The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture

For entertainment or serious study...

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The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture is an entertaining read for either a walk on the sidewalk, or a lazy afternoon at the beach, this book covers all the reader could want or need to know about the architectural and site history of the City of Santa Cruz. John Chase and Judith Steen love their subject, and it shows in the detail included in this vital research resource. Their strategy in organizing the book was to arrange the history of Santa Cruz geographically, and then, within every site, to chronicle the events, people, and buildings that existed on each place. The result is an insightful volume packed with anecdotes, factual observations, and a meticulous study of buildings that are both present and past.


The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture chronicles city legends that have become either tales well known and loved, or those buried in time and largely forgotten.

Here are stories, for example:

the Kitchen brothers abalone-shell adorned "Yogi Temple" (did the Kitchen brothers really think their building detected submarines in Monterey Bay?)
details of the life of early feminist reformer Georgiana Bruce Kirby (who wore the bloomers in that family?)
the chance to learn a valuable lesson, from the fate of an unfortunate visitor to a Front Street bar in the nineteen century; a visitor who unwisely ingested the bar’s special "double extract of nitroglycerine tarantula juice."
Readers interested in knowing when to toss vegetables at the opera, will benefit from an account of the Pansy and Lily Club veggie free-throws at the Santa Cruz Opera House.


For the serious student of twentieth century period revival architecture there is Daniel P. Gregory’s chapter on architect William Wurster’s celebrated homes in Santa Cruz’s swanky Pasatiempo development.

This is a must-have book for those who appreciate Santa Cruz, its architecture, and its history.