When Santa Cruz Had Four Wharfs

One of the essential stops on a tour of Santa Cruz is the Municipal Wharf. Few realize, however, that the current wharf, completed in 1914, is only the latest in a series of wharfs (or wharves, if you prefer) that have reached out from our section of coast into Monterey Bay over the past 150+ years. Railroads and, later, motor vehicles eventually ended most seaborne transport to and from Santa Cruz, but in the late 1870s the beachfront was still a bustling place, sporting as many as four wharfs.

This blog has previously mentioned three of the four wharfs. The , first constructed in 1847, was later acquired, lengthened and rebuilt several times by the lime manufacturing company that built its warehouse on the cliff at the end of today’s Bay Street. First the company was Davis & Jordan, then Davis & Cowell, and finally owned solely by Henry Cowell. A remarkable aerial panoramic photograph, taken from a balloon in 1906, shows the wharf at its greatest extent and the large warehouse on the cliff above, just a year before the end section was destroyed by winter storms.

That photo also shows the “”, descendent of the second wharf, built by in 1855. Sources are unclear as to whether the Gharkey wharf was remodeled or replaced completely, but the railroad wharf occupied the same location after 1875, just west of today’s Municipal Wharf. The railroad wharf was demolished in 1922.

The third wharf was known as the “powder wharf”, because it belonged to the . I found only one poor-quality photo of it, but a detailed painting from the early 1870s (also employing a hot-air balloon?) shows the powder wharf in a view similar to the 1906 photo. The powder wharf began well up from the beach, near the corner of Main and Second Streets, where the Powder Works had a large warehouse. The wharf was demolished sometime in the early 1880s. The Gharkey wharf is not shown in the painting, which makes me wonder if it was gone before the railroad wharf was built. To the far left is the Davis & Cowell wharf.

The warehouse and wharf shut down sometime around 1882. By that time, the Powder Works had its own rail connection at the plant, so there was no longer a need for the facilities on Beach Hill. That removal aided the development of Beach Hill and the beachfront as residential and tourist areas. As Beach Hill began to fill with residences, people would soon have decided that a warehouse full of blasting powder was not a good neighbor.

The fourth and final wharf existing in the late 1870s never touched the shore at all. It was the “cross wharf” that connected the powder wharf to the railroad wharf at a point just beyond the surf line. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the cross wharf only lasted for five years, until 1882. The attached photo is the only one I’ve found. It shows the “H” shaped construction, with the railroad wharf nearest to the camera. The photo appears to have been taken from somewhere near the top of the Cowell wharf.

A modern Santa Cruzan may wonder, “Why did they need so many wharfs? How many seafood restaurants and souvenir shops can one small town support?” The answer, of course, is that the beachfront was not a tourist attraction in those days - it was a business district. There was no Boardwalk; no tourist hotels; no surfers; only a few homes on Beach Hill and none on West Cliff Drive – except one.  

That one, built in 1877, belonged to Sedgewick Lynch. Lynch was probably the county’s busiest building contractor in the 1860s and 70s. He built the on Cooper Street, several buildings along Pacific Avenue and probably both the Davis & Cowell and railroad wharfs. He did a lot of business with both Davis & Cowell and Frederick Hihn, who was very busy indeed in those years. As a building contractor, Lynch probably enjoyed watching the hustle and bustle of commerce, so he built his home where it commanded a view of the entire waterfront area. It still does today, as you can see from the attached modern photo. His choice of location did not, however, immediately set off a West Cliff Drive building boom. You can see the house in the 1906 aerial photo, still standing in splendid isolation between the Cowell warehouse/wharf and the railroad wharf.

Despite the constantly improving wharfs and other shipping facilities, Santa Cruz was still a dangerous place to get to on a ship, especially in the winter. To help ships safely reach Santa Cruz, a lighthouse was built in 1869, helping pilots avoid those treacherous rocks just offshore as they came south from San Francisco, navigated around the point and headed for the wharves. The first lighthouse-keeper was Adna Hecox, who first came to Santa Cruz in the 1840s. He was one of the last alcaldes before California statehood, and remained one of the most active and respected Santa Cruz residents until his death in 1883. Unfortunately, Hecox never became a ‘name on a sign’, so few recognize his name today. After his death, the lighthouse-keeper position passed to his youngest daughter Laura, who tended the big oil lamp faithfully for the next 33 years. The lighthouse went dark in 1941, but today’s Abbot Memorial Lighthouse is a reminder of those days.

Santa Cruz wharf chronology:
1847-1856: Anthony-Penfield wharf
1855-1875(?): Gharkey wharf, extended 1863
1856-1907: Davis and Jordan wharf (replaced Anthony-Penfield)
1864-1882±: California Powder Works wharf
1875-1922: railroad wharf (replaced Gharkey)
1877-1882: cross wharf
1904-1962: Pleasure pier
1914-today: Municipal Wharf

Sources (both available at SCPL):

• MacGregor, Bruce A. (1975). Narrow gauge portrait: South Pacific Coast. Felton, Calif: Glenwood Publishers.
• Stevens, S. D. (editor), (1998). Santa Cruz County History Journal: Number 4. Santa Cruz, Calif: Art and History Museum, Santa Cruz.