Prior to 1970
The property at 235 Pine Flat Road was first deeded in the late 1890s, making it one of the older properties in Bonny Doon. In the early 1900s the left corner of the property, approximately 1/2 an acre, was taken to create the Ocean View School, which opened in 1903. The Ocean View School today is a historical building. The remaining property at 235 Pine Flat surrounds that 1/2 acre on three sides, and there could be an ocean view today if we knew what trees to cut!
The property at 235 Pine Flat Road is designated timber production. It was first logged, and old growth redwood trees were cut, to rebuild San Francisco after the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. There are several fairy rings on the property, where the old growth redwood trees once stood in the center of the rings, and their offspring, now over 100 years old, have grown up around the rings. The floor in the studio was built using the old growth redwood, as was a three-story chicken coop which was recently taken down and the wood donated to a Santa Cruz small businessman who creates home furnishings from recycled wood.
The older part of the house was built in approximately 1925. This is the area of the kitchen, den, and the second floor with the bedrooms and the master bath. Up until the late 1960s – early 1970s, the property was a working farm. What is now the downstairs shower was originally the mudroom, where the family members would come in from the fields and wash up. The original three buildings are the two-story main house, the building that contains the art studio and cottage are, and the small loafing shed.
After 1970
In the late 1960s, Page and Eloise Smith bought the property at 235 Pine Flat Road. They were not farmers, but rather, a founding UC Santa Cruz professor and an artist, respectively. The Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at UC Santa Cruz is named after Eloise, and she taught at UC Santa Cruz, as well as founded local projects such as the Museum Without Walls. Page Smith was a very prolific author and historian, having written over 20 books, and a dedicated educator. Page has his own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_Smith
Page also founded Penny University, free weekly discussions, and lectures, which used to meet at a coffee house in downtown Santa Cruz before the 1989 earthquake. After the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, the only person Dan Rather in New York could reach in Santa Cruz was Page, since there was no damage to the house, while downtown Santa Cruz was destroyed. Page’s obituary was in the New York Times.
Page and Eloise added the dining room, foyer, and living room onto the house in the early 1970s, and they comprise what we call the new part of the house. They also built Page’s library, and it is the middle cottage with the fireplace. Page’s books and his collection of books about and by women are still there on the bookshelves, with some publications going back to the 1700s. We bought them during the probate sale, and they will remain with the property.
In the 1950s, Roy Rydell, the famous landscape architect, bought the Ocean View School, and he lived there until the late 1990s, when he passed away, shortly after his wife Frances. Roy designed the original Pacific Garden Mall, which only allowed foot traffic, and was destroyed in the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. He also designed the landscape of UC Santa Cruz, and our courtyard at 235 Pine Flat Road, which we have maintained. Roy and his wife Frances were very close friends with Page and Eloise, and we heard stories about the fabulous parties they used to hold, with overflow parking in the fields.
The Last 18 Years
235 Pine Flat Road has been our home for 18 years, and we have loved living here. Bonny Doon is a very special place, even though it has changed a lot in almost two decades. We thought we would retire here, and spend the rest of our lives here. Life does not always work out the way you have planned it, and at this point in our lives, we really need less house and less property to take care of. We will always remember fondly our days, weeks, month and years in this house.
