Cowell Lime Works Historic District | |
Location | University of California, Santa Cruz campus; High St. and Glen Coolidge Dr., Santa Cruz, California |
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Coordinates | 36°58′41″N122°3′8″W / 36.97806°N 122.05222°W |
Area | 32 acres (13 ha) |
NRHP reference No. | 07001220 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 21, 2007 |
The Cowell Lime Works, in Santa Cruz, California, was a manufacturing complex that quarried limestone, produced lime and other limestone products, and manufactured wood barrels for transporting the finished lime. Part of its area is preserved as the Cowell Lime Works Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. [2] [3] In addition to the four lime kilns, cooperage and other features relating to lime manufacture, the Historic District also includes other structures associated with the Cowell Ranch, including barns, a blacksmith shop, ranch house, cook house and workers' cabins. [4] The 32-acre (130,000 m2) Historic District is located within the University of California, Santa Cruz campus, to either side of the main campus entrance.
The site gets its name from the Cowell family, which owned and operated the lime works, quarries, ranch and large tracts of surrounding timber lands. Industrialist Henry Cowell acquired the ranch and the lime works in the late 19th century. He and his descendants remained owners of the ranch until the death of S. H. (Harry) Cowell, youngest of Henry's five children and last surviving member of the family, in 1955. Cowell's vast estate went to the S. H. Cowell Foundation, still in existence today. The Foundation sold part of the ranch property to the University of California for the creation of the new UC Santa Cruz campus, which opened in 1965. Several of the original ranch buildings have been renovated into university offices. The university's Women's Center is hosted at the Cardiff House, formerly the residence of ranch manager George H. Cardiff. [5]
The Cowell Lime Works is just one of many former lime-making sites scattered around north-western Santa Cruz County. Other sites featuring old lime kilns and quarries can be seen in the Fall Creek Unit of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Wilder Ranch State Park and Pogonip [6] (a Santa Cruz greenbelt area).
The lime works was originally developed, in the early 1850s, by partners Isaac E. Davis and Albion P. Jordan. Two of the thousands drawn to California by the discovery of gold, both arrived in San Francisco in 1849. [7] They met during the next couple of years, and concluded that lime manufacturing offered more opportunities than gold mining. The rapid population growth in northern California at this time greatly increased demand for lime, used to make mortar for the new brick buildings.
The partners came to Santa Cruz around 1853, where they found an abundance of high-quality limestone and proximity to shipping facilities. The firm of Davis and Jordan leased some of the future Cowell ranch property, began quarrying operations, built lime kilns, a cooperage, ranch house, and other structures, and began shipping lime in late 1853. They built a new road (present day Bay Street) between the kilns and the wharf, which descended to Monterey Bay from the bluffs near the famous Santa Cruz surf spot known as Steamer Lane. Their success soon allowed them to buy the lime works land and the wharf they used for shipping. In 1856, they built a new longer wharf and a second ship. About this time, Davis moved to San Francisco, where the company established a sales office and warehouse facilities. Jordan stayed in Santa Cruz to oversee that end of the business. [8]
In the next decade, Jordan's health began to decline, and he sold his half of the company to Henry Cowell in 1865. With the firm renamed Davis and Cowell, Henry Cowell and his family moved to Santa Cruz, where he took over Jordan's former duties. After Davis died in 1888, Cowell acquired full ownership of the company, and it became Henry Cowell and Co. Operations and land acquisitions continued to expand over the next twenty years; encompassing expanded lime production, cattle and milk cows, bituminous rock mining, tan oak bark (used in leather tanning), grain and fruit. In 1898, the company incorporated as the Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company. The transition to Portland cement, which could be used to manufacture mortar superior to lime-based mortar, began the decline of the lime industry after the start of the 20th century. Henry Cowell's son Harry finally shut down the Bay Street kilns in about 1920. [9]
By the time UC Santa Cruz opened in 1965, many of the mostly wooden lime works structures had been unoccupied for over twenty years and were in poor condition. The ranch buildings were in better shape, having been used into the 1950s. The university began to renovate some of these and adapt them for campus uses. A horse barn became the Barn Theater in 1968; the cookhouse became the admissions office; the blacksmith shop became an art studio, the ranch house (Cardiff House) houses the university's Women's Center, and so on.
The continued deterioration of the unused structures prompted local citizens and the university staff to launch an effort to restore and preserve them. An organization called the Friends of the Cowell Lime Works Historic District was established to help achieve these goals. The Friends, whose members include faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of the general public, have stabilized the cooperage structure, conducted archaeological studies of the site, and begun restoration of six workers' cabins. A self-guided walking tour brochure is available on their website.
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, the system is composed of its ten campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, along with numerous research centers and academic abroad centers. The system is the state's land-grant university. Major publications generally rank most UC campuses as being among the best universities in the world. In 1900, UC was one of the founders of the Association of American Universities and since the 1970s seven of its campuses, in addition to Berkeley, have been admitted to the association. Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego are considered Public Ivies, making California the state with the most universities in the nation to hold the title. UC campuses have large numbers of distinguished faculty in almost every academic discipline, with UC faculty and researchers having won 71 Nobel Prizes as of 2021.
The University of California, Santa Cruz is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of the coastal community of Santa Cruz, the main campus lies on 2,001 acres (810 ha) of rolling, forested hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As of Fall 2022, its ten residential colleges enroll some 17,500 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students. Satellite facilities in other Santa Cruz locations include the Coastal Science Campus and the Westside Research Park and the Silicon Valley Center in Santa Clara.
Santa Cruz is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a popular tourist destination, owing to its beaches, surf culture, and historic landmarks.
Felton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 4,489 as of 2020 census and according to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.6 square miles (12 km2), all of it land.
The first of the ten residential colleges of the University of California, Santa Cruz, established in 1965, Cowell College sits on the edge of a redwood forest with a remarkable view of Monterey Bay. The college is named for Henry Cowell and the Cowell family, who donated the land that UCSC is built upon, previously known as the Cowell Ranch.
John R. Lewis College, formerly known as College Ten, is one of the ten residential colleges at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It is on the north side of campus, west of College Nine and north of the Cowell Student Health Center. The theme of its freshman core course is Social Justice and Community.
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving mainly forest and riparian areas in the watershed of the San Lorenzo River, including a grove of old-growth coast redwood. It is located in Santa Cruz County, primarily in the area between the cities of Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, near the community of Felton and the University of California at Santa Cruz. The park includes a non-contiguous extension in the Fall Creek area north of Felton. The 4,623-acre (1,871 ha) park was established in 1953.
Buffalo Grove Lime Kiln is one of two old lime kilns in Illinois listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The other is the Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln in Pike County. Buffalo Grove Lime Kiln is located near the Ogle County city of Polo. When in use, the kiln would have produced raw quicklime. The lime kiln was added to the National Register in 2002.
Penwyllt is a hamlet located in the upper Swansea Valley in Wales. It lies within a part of the Brecon Beacons National Park in the traditional county of Brecknockshire; currently administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys.
Wilder Ranch State Park is a California State Park on the Pacific Ocean coast north of Santa Cruz, California. The park was formerly a dairy ranch, and many of the ranch buildings have been restored for use as a museum. There are no campgrounds; a day-use parking lot provides access to the museum. Dogs are prohibited on the trails, but many trails allow bikes and/or horses. The long trails and ocean views make the area a favorite of hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers. Public beaches continue to the north in Coast Dairies State Park.
The UC Santa CruzCenter for Agroecology is a research, education, and public service organization within the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Rancho Cañada del Rincon en el Rio San Lorenzo was a 5,827-acre (23.58 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena, and confirmed in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico, to Pedro Sainsevain. The name means "valley on a corner on the San Lorenzo River". The grant was north of present-day Santa Cruz on the San Lorenzo River.
The Jensen Alvarado Ranch is a historic park and museum in Jurupa Valley, California, USA, and is operated by the Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District. It can be accessed from 4350 Riverview Drive, or 4307 Briggs Street. It was the first kiln-fired brick building built in Riverside County, and is the oldest non-adobe structure in the Inland Empire.
California Powder Works was the first American explosive powder manufacturing company west of the Rocky Mountains. When the outbreak of the Civil War cut off supplies of gunpowder to California's mining and road-building industries, a local manufacturer was needed. Originally located near Santa Cruz, California, the company was incorporated in 1861 and began manufacturing gunpowder in May 1864. For 50 years, it was a major employer in the county, employing between 150 and 275 men. The powder works was located on a flat adjacent to the San Lorenzo River, three miles upstream of Santa Cruz.
The California Powder Works Bridge is a historic covered bridge in Santa Cruz, California. It is a Smith truss bridge, built across the San Lorenzo River in 1872 by the California Powder Works, an explosives manufacturer whose factory complex stood on the river banks. The bridge was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2015 as one of the best-preserved national examples of the Smith truss. It is owned and maintained by the Paradise Park Masonic Club, and is open to pedestrian and vehicular traffic, with a posted weight limit of 5 tons.
Hurstville Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located north of Maquoketa, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. At the time of its nomination it included three areas: the former lime manufacturing works, a farmstead, and the townsite. All that remains are the four kilns, and an old warehouse. Both the townsite, which was across the road and to the southwest, and the farmstead, which was behind the kilns to the south, are gone. Also gone are the remaining company buildings, with the exception of the old warehouse, which were across the road to the west. The houses in the townsite were side-gable cottages. Many lacked indoor plumbing into the 1970s and were vacant. The farmstead included 20 structures devoted to domestic or agricultural use. Two large barns were the most notable structures. The farm served the needs of the town. The most significant structures in the district were the lime kilns.
Elihu Anthony was an American alcalde, blacksmith, industrialist, abolitionist, postmaster, and minister. He is considered a founding father of the city of Santa Cruz. He also served as a member of the California State Assembly 6th District, 1880–1881. He was active within the anti-Chinese movement, but paradoxically he had also supported abolitionism.
Chatsworth Calera also called Chatsworth Reservoir Kiln Site is one of the few surviving structures of the early 1800s lime industry. This kiln marked the introduction to California of the European industrial process for vitrifying limestone building blocks which were used in the construction of the San Fernando mission and other mission buildings. The word "Calera" is Spanish for "limestone quarry" or "limekiln". Chatsworth Calera is now located in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California. in the Chatsworth Nature Preserve. At its peak there may have been up to five kilns at the site run by native Indian laborers. Chatsworth Calera registered a California Historical Landmark No. 911.
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