by John Hibble The more things change, the more they remain the same. Today, a school impact fee is charged to developers and home builders to support local school districts. During the early years of statehood, Aptos land owners donated land and paid for the building of the first schools. Rafael Castro, the first owner […]
Aptos Bridges
It was considered the most dangerous spot on the Santa Cruz-Watsonville Road and was known as “Death Curve”
Redwood Village
One of the many gems that make Aptos different than anywhere else is Redwood Village, hidden in a redwood grove across Highway One from Deer Park Shopping Center. Today it is a small commercial center, but it started out as one of California’s first motels.
Mangels House
Mangels House by John Hibble Mangels House is an elegant, Victorian, summer mansion in the Aptos hills, built by Claus Mangels, brother-in-law of Claus Spreckels, the sugar millionaire. It is the last remaining example of three nearly identical mansions built between 1872 and 1888. Claus Mangels was born September 12, 1832 in Baderkase, in the […]
The First Family of Aptos
by John Hibble The Native people who lived here and gave Aptos its name, lived on the land and were stewards of it. They may have been territorial, but they did not have the concept of land ownership. The first owners of this land would have been the King of Spain and the church. After […]
The Grand Hotel of Aptos
By John Hibble Clause Spreckels of San Francisco was one of the richest men in America because of his imagination and his energy. He was a whirlwind. When he purchased most of the Aptos Rancho from Rafael Castro in 1872, he had big plans for Aptos. He wanted to develop the sugar beet industry here. He wanted […]
Rio Del Mar International Airport, By John Hibble
After the invention of the airplane in the first decade of the last century, airfields began to spring up everywhere. Although most were eventually called airports, airfields or landing fields is a more accurate term for many of the early ones, as they started out as open land. Early airplanes landed slowly enough that they […]