Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
From Santa Cruz County history wiki
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, owned by the Seaside Company, is the county's largest tourist-related business. The "Casino" established on Santa Cruz Main Beach in 1904 by entrepreneur Fred Swanton absorbed the adjacent "natatorium" and bathhouse operation of the Leibbrandt brothers and C. F. Miller, then continued to expand in the following decades along the beachfront to the east. The Pleasure Pier was also built in 1904, and survived the 1906 fire that destroyed the first Casino.
- The Boardwalk is home to two amusement rides listed together on the National Register of Historic Places: the Looff Carousel and the Giant Dipper roller coaster. See also The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (4th ed. 2023) (SWC4), page 30.
- Today's parking lot across Beach Street from the Boardwalk was previously the site of the Casa del Rey Hotel (1910-1989): SWC4, page 32. Prior to that, the site held less formal visitor accommodations: first "Tent City" (1904), then "Cottage City".
- 2003. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: The Early Years— Never A Dull Moment by Chandra Moira Beal and Richard A. Beal
- 2007. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: A Century by the Sea by the Santa Cruz Seaside Company