Kerr, William

William Kerr was born in Ireland in about 1828. He and his wife Elizabeth came to Santa Cruz County no later than 1876, and bought a large portion of what had originally been the Rancho Carbonera, roughly corresponding to today’s Pasatiempo area. Kerr had a large new house built in 1889, designed by Daniel Damkroeger. A correctly-identified photograph of the house appeared in History of Santa Cruz County (Harrison-1892), but later photos were misidentified in several later books. The house was where the Pasatiempo Inn hotel is today, just off Highway 17.

Son Earl Thomas Kerr became an artist, architectural designer, and photographer. The family fortunes declined tragically when Earl died suddenly in 1893. His mother died in 1896, and his father in 1897. The ranch went into receivership, and was bought in 1899 by San Mateo County investor F. W. Billing.

• John L. Chase, The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (4th ed. 2023), Appendix B, page 284, 285.
• Carey Casey, "The History of the William Kerr House", MAH Online History Journal