Pacific Avenue Historic District (1987âÂÂ1992) was a former historic district and is the location of a downtown commercial area in Santa Cruz, California. It was removed from the National Register of Historic Places after the destruction of majority of contributing properties during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
It had an area of and contained thirty-six contributing buildings. The contributing buildings had been built between 1890 and 1929, ten of which were built in 1890.
In 1848, Elihu Anthony bought the land south of Water Street between Front Street and the San Lorenzo River. He built the first business in that part of town at North Pacific, Water, and Mission streets, and he sold the rest of the lots. Within a couple of years, commerce grew on Front Street (site of the former Pacific Avenue Historic District).
One of the most notable buildings in the district was the Cooper House, a former county courthouse designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Cooper House housed a collection of small businesses and was a popular hangout and place to hear music and get food. The Cooper House was destroyed in the 1989 earthquake and the site is now Abbott Square Market.
The Pacific Avenue Historic District was removed from the National Register of Historic Places after the destruction of majority of contributing properties during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, after which nineteen of thirty-six contributing buildings were demolished.