Drennan, Samuel

Samuel Drennan (1829-1891) was a Santa Cruz businessman who lived on Church Street. A huge magnolia tree remains (between the sidewalk and a parking lot between Cedar and Center where a Congregational/Methodist church once stood). According to Ernest Otto (whose childhood home was next door), planting of the tree (among many) was "supervised by" Mrs. Drennan, the last of many Drennan-associated trees. The Drennan property, next door on the west side of the Wessendorf and Son Mortuary, was sold to Wessendorf in 1941 for a parking lot. It later became part of Center Street, when that street was completed from Laurel Street to Mission Street in the 1960s. The mortuary building remains as a Greek Orthodox church, on the corner of Church and Center.

When the Methodist church moved the 1858 Congregational church building to the rear of its new building in 1890, the Bart Stevens house was demolished, which had been the home of the George Otto family.

• "Our Old Santa Cruz, with Ernest Otto", Santa Cruz Sentinel, 4 May 1941, 7:2
• The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture, 4th edition (2023), Chapter Three, entry (4), page 58.