Biography of Louis C. Scholl of Santa Cruz California

A popular institution for the comfort of the masses is the Seabright Rati-t at Seabright Beach, in Santa Cruz county, owned and managed by Louis C. Scholl. A native son of the most loyal type, always enthusiastic for the Golden state, Mr. Scholl was born at Santa Cruz, on August 7, 1887, the son of Conrad and Alice (Gripenstraw) Scholl, the former from New York city, the latter a native of Illinois. Conrad Scholl was born in the eastern metropolis June 2, 1856; and his father having died when he was only two years old, he was brought out to California by his mother, who made the voyage around Cape Horn in a sailing vessel, and arrived in California in 1859, after having been one hundred and sixty-one days on the water. Reaching San Francisco, they came on to Santa Cruz by schooner and landed at Cow’s Wharf, in Santa Cruz Bay. They were lifted from the deck of the vessel in an armchair and so transferred by ropes to the wharf.

Conrad Scholl attended school in Soquel and when he grew to manhood learned the carpenter trade. He also farmed at the Twin Lakes. Being one of the oldest living settlers in Santa Cruz, he is fully posted on the early history of the locality. Two children were born to him and his wife: Louis C. and Gladys. Mr. Scholl recalls Santa Cruz of the period when he was a boy, and says that it was a very small place. Front street was the main street and Pacific avenue was only an alley. All the way to the beach there was brush and orchards but no houses. All the supplies came from San Francisco by water before the railroad was built, and he has seen seventeen schooners and five steamers in the harbor at one time, discharging and taking on freight and passengers, and handling especially hay, grain, lumber, powder, all of which were thus shipped in. He has a collection of old pictures of the various Missions, and as a display at the Bath House, conducted by his son, they challenge the attention of eastern visitors.

After learning the carpenter trade, L. C. Scholl conducted a cleaning and dyeing establishment at Santa Cruz for ten years, and in 1919 bought the Seabright Bath House. In 1921 he wrecked that structure and built the present one, so modern and complete that he has hot salt water tub baths, and bathing suits for rent, a bandstand for Sunday concerts, and a concrete runway to the Beach. The Seabright is the ideal bathing beach for children, being perfectly safe, without undertow, and sheltered from the wind by a cove. The beach is one mile long and extends to Black Point. In 1909 Mr. Scholl received a Carnegie medal for saving a life in the surf at the beach. Two thousand people have been present in one day, for the resort is so well controlled in the exclusion of all gambling and other objectionable features that it is valued as a strictly family resort.


Source: History of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, California : cradle of California’s history and romance : dating from the planting of the cross of Christendom upon the shores of Monterey Bay by Fr. Junipero Serra, and those intrepid adventurers who accompanied him, down to the present day. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1925.


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