Holy City is an unincorporated community in Santa Clara County, California. Once considered a Utopian community in the 1920s and 1930s, it is now considered a ghost town. [1] The town is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, off State Route 17 on Old Santa Cruz Highway. [2] It is part of the Lexington Hills census designated place. Its ZIP code is 95026, and its area codes are 408 and 669.
Holy City was founded in 1919 by cult-leader William E. Riker and about thirty of his followers. Calling his ideology "The Perfect Christian Divine Way", Riker preached celibacy, temperance, white supremacy, and segregation of the races and sexes. [3]
Riker bought the 142 acres (57 ha) that became Holy City. During the early years, the city was the only development between Santa Cruz and San Jose, known for its strange roadside attraction signs. [4] They attracted tourists to a restaurant, service station, zoo, observatory, peep show, soda stand, barbershop, shoe repair. [4] The town was incorporated in 1926.
The religious community had no church; services were held in Riker's home. By the 1930s the PCDW confirmed disciples probably never numbered more than about 30 people, however the population of Holy City and the surrounding neighborhood peaked at around 300. [5] By 1938, only 75 men and 4 women lived at the site.
A radio station was built in Holy City in 1924 and went on the air on July 7 of that year under the call letters KFQU. [4] In April 1931, KFQU had been operating on a radio frequency far from its assigned frequency. [6] The station went off the air in December 1931, and had its license renewal denied on January 11, 1932, due to "irregularities."
The town began to further decline in population in the 1940s, with the construction of State Route 17. [5] Holy City was no longer on the main route through the mountains. With the end of the Depression, many of Riker's followers were able to find work elsewhere. The town was disincorporated in 1959, and Riker lost control of the property. Several of the buildings mysteriously burned down shortly afterwards. [1]
The developers who purchased the property eventually put it up for sale in 2006, but it lingered on the market until 2016, when it was bought for $6 million by Robert and Trish Duggan. [4] The Duggans are members of the Church of Scientology. Robert Duggan has been referred to as the church's "largest financial supporter" by former Scientology executive Mark Rathbun. [7]
The Holy City Zoo, a former comedy club in San Francisco, had the sign, table and chairs that all came from the original site of the zoo. [8]
Mission Santa Cruz was a Spanish mission founded in 1791 by the Franciscan order in present-day Santa Cruz, California, dedicated by Father Fermín de Lasuén, second president of the Alta California missions. The mission was named for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, adopting the name given to a nearby creek by the missionary priest Juan Crespi, who accompanied the explorer Gaspar de Portolá when he camped on the banks of the San Lorenzo River on October 17, 1769.
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city 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.
Santa Cruz is a Spanish or Portuguese term meaning "holy cross" and referring to the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
Los Gatos is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Los Gatos is part of Silicon Valley, with several high technology companies maintaining a presence there. Notably, Netflix, the streaming service and content creator, is headquartered in Los Gatos and has developed a large presence in the area.
The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles County and south of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and includes the rugged, undeveloped stretch of coastline known as Big Sur. From south to north, there are six counties that make up the Central Coast: Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz.
Chemeketa Park is an unincorporated community of approximately 150 homes located in Lexington Hills, in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, that is now effectively a rural neighborhood of Los Gatos, California. The postal designation for Chemeketa Park is "Los Gatos 95033", although it lies approximately five miles South of the official boundaries of the incorporated town of Los Gatos. The community is in area codes 408 and 669.
Redwood Estates is a rural unincorporated community along State Route 17 in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Gatos, California, United States. The Census Bureau includes it in a census-designated place named Lexington Hills. It lies inside the confines of Santa Clara County. The area is about eight miles from downtown Los Gatos and nine miles from the Santa Cruz County community of Scotts Valley.
Sargent is a ghost town located in central California on the Santa Clara-San Benito County border. The largest portion of the town was on the Santa Clara County, or north, side of the county line. It is 150 feet above mean sea level. It appeared on 1950s Thomas Brothers maps but has dropped off the company's 21st century maps.
Betty Lewis (1925–2008) grew up in Santa Cruz, California and attended school there for 12 years then going to Salinas Jr. College. She started writing historical articles for the Watsonville Register Pajaronian in 1974. Her weekly column titled "That Was Watsonville" appeared every Thursday evening in that newspaper. She has also written articles for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Salinas Californian and various other publications. She authored nine historical books of Watsonville and surrounding areas.
Purissima is a ghost town in southwestern San Mateo County, California, United States, near the junction of State Route 1 and Verde Road. Purísima means "purest" in Spanish and is most commonly used in Spanish to refer to La Purísima Concepción of the Virgin Mary. Purissima is the name of the town used as the setting for Ross Macdonald's 1958 crime fiction novel 'The Doomsters'.
William Edward Riker was a White supremacist religious leader who founded the community of Holy City, California, and was an unsuccessful candidate for California Governor. Other nicknames included "Father", "The Comforter", "The Professor", "The Emancipator".
The Pleasure Point Roadhouse was a historic building on the Monterey Bay, located at 2-3905 East Cliff Dr., 95062 in Santa Cruz County, California. It was torn down on September 27, 2008.
Summit is a small unincorporated community more frequently referred to by locals as the Loma Prieta Community located partially in Santa Clara County but predominantly in Santa Cruz County, California, in the mountain ranges of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It lies at the summit along Highway 17 from which is gets its name. Home to a series of abandoned railroad towns and tunnels from a Los Gatos to Felton route before the 1940s, Public transportation by bus is also no longer available from the Summit Road area. VTA route 76 has been cancelled since June 2010, and the Highway 17 Express only stops in Scotts Valley. It is one of the few places in the San Francisco Bay Area to receive snowfall and the mountain pass which links the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay is closed at this spot when snowfall is too heavy. The next town to the south is Scotts Valley and to the north Redwood Estates. The area serves as a rest stop with food for people traveling across the mountains. It straddles the county line with Santa Clara County and is south of the unincorporated area of Lexington Hills with which it shares a zip code. The ZIP Code is 95033 and the community is inside area code 408.
Wrights, California is a ghost town in unincorporated west Santa Clara County, California. It is located near Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains, on the north bank of Los Gatos Creek, east of State Route 17.
Lexington, California, is a ghost town in Santa Clara County, now submerged by the Lexington Reservoir. Originally located along Los Gatos Creek, the town was 550 feet above sea level.
Patchen is a ghost town nestled in Santa Cruz Mountains, in unincorporated west Santa Clara County, California. It is located along the Old Santa Cruz Highway.
Glenwood, California, is an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County. It is located at coordinates 37°6′29″N121°59′8″W, and is 891 feet above sea level.
Clems, California is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County with an elevation of 790 feet. It is located a latitude 37055N, longitude 1215947W; decimal degrees: latitude 37.09806, longitude -121.99639.
Agua Mansa is a former settlement in an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County, near Colton, California, United States. Once the largest settlement in San Bernardino County, it is now a ghost town. Only the cemetery remains.
Loma Chiquita is an unincorporated rural area along the ridge leading to Loma Chiquita summit in southwest Santa Clara County, California. The area covers the associated ridgeline and hillsides, from the eastern base of Loma Prieta, towards the west near the intersection with upper Little Uvas Road. The northern part faces the Mountain Home area, and the southern part overlaps with Uvas Canyon.
The abandoned, 142-acre property between Santa Cruz and San Francisco is a rare swath of available land, complete with its own zip code, 95026. "It's a great property, only five miles away from civilization," said Dave Haugh, a Grubb & Ellis senior vice president in San Jose, in a brief phone conversation ... On the plus side, it features majestic redwood trees and a creek with waterfalls. On the minus side, it has no sewer system, some dilapidated buildings and a creepy history ... Developers who bought Holy City in 1968 evicted squatting hippies, thought of turning what was left into some kind of campground, and ultimately accomplished nothing. Now they’re in their 80s and want to sell.
Municipalities and communities of Santa Clara County, California, United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cities and towns |  | |
| CDPs | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| CCDs | ||
| Ghost towns | ||
| Bodies of water |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Counties | ||
| Major cities | ||
| Cities and towns 100k–250k | ||
| Cities and towns 50k–99k | ||
| Cities and towns 25k–50k | ||
| Cities and towns 10k–25k | ||
| Sub-regions | ||
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
Coordinates: 37°09′25″N121°58′44″W / 37.1568904°N 121.9788476°W
