Villa Maria del Mar

The Villa Maria Del Mar Retreat Center, on East Cliff Drive in Live Oak between 19th and 20th Avenues, was established in the 1890s as Hotel Del Mar by the Catholic Ladies Aid Society of San Francisco. The hotel was used mainly as a Catholic spiritual retreat center. A new building was constructed on the original foundations in 1949. Operations were taken over in 1963 by the Sisters of the Holy Names. The post card photo (courtesy UCSC) at right was taken ~1930.