment and its subsequent conversion to a public road in the 1940s. The properties that most obviously still reflect the former Ocean Shore right-of-way through this area are 224 Gharkey Street, 403 Laguna Street, 302 Monterey Street, and 301-303 Santa Cruz Street, although the orientations of some structures in the area may also reflect the railroad's original alignment.

Citations & Credits:

• Bender, Henry E., Jr. "Ocean Shore Railroad." December 2017.
• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2007.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Coast. Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, forthcoming.

Freight Stops: Santa Cruz Wharves

The Santa Cruz Main Beach has hosted a total of six piers—all but one erroneously called wharves—since California statehood, and four of them functioned in some capacity as a railroad wharf, although only two were purpose-built as such. Behind many of these structures was an ill-fated dream that Santa Cruz would become one of the primary seaports on the Pacific Coast. The idea was not entirely far-fetched. Santa Cruz was located on the less exposed side of the Monterey Bay, with the strong currents striking Monterey but largely missing Santa Cruz. But the protection was slight and the owners of each pier realized quickly that the current was too strong, the tide too extreme, and the swells too high to safely convert Santa Cruz into a major seaport. Nevertheless, the people of Santa Cruz tried time and again to accomplish the improbable.

View of Santa Cruz, 1876, showing the three piers at the Santa Cruz Main Beach. Painting by Leon Trousset.
[Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History]

The first wharf to eventually support rail was built by David Gharky at the end of Main Street in 1857. It was erected in part to counter the coastal dominance of Isaac E. Davis and Albion P. Jordan from their pier at the end of Bay Street, which was the first to be built along the shore in 1849. Initially, it shipped general goods including the lime products made from kilns not owned by Davis and Jordan. Soon, however, it also became the primary passenger port in the city, stealing that honor away from the older pier. It's bigger victory, however, was gaining the shipping contract for the California Powder Works in 1865, the same year that Henry Cowell bought out Jordan's share in the lime company. Commercial conflict between Cowell and the Powder Works quickly pushed the Powder Works into buying Gharky's wharf, turning it into the Powder Works Wharf. Around 1867, the company also gained the steamship franchise of Goodall, Nelson and Perkins—the Pacific Coast Steamship Company from 1876—which led to many people naming the pier the Steamship Wharf.

Map showing all six Santa Cruz Main Beach piers superimposed atop each other with their dates.
[Lime Kiln Legacies]

From 1865 to 1875, Gharky's wharf was the closest thing Santa Cruz had to a public wharf. It became a major destination point for anybody arriving in Santa Cruz via tall ship or steamship. The town's small fishing community operated along the wharf and at its base. A small village developed on Beach Hill above it, with homes owned by sailors, venture capitalists, as well as port workers, fishermen, and ranchers. Powder Works wagons rolled precariously up Pacific Avenue and over Beach Hill to reach the wharf, endangering everyone but fortunately never once exploding. At the base of the wharf, the Powder Works built a warehouse to store the powder while it awaited final shipment. As the years passed, the waterfront became increasingly industrialized, but the arrival of the railroad in 1875 made the change permanent for half a century.

The Railroad Wharf connected to the Powder Works Wharf via a short, curving length of track, with the Cowell Wharf's tramway in the immediate foreground, c 1880. [Lime Kiln Legacies – colorized using DeOldify]

The backers of the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad had one singular goal in mind when it built its combined flume and railroad network: to get timber cut from Boulder Creek shipped from Santa Cruz to eager markets. But neither the Cowell nor the Powder Works wharves were in convenient locations for the railroad. Thus, the company decided to erect a third pier at the Santa Cruz Main Beach midway between the two existing piers. Charlie and Winfield Gorrill of the Pacific Bridge Company were responsible for building all eleven bridges on the line, as well as the pier, but the pier had to wait until the rest of the line was completed. Presumably lumber was initially shipped out on the Powder Works Wharf before the new pier was completed. Throughout late 1875, the Bridge Company worked on installing pilings and decking, eventually producing a 1,278-foot-long structure that was slightly longer than those of its neighbors. Befitting a railroad wharf, track was installed across its entire length. At the end of Bay Street near the foot of the pier, yet another warehouse was erected.

Abstract sketch of the Santa Cruz waterfront from 1879 showing the Railroad Wharf and its connection to the Powder Works Wharf, with a Pacific Avenue Streetcar at left and a Santa Cruz Railroad train at right.
[W. W. Elliott, Santa Cruz County Illustrations with Historical Sketch]

From 1875 to 1880, Santa Cruz reached its peak as a seaport. Railroad and steamship traffic reached such a high point that in October 1877, a new short S-shaped wharf outfitted with narrow-gauge railroad tracks was extended from the base of the Railroad Wharf to the end of the Powder Works Wharf, effectively converting the latter into a second railroad wharf. This allowed the California Powder Works to move its goods directly onto a waiting steamship and ensured that there were three viable docking locations available with railroad access at any time—two on the Railroad Wharf and one on the east side of the Powder Works Wharf. All of Santa Cruz's commercial products were shipped from the piers and received at them, including lumber, lime, leather, black and white powder, agricultural products, and mail and parcels. Passenger traffic, meanwhile, shifted to the Railroad Wharf after it opened. The piers became so busy at times that the switching horse was brought over from the railroad's freight yard to help shift rolling stock.

Postcard of a South Pacific Coast Railway train on the Railroad Wharf, probably temporarily parked to clear the yard of rolling stock, c late 1880s. [Bill Wulf and Finescale Railroader]

The Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad's takeover by the South Pacific Coast Railroad in 1879 and, more importantly, the latter's completion of its route over the Santa Cruz Mountains in May 1880 signalled the end of Santa Cruz's time as a premier seaport. The new railroad almost immediately moved to hauling lumber, lime, and powder over the new route, with lumber delivered primarily to the yards at Santa Clara and powder delivered to Lovelady (Campbell) for use in the New Almaden Quicksilver mines. The South Pacific Coast had little interest in continuing to service the increasingly dilapidated Powder Works Wharf or its precarious connection to the Railroad Wharf, so it arranged for its removal in 1882. This inadvertently allowed for the expanded commercial development of the beach area east of Main Street. The Pacific Coast Steamship Company continued to operate off the Railroad Wharf for the following twenty years but freight revenue decreased annually.

The Railroad Wharf alone on the waterfront with the Sea Beach Hotel looming above, c 1900.
[Santa Cruz MAH – colorized using DeOldify]

The takeover of the South Pacific Coast line by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1887 signalled a small change on the Railroad Wharf. With two gauges now operated by a single company, Southern Pacific decided to add a third rail to the pier in 1893 during its restructuring of the freight area to unify its local depots. In practice, however, this changed very little since so little freight traffic left from the pier. From the late 1880s, Italian fishermen had begun moving into small fishing shacks and lean-tos on the Railroad Wharf, earning it the nickname Fishermen's Wharf. These structures multiplied throughout the pier's final thirty years. The pier was largely forgotten by Southern Pacific by the turn of the century and all railroad traffic to it was by request only.

Opening day of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, December 5, 1914, by Ravnos. Note the Railroad Wharf beside it at right with fishing shacks dotting the pier. [Santa Cruz MAH – colorized using DeOldify]

Aerial photograph showing the new Municipal Wharf beside the Railroad Wharf, c 1915.
[Santa Cruz MAH – colorized using DeOldify]

The drastic fall in commercial shipping in Santa Cruz prompted the City of Santa Cruz to lay out a plan for a new, longer municipal pier that would kickstart a new era of Santa Cruz as a seaport. Put on hold due to the 1906 earthquake and the recession that followed, movement on the project finally resumed around 1910 and construction ran throughout 1913. Hoping to attract rail customers and passengers, the city situated the new pier directly adjacent to the existing Railroad Wharf, wrapping around the structure as it stretched out to sea. It also installed standard-gauge tracks on the pier with a substantial warehouse at the end to store goods for shipment. Fixing two problems of earlier piers, the Municipal Wharf was long enough to allow for deep-water steamships and curved at the end to better respond to tidal patterns. The final structure, which opened in 1914, was 2,745 feet long, well over twice the length of the piers that existed before it.

Boxcars and refrigerator cars beside fishing boats at the end of the Municipal Wharf, 1920s.
[Santa Cruz MAH – colorized using DeOldify]

The Municipal Wharf from the roof of the warehouse, 1920s. Locomotive smoke is visible in the distance at left.
[Unknown source – colorized using DeOldify]

For the first decade of its existence, the Municipal Wharf did decent business. Steamships docked and delivered passengers and goods, and goods and passengers shipped out from there. The railroad delivered boxcars, refrigerator cars, and other stock to the end for shipment, although most of the customers were smaller local businesses rather than the large freight shippers. The pier also proved to be a more favored home for the myriad Italian fishermen, who began migrating to the new pier in the late 1910s. By 1922, the old Railroad Wharf had outlived its usefulness and Southern Pacific demolished it. The remaining fishermen relocated to the Municipal Wharf en masse and became the virtual lords of the pier in lieu of other commercial and industrial customers. With so little freight traffic on the pier, the railroad finally petitioned for the spur's abandonment in September 1931, quietly ending fifty-six years of railroading on the piers at the Santa Cruz Main Beach.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
Railroad Wharf base: 36.9624N, 122.0237W
Powder Works Wharf base: and 36.9631N, 122.0220W
Municipal Wharf base: 36.9625N, 122.0234W

The Municipal Wharf remains today, the last of the six piers that once populated the Santa Cruz waterfront. Long since a railroad pier, its popularity slumped throughout the 1930s and 1940s until tourism and the commercial restaurant industry led to a boom in the post-World War II years. The increased popularity of the pier led to its widening several times to support parking and additional buildings. Most of the restaurants and stores on the pier still are owned by the Italian families that first populated it a century ago. It also still serves a few fishermen with two small boat docks along its eastern side. The large warehouse at the end of the pier was removed at some point in the 1940s and, although the railroad tracks still pass beside the foot of the pier, all remnants of the old spur is gone.

Citations:

• Nurkse, Peter. "Notes on George Lawrence's 1906 Aerial Panorama of Santa Cruz, CA." January 2011. Accessed June 2012. 
• Perry, Frank, Barry Brown, Rick Hyman, and Stanley D. Stevens. "Notes on the History of Wharves at Santa Cruz, California." June 2012.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.