Downtown Santa Cruz

In my book A Very Typical Family, which is set in Santa Cruz, CA, Natalie takes her nephew Kit to Santa Cruz’s downtown area. She points out several shops to Kit, all of them real. I go downtown, too, every time I’m in Santa Cruz, and some of my most vivid childhood memories are of places there.

The downtown, aka the Pacific Garden Mall, has a lot of history to it. People who remember downtown before the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake obliterated many of the historic buildings there will remember the central jewel: the mustard-yellow Cooper House, which housed interesting shops. Next door is the Octagon, built in 1882 and housing the Santa Cruz Hall of Records. The Octagon is now home to a museum.

While the 1989 earthquake was not the first calamity to befall the area (the Great Fire of 1894 decimated much of Santa Cruz), it is a recent significant devastation. The Santa Cruz Sentinel said of the 1989 earthquake, “(The) Pacific Garden Mall, the county’s marquee commercial strip, was all but lost, costing many livelihoods and taking years to rebound, longer than anyone feared in the initial aftermath. Everyone knew it was bad. How bad was a revelation that unfurled over time.”

Remember Leask’s department store? It was opened in either 1882 or 1887 by Scottish immigrant James D. Leask, and eventually closed in the late 1980s.

After the earthquake, the mall rebuilt. Stores relocated — Bookshop Santa Cruz, mentioned in A Very Typical Family, was relocated to a larger, more prominent spot on Pacific Ave.

The mall is still a wonderful place to shop, eat, and stroll, even if some of the old favorite characters like Violin Man or Ginger the Rainbow Lady are no longer there.

Here are some of my favorite shops:

  • Pacific Cookie Company (always) Don’t miss this. Do not pass Go without getting cookies from here. They are the best I have ever had. Get the baker’s dozen or buy a bag of day-olds. You can’t go wrong.
  • Artisans & Agency (one of the inspirations for Michelle’s downtown shop) Part gallery, part museum shop, but all good. Find Santa Cruz art here, including Doug Ross and Marie Gabrielle, home goods, and excellent jewelry.
  • Zoccoli’s – this awesome Italian deli has been around since 1948. My mom remembers grabbing sandwiches from Zoccoli’s in the ’80s when she worked downtown. This place is so popular that the lines are sometimes out the door. I recommend the Castroville Italian sandwich.
  • Bunny’s Shoes: Excellent shoes, hats, and bags here.
  • Cat’s Meow vintage
  • Berdel’s clothing
  • Level Up used video games (with an excellent museum cabinet of old systems; Kit goes here)
  • Comicopolis: My sons love this comic book store that bills itself as “purveyors of all things nerdy.” It is conveniently located next door to Bookshop Santa Cruz, out the back door.

Other things to see

The Tom Scribner statue: This beautiful statue of a man playing the musical saw is of local musician Tom Scribner, who lived from 1899 to 1982, a fixture on Downtown streets. It’s located on Pacific Ave. outside of Bookshop Santa Cruz.

Fancy Victorian Homes on Walnut Ave.: Stroll along the leafy 240 block of Walnut Ave. to get a glimpse of beautiful Victorians. Which ones do you like the best? I may have used one or two as the inspiration for the Walker family’s mansion in A Very Typical Family.

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More Santa Cruz good stuff: