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1954 Map of Santa Cruz

Name: 1954 Topographic Map of Santa Cruz
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1982
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1982

About this map

Santa Cruz thrives along the Monterey Bay coastline in the mid-1950s, its urban development bounded by complex historic Spanish land grants such as Tres Ojos De Agua and Mission Lands of Santa Cruz. The city's educational infrastructure is prominent, with neighborhood landmarks like Mission Hill Jr High Sch and Branciforte Sch serving the growing population. To the west, the landscape transitions from the developed grid around Bay Street to the coastal bluffs and gulches of the Refugio land grant, where Wilder Creek and Old Dairy Gulch cut through the coastal terraces toward Sand Hill Bluff.

The industrial and maritime character of the era is evidenced by the Southern Pacific railroad line skirting the shore and the Municipal Pier extending into the bay near the Coast Guard Reservation. Local religious and social life is anchored by sites such as St Josephs Shrine and the Home of Peace Cem. The preservation of the shoreline is already established at Natural Bridges Beach State Park, protecting the unique geology of Terrace Pt even as urban extensions, noted in 1981 revisions, begin to fill in the surrounding fields.