Ashes of this beautiful school at the top of the hill at California and Lincoln were hardly cooled before a familiar Santa Cruz political controversy grew around the issue of where to build the new one. Although the school board and other disinterested parties knew that the high school had been built on a lot too small to accommodate growth, property owners in the area fought to have it rebuilt on the old site. The unfortunate choices that resulted are mistakes that Santa Cruz has lived with ever since. It is a lesson to us all, that when personal gain and strong personalities influence public policy, consequences can be felt for more than a century.

The high school siting controversy of 1911 is a story familiar in character to anyone who has lived in Santa Cruz for more than 6 months. Reading the articles is temorally disorienting. Is this the Sentinel of 1911 or 2011?

The house shown in the second postcard still stands, but was moved to the end of Otis St. when it was decided to build the highschool where it is now. It's the large blue Victorian very close to Taylor.

[more newspaper articles and postcards to come]