| Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk | |
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| Location | Santa Cruz, California, United States |
| Website | http://www.beachboardwalk.com |
| Opened | 1907 |
| Operating season | Year-round (limited operation September–February) |
| Rides | 35 total
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The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is an oceanfront amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. Founded in 1907, it is California's oldest surviving amusement park [1] and one of the few seaside parks on the West Coast of the United States.
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The Boardwalk extends along the coast of the Monterey Bay, from just east of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf to the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. At the western edge of the park lies a large building originally known as the Neptune Casino (which does not offer gambling), which contains a video arcade, an indoor miniature golf course, a laser tag arena and the Cocoanut Grove banquet room and conference center. A Laffing Sal automated character, from San Francisco's Playland, is viewable near the miniature golf course.
East of the Casino, the boardwalk portion of the park stretches along a wide, sandy beach visitors can access easily from the park. The eastern end of the boardwalk is dominated by the Giant Dipper roller coaster, one of the best-known wooden coasters in the world and one of the most visible landmarks in Santa Cruz. The Dipper and the Looff Carousel, which still contains its original 342-pipe organ built in 1894, are both on the US National Register of Historic Places. They were, together, declared to be a National Historic Landmark in 1987[2] and the park is California Historical Landmark number 983.[3]
Old-fashioned carnival games and snack booths can be found throughout the 24-acre (9.7 ha) park. It is located at 400 Beach Street in Santa Cruz, south of the Ocean Street exit of California State Route 1, which is the southern terminus of California State Route 17. The beach was a destination for railroads and trolleys since 1875; a short passenger service to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park was restored in 1985. The Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway stops in the middle of Beach Street at the park.[4]
As of 2011[update], the park is headed by Charles Canfield, the son of Laurence Canfield, the president of the park from the 1950s through the early 1980s. It has won the Best Seaside Amusement Park Award from Amusement Today in 2007, 2008, and 2009.[5] Although there is no admission and the beach is public, parking is charged a fee when the rides are open. Season or day passes can be purchased or tickets for one dollar; rides take 3 to 5 tickets each.[6]
The West Coast once hosted many more beach parks, including the Pike in Long Beach, California, Neptune Beach in Alameda and Playland at San Francisco's Ocean Beach. Those all have long since closed, but the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk survives as a reminder of a bygone era in amusement. Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier closed in 1930, but reopened in the 1980s,[7] and Belmont Park in San Diego, California was founded in 1925,[8] shut down in 1976, and reopened in 1990.[9]
The Boardwalk was founded by Santa Cruz businessman Fred Swanton (1862–1940), who aimed to create a resort on the West Coast similar to Coney Island or Atlantic City, New Jersey, since he had come from Brooklyn, New York.[10]:34 Swanton began his project in 1904 with a building he called the Neptune Casino. The Neptune Casino survived the April 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but burned down on June 22, 1906 from a kitchen fire.[11] Rebuilding began a few months later; a new Casino opened in 1907.[10]:56
Swanton developed the Casa Del Rey Hotel across the street from the Casino in 1911, which was connected via a bridge. By 1912, a business downturn caused by the Panic of 1910–1911 wiped out the original stockholders. For the third time Swanton convinced investors to raise funds for the enterprise. By 1915 the Santa Cruz Seaside Company took over with Swanton again becoming an investor.[12] The park has been owned and operated by the Santa Cruz Seaside Company since 1915.[13]
In 1908, the first "thrill ride" opened, a miniature railway designed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson. In 1911, woodcarver and amusement park pioneer Charles Looff created the Looff Carousel. His son, Arthur, suggested that the park owners replace the aging L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway with a modern wooden coaster, the Giant Dipper, which was designed by the younger Looff and opened in 1924.[14] Business slowed during the Great Depression and World War II, but the Cocoanut Grove ballroom was at its peak.
In the 1950s and 1960s, many older seaside amusement parks closed, including the Pike and Playland-at-the-Beach. The Boardwalk survived by introducing many new attractions and undergoing an extensive renovation in the early 1980s.
The October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the exterior wall of the Plunge. This accelerated plans to transform the facility into a major attraction, Neptune's Kingdom, an adventure center. [15]
On June 25, 2006 the WipeOut ride opened, intending to simulate surfing.[16]
In March 2007, the Boardwalk installed a Wurlitzer Style 165 band organ to use along with the A. Ruth & Sohn organ at the Looff Carousel.[17] It was bought for $250,000 and restored by the Stinson Band Organ Company of Ohio. The new Wurlitzer organ features a façade to hide its inner workings painted with scenes of historic California, including illustrations of the original San Francisco Cliff House. At the time of the Wurlitzer's installation the Ruth & Sohn organ was sent to Stinson for restoration. A new façade was fabricated that features historical illustrations of the Beach Boardwalk as well as figures playing drums. The Ruth & Sohn organ returned to the Boardwalk in October 2008. The Boardwalk owns a Wurlitzer Style 146 band organ and plans to have it restored.
The Cocoanut Grove conference center includes banquet rooms and a performing arts venue at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Food, drink, and theater were profitable aspects of the resort since the original Casino of Swanton in 1904. Although gambling was never legal, it was generally known that guests could take boats from the "pleasure pier" to a ship in the harbor to play games of chance in the early days. During Prohibition in the 1930s, serving alcoholic drinks was also outlawed and the Casino changed its name to Cocoanut Grove. The name includes an old spelling of Coconut, Cocos nucifera, which was used in the popular Marx Brothers movie The Cocoanuts of 1929. The name was also used by a number of popular nightclubs of the era, including one in The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.[18]
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Grove was a popular spot for major big band acts, including Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton and Tommy Dorsey.[19] Today, the Grove rarely hosts musical acts. It is a venue for weddings, banquets, school formal occasions and reunions, and corporate events. The Grand Ballroom and Sun Room complexes include over 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) of space and commercial kitches.[18]
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