History of Clothing
History of Clothing in the Pajaro ValleyBride's dress - bride unknown. Donor: Jim Negus. West Point Cadet Uniform worn by Windsor Shane Buzza, class of 1988. Donor: Shirley Spain. 1896 Velvet two piece dress with...
One Hundred Years of Wedding Dresses
100 Year Span of Wedding Dresses: 1890 – 1990 This display of 17 wedding dresses at the Bockius-Orr house is one of the largest at PVHA to date. These gorgeous dresses and wedding items can be seen from now until sometime in August. We invite you to come take a tour....
Memories of the Telephone Company
By Alice Sams Montgomery, February 8, 2002 The late Alice Sams Montgomery wrote this story at the request of Jane Borg, Historian at PVHA. Alice was a PVHA volunteer who was a telephone operator in 1955 at Pacific Bell in Watsonville. In 1955, I married a Hartnell...
Local Men Invent First Telephones in Watsonville
In the late 1800s, two local men invented two types of telephones, similar but different from Bells’ style, and actually hooked them up in Watsonville! In 1877, W. A. Beck invented a telephone energized by a horseshoe magnet that was practical only for short...
Marinovich Building Sign Donated to PVHA
The Marinovich Building, constructed in 1899, graced the Peck Street / Union Street corner of the downtown square for many years, providing a human-scale presence that charmed with its bowed bay windows and architectural scrollwork. Sadly, the building was demolished...
Watsonville On The Move – Literally
When Watsonville was growing beyond its early existence as a small town, downtown space was at a premium, for building the new commercial and industrial edifices that reflected the town’s growth. To make room for that growth, there were many houses, built on those...
The First Schools in Aromas
Above: First schoolhouse in Aromas In the 1870s with the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad, pioneer farmers began settling in Aromas. With more families moving to Aromas, the Aromas School District was formed in 1889. The first classes were held on the Weeks’...
Apple Annual
By Elijah Ezeji-Okoye For a short time in Watsonville’s earlier history, autumn was marked by the coming of the Apple Annual. In the early 1900s, the city’s apple industry burgeoned, with new orchards, packinghouses, and shipping centers cropping up across the...
Peter Hauer Family and the Hauer Apple History
By Claire Etienne (Peter Hauer’s great niece and daughter of Muriel Hauer Etienne) Peter Hauer created the Hauer apple around 1900 in Pleasant Valley, near Watsonville. The Hauer apple is an “antique apple.” It is one of only two varieties said to have originated in...
Watsonville Plaza Revitalization
Watsonville historian Betty Lewis wrote “Don Sebastian Rodriguez owned the land grant, Bolsa del Pajaro, on which the city of Watsonville now rests. Some historians say he gave the area now known as the City Plaza to the people of Watsonville in 1860, but Sebastian...