Overview

Two men, Amasa Pray and William H. Moore financed the construction of this load-bearing masonry hotel that operated on Santa Cruz's main commercial street, Pacific Avenue, beginning in 1866. Two stories in height, it had a balcony supported by a colonnade that covered the sidewalk, sheltering pedestrians from the mid-day heat, and had a very simple fenestration. A third floor was added in 1892.

Building History

The Pacific Ocean House replaced the San Lorenzo Exchange, Santa Cruz's first major hotel, that opened in 1852. It was an important stage coach stop in the city. A large fire that caused $30,000 in losses, destroyed the San Lorenzo Exchange and surrounding buildings, on 07/19/1865. (See “Fifty Years Ago,” The Grizzly Bear, 07/1915, p. 19.)

Maine-born Amasa Pray and the North Carolinian, Thomas H. Moore, pooled their finances to build Santa Cruz's next grand hotel, the Pacific Ocean House. Pray and his son-in-law, H.H. Hobbs, had a retail store, that occupied a first-floor storefront in the hotel, that opened on 04/02/1866. The hotel's auditorium and offices were not completed until 04/11/1866.

Pray and Moore leased the hotel’s operation to George T. Bromley in 1866. Bromley later became the US Consul to Tientsin, China, and J.H. Hoadley served as the next hotel management lessee. Hoadley operated the Pacific Ocean House for about 10 years, when Elias J. Swift took over management. After, Swift, J.B. Peakes ran the establishment, which was long the most luxurious in Santa Cruz.

In 1887, F.A. Hihn purchased the Pacific Ocean House. He increased the hotel's capacity by building another wood-frame story on top of the two lower brick-supported levels. Hihn leased hotel operations to John T. Sullivan, an Irish-immigrant who formerly operated the local Sea Branch Hotel. By the late 1890s, Enoch Bemus Pixley had taken on the lease as manager.

Like so many hotels--large and small--the Pacific Ocean House succumbed to a large fire on 11/03/1907. A Santa Cruz newspaper reported in 1948: “The fire that ended the Pacific Ocean House’ [sic] days as the city’s leading hostelry came the morning of Sunday, November 3, 1907, when a defective flue over the kitchen overheated a tank of fuel oil. Hihn’s loss was put at $40,000 and the top floor was torn down. Part of the building still stands, occupied on its ground floor by the Manhattan Tavern restaurant. The north end was razed to make way for the offices of the Coast Counties Gas and Electric company.” (See “Santa Cruz Yesterdays,” Santa Cruz Sentinel-News, 08/01/1948, p. 5.) In 1904, H.W. Street managed the hotel, that had only three more years of existence. It operated at 24 Pacific Avenue in 1904.(See California Directory Company’s Resident and Classified Business Directory, Santa Cruz, East Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Boulder Creek, Capitola and Soquel, 1904-1905, p. 119.).

Building Notes

The hotel’s southeast corner storefront housed the Santa Cruz Bank of Savings and Loan, begun in 1870.

Alteration

Portions of the original porch covering the sidewalk had been removed by c. 1900.

PCAD id: 23634