FIFTEEN SECONDS IN THE FALL: THE LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE AND DOWNTOWN SANTA CRUZ Erin M. McMurry B.A., University of California, San Diego, 2004 PROJECT Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in HISTORY (Public History) at CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO SPRING 2010 FIFTEEN SECONDS IN THE FALL: THE LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE AND DOWNTOWN SANTA CRUZ A Project by Erin M. McMurry Approved by: __________________________________, Committee Chair Dr. Lee M.A. Simpson __________________________________, Second Reader Dr. Christopher J. Castaneda ____________________________ Date ii Student: Erin M. McMurry I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this project is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the Project. __________________________, Department Chair ________________ Dr. Christopher J. Castaneda Date Department of History iii Abstract of FIFTEEN SECONDS IN THE FALL: THE LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE AND DOWNTOWN SANTA CRUZ by Erin M. McMurry The Loma Prieta earthquake of October 17, 1989 devastated Santa Cruz’s historic core and led to the de-listing of the area from the National Register of Historic Places. Loma Prieta was not the first disaster to strike the city’s calamity prone downtown area. The project uses maps, photographs, architectural histories, the National Register nomination, newspapers, and other primary and secondary sources to trace the environmental and disaster history first of Santa Cruz city and county, then of downtown Santa Cruz as a whole. The project finally narrows the focus further and inventories the historic buildings present on Santa Cruz’s downtown Pacific Garden Mall in October 1989. The project concludes that Santa Cruz’s experience presents a lesson to other municipalities and the public. That lesson is that comprehensive disaster planning is the key to protecting both lives and historic resources. _______________________, Committee Chair Dr. Lee M.A. Simpson _______________________ Date iv PROLOGUE October is an interesting month in California, arguably the best month weather- wise. In Northern California, unbeknownst to the shorts and sundress clad tourists who spent summer days on the sand wishing for boots and sweatshirts to combat the ocean breezes and overcast skies of coastal summers, in October the fog clears from the coast and even chilly San Francisco basks in seventy-plus degree temperatures and sunshine. The Valley breathes a sigh of relief as it says goodbye to the last 100 degree days and enjoys a few weeks of not too hot, not too cold, but just right days that would please even Goldilocks before the winter rains and tule fog inundate the area. In Southern California, the story is much the same. The infamous Santa Ana winds blow in from the desert, scouring the clouds from the coast as summer blows its last warm breath out to sea. Amidst all this climatological perfection though lurks a certain tension and anxiety in the air because October, in California, is not just a month of perfect weather, but a month of disaster. It was an early October Sierra storm that doomed the Donner Party. The most recent major earthquakes on the precarious Hayward fault struck in October of 1865 and 1868. California’s top five most destructive fires ripped through innumerable misplaced hillside housing developments in October.1 Those same Santa Anas that create excellent beach weather at the coast roar through the Southland’s inland canyons and the Oakland Hills carrying the embers of wildfire to the Pacific. These events create a feeling of 1 Cal Fire, 20 Largest California Wildland Fires (By Structures Destroyed), Cal Fire, http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_statsevents, (Accessed January 16, 2010). “Most destructive” in this case refers to the number of structures destroyed. Not surprisingly, two of these fires, the 2003 Cedar Fire and the 2007 Witch Fire, both in San Diego County, also feature in the top five of Cal Fire’s list of largest fires by acreage. v foreboding in California as emergency planners annually wait for the proverbial other shoe to drop. On October 17, 1989, in the central coast city of Santa Cruz, it did. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the many people who supported me and helped me accomplish this task. First, thank you to Dr. Lee Simpson in the Department of History for being a fantastic advisor. I could not have asked for someone better. Thank you also to Dr. Christopher Castaneda, my second reader, for taking the time to read and comment on this massive monograph. Thank you to my friends Brandi Alderson Noordmans, Jillian Ritter, Diana Fan, Summer Judice, Mayra Escobar, and Linda Espinoza for always understanding when I was a terrible friend and did not go out or respond to emails for weeks. Thank you very much to the Ladies of the Local Government unit at the California State Office of Historic Preservation, Lucinda Woodward, Marie Nelson, Shannon Lauchner and Michelle Messinger for teaching me so much beyond the classroom and always making me feel like one of the team. Thanks also to Joseph McDole and Eric Allison at OHP for your support and for those innumerable Annex conversations. Thank you my fellow interns Kristen Shedd and Amber Piona for all the commiseration. Thank you to my supervisors at UC Davis, Erin Rick and Diane Branam, for allowing me to put my studies first. Thank you so much to my friends at UCSD Kathy Masey and Julie Lance and to the students of IR/PS for encouraging me to undertake this endeavor in the first place and for showing me that I could. Thank you to my trusty Golden Retriever Bailey for always keeping my feet warm. Last, but not least, thank you to my parents and my brother Joey for always supporting me, for moving me up and down the state, and for giving up so much to allow me to go to school and live the wonderful life I live. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Prologue .................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ……..…………………….…………………………………………… 1 2. FIRES, FLOODS, FOOLISHNESS, AND FLIMSY BUILDINGS: THE MULTI-FACETED STUDY OF “NATURAL” DISASTER ................................................................................. 16 3. THE PHOENIX RISES. AGAIN, AND AGAIN. AND AGAIN..................................... 37 Downtown: Mud, Ashes and Bricks ........................................................................... 60 4. DOWNTOWN SURVEY – BOUNDARIES AND METHODS ...................................... 89 Methods/Sources ......................................................................................................... 91 5. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................................ 97 Professional Recommendations .................................................................................. 97 Academic Recommendations.................................................................................... 106 Appendix – Survey Forms .................................................................................................... 110 Index of Properties .................................................................................................... 110 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 230 viii 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION The wise people take earthquakes as they take strawberries, as a part of life’s eventful experience.1 October 17, 1989 dawned much like any other day in Santa Cruz, the seaside city nestled between the mountains and the ocean on the north end of California’s Monterey Bay. UCSC students attended classes at their campus on the hill. Friends met at the historic Cooper House for lunch at The Crepe Place. Workers commuted “over the hill” to San Jose; out to the Texas Instruments, Lipton, and Wrigley plants on the Westside, or up to the Lockheed test base in Bonny Doon. Surfers caught great waves at Steamer Lane. Shoppers strolled and street musicians strummed guitars on the downtown Pacific Garden Mall. Downtown businesses geared up for the approaching holiday shopping season, hoping to draw patrons away from the dreaded “big box” stores in neighboring Capitola. October 17 began as a regular day in “Berkeley By The Sea,” but it ended with six people dead, 670 injured, and over $430 million worth of property damage done after the largest earthquake since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake rocked the region in the early evening.2 October 17, 1989 was not just another day. A few things make that day unique. October 17 was unusually balmy. The air hung hot, heavy, and still (known even today in Santa Cruz as “earthquake weather”). Like their northern counterparts in San Francisco and Oakland, many Santa Cruzans left work early to catch Game Three of the World Series, the “Battle of Bay” between the San 1 Santa Cruz Sentinel, “Earthquake Notes,” April 19, 1906. 2 Santa Cruz Public Libraries, “Facts About the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake,” Santa Cruz Public Libraries Local History Articles, http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/264/. 2 Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s. Just before game time, at approximately 5:04pm, a deep rumble issued from below the earth and grew to a