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 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.

• "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 3, item (4), page 58.