The "Oldest" Resort on the Pacific Coast

by Carolyn Swift - former Director, Capitola Historical Museum

For years, Capitola has billed itself as the oldest resort on the Pacific Coast.

The city has probably kept the title because no one has challenged it. Resort cities do exist that are much older, but these were initially established as missions, pueblos, or presidios rather than vacation destinations.

Capitola professes to be the oldest settlement founded as a resort that has served in that role for more than 140 years. Historians are nervous when declarations are made that such-and-such a place is the "first," "only," or "oldest." Usually these boasts are no sooner made than proven inaccurate.

Capitola may be right, though. Information has surfaced to validate the claim. An 1883 promotion about Capitola printed in the Tourists Illustrated Guide to the Celebrated Summer and Winter Resorts of California declared that "This great sea-side camping resort is situated on the beautiful Bay of Monterey, and is the oldest camping ground on the Pacific Coast."

"Until within the last three years, this place was visited only by campers bringing their own tents and camping outfit," the pitch continued, "but so very popular has the place become that upwards of sixty cottages have been erected, and the hotel enlarged to accommodate fifty additional boarders."
The description was written by R. D. Berry and Frank Brandon, the two partners who leased the campground. Discovery of the announcement means that while Capitola may or may not be theoldest resort on the Pacific Coast, it has claimed the honor longer than any other.

In 1883, Capitola had existed nine years since its official opening on July 4, 1974. In previous years, camping had been occasionally allowed at the beach referred to as Soquel Landing, but the campground had no name or supervision. When leasee Samuel Hall left in 1879, Berry and Brandon rented the beach property from owner Frederick Hihn, and made improvements. Resort publicity sang the praises of an improved two-story lodging house with 12 rooms and a ladies parlor facing the ocean.

"The hotel is first-class in every respect, and will, together with the entire Camp, be open for the reception of campers, tourists, and visitors, May 31st, 1883, and thereafter will be open the year round," wrote Berry.

The promise to stay in operation all the time was wishful thinking. Capitola existed only in the summertime the first fifty years of its life.

Major Ben C. Truman, author of the 1883 guide, listed the principal seaside resorts of the Pacific Coast as Monterey, Pacific Grove, Santa Cruz, Aptos, Capitola, Pescadero, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles. Truman estimated that Capitola had accommodations for 600 people. His actual descriptions of the resort, however, focused almost entirely on the French style "stunning bathing costumes" worn by the "pretty country girls who congregate in large numbers" near the shore.

Truman also noticed competition nearby from another resort around the bluff from Capitola, known as New Brighton, or Camp San Jose. It had a small hotel on the bluff and room for only 100 campers, and did not survive more than a few seasons.

Published six years later in Camping Out in California, a portrayal by Mrs. J.B. Rideout was less complimentary.
This writer thought the sea bathers more hilarious than attractive. "The little ones were near the shore, so near that retreating waves would leave them like stranded fish endeavoring to swim on bare ground." Rideout called adult swimmers "amphibious mortals who were seeking health and enjoying pleasure."

Although she enjoyed the relaxation of Capitola in 1889, Rideout considered the rowdiness among the young people distasteful. A brass band from one of California's inland towns arrived with female companions, and "judging from the noisy merriment which pervaded their camp until long after midnight, they were a jovial company," she said.

On Sunday, when the author went searching for a church service, she instead met youthful couples "merrily flitting to and fro, like gaudy butterflies…" That evening, the loud talking, bitter oaths, laughing, music, and discharging of firearms lasted nearly until daylight. Rideout was ready to board the train and ride out.

Manners among the early campers continued to break loose from time to time. Things simmered down, however, when in 1895 Hihn built the elegant, 160-room hotel, and the adjoining summer cabins grew to come small Victorians. By then, the village had its own dot on the map as a summer destination, with a seasonal population numbering in the thousands. Capitola had come of age.

Published in Capitola Magazine -- Spring 2002, revised 2015