Artichoke Industry by Henrietta Shore, 1937. The oil on canvas painting is located in a lunette at the south end of the Santa Cruz post office. Photo: Julia Gaudinski

The next time you are standing in line to mail a package or renew a passport in the downtown Santa Cruz, California post office, look at the four murals high on the walls above you. Painted by the renowned artist Henrietta Shore, the murals honor local industries: farming, fishing, and limestone quarrying. They depict the laborers as “dignified, monumental forms.”

“Artichoke Industry,” 1 of 2. Mounted in a lunette at the south end of the main lobby in 1937, above the postmaster’s office (oil on canvas, 36 x 72 inches).

“Artichoke Industry,” 2 of 2. Mounted in a lunette at the south end of the main lobby in 1937, above the postmaster’s office (oil on canvas, 36 x 72 inches).

These murals, like the post office itself, were paid for by the federal government. The post office was built in 1912 with a grant from the US Treasury Department. The murals came later when they were commissioned in 1935 by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). It was in the depths of the Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929, and TRAP was part of the New Deal initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt “to put people to work.” In this case, the people put to work were artists.

“Fishing Industry.” Mounted in a lunette at the south end of the lobby in 1937, facing the main entrance (oil on canvas, 48 x 102 inches).

“Limestone Quarries Industry.” Mounted in a lunette at the north end of the lobby in 1937, facing the main entrance (oil on canvas, 48 x 102 inches).

Henrietta Shore, of Carmel, submitted color sketches to TRAP, which commissioned the murals for the Santa Cruz post office. She was paid $233.74 for all four.

Unlike most artists who received TRAP grants, Henrietta Shore was not happy collecting welfare, which is how she saw the TRAP grant. She hated signing a document that said she was “destitute.” Presumably, she saw herself as an important artist who was reduced to begging.

Henrietta Shore painting “Limestone Quarries Industry” in her Carmel, California studio, 1936-1937. This photograph is on display in the lobby of the Santa Cruz post office. Photo: Monterey Museum of Art collection, photographer unknown

Henrietta Shore’s life as an artist

She was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1888. Her prosperous family encouraged her art, and she studied and exhibited in London, New York, and Toronto. In 1914, she moved to Los Angeles, where she exhibited at the new Los Angeles Art Museum. She won prizes at the Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Diego in 1915 and, in 1916, helped found the Los Angeles Art Society.

In 1920, she moved to New York. This was a turning point in her career. She embraced a Modernist approach, painting what she called “semi-abstractions.” Her work had always emphasized line and form. Now, according to writer Roger Aiken, it “emphasized simple line and shape to achieve an effect of sonorous rhythm.” In 1923 when she exhibited her new work, she received higher praise than Georgia O’Keefe did for her concurrent exhibit.

“Henrietta Shore in her Los Angeles studio,” c. 1915. Photo: Andrée Hollingrake Dell collection, photographer unknown

After she moved back to Los Angeles in 1927, Arthur Miller of the Los Angeles Times claimed she was “unquestionably one of the most important living painters of this century.” That same year, Reginald Poland, director of the San Diego Museum of Art, said, “She is a profound artist…. A great future awaits Henrietta Shore.”

The Carmel-based photographer Edward Weston is well known today partly through the efforts of Henrietta Shore. They met in Los Angeles, where he visited her studio and was profoundly moved by her work. She convinced Reginald Poland to exhibit Weston’s photographs at the San Diego Museum of Art. The two artists became close friends, and Weston claimed that he was awakened to shells, a frequent subject of his work, by her paintings.

“Waterfall,” an example of Henrietta Shore’s semi-abstractions, c. 1922 (oil on canvas, 26 x 26 inches). Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Boeckman Mayer Family Fund of the Foundation for the Arts.

When Shore visited Weston in Carmel, she was delighted and inspired by the beauty of the Carmel coast. In her youth, when she studied in London, John Singer Sargent advised her to abandon school and go directly to nature for inspiration. In Carmel, she followed that advice. Her mature work showed an intense interest in nature, albeit a nature that was transcendent and mystical. One of the few statements Shore made about her work was in a letter she wrote to Weston in 1933:

“To be true to nature one must abstract. Nature does not waste her forms. If you would know the clouds, then study the rocks.”

In 1930, Shore moved to Carmel where Weston lived. She was 50 years old and wanted to settle down. Although she remained in Carmel for the rest of her working life, she had no further significant commissions nor exhibitions except for the post office murals, one exhibit in 1931 at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, and one small book of her work that was published in 1933. In 1939, Weston wrote in a Monterey newspaper, “Henrietta Shore is an artist by destiny, a figure of national importance, lost in Carmel.”

She spent her later years in poverty. In 1958, she experienced a final indignity when she was committed to a mental hospital in San Jose, even though there is no evidence that she was insane. Supposedly, a busybody neighbor went to her studio and, finding it disorganized, had her committed. She died in that hospital on May 17, 1963 at the age of 83.

In the last 30 years, there has been a resurgence of interest in Henrietta Shore’s art. Her work has appeared in numerous exhibits, she has been extolled in books and articles, and in 2015, her painting titled “Waterfall” was acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art.

See More of Henrietta Shore’s Work

Currently, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH) has a small, temporary installation of Shore’s work on their second floor landing.

This blog post is a shorter version of a more in-depth article on Shore’s life and work entitled “A Gift to the City,” which can be found in Pathways to the Past: Adventures in Santa Cruz County History. The entire article is available as a downloadable pdf file on the MAH website.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Downtown Historic-Art Tour made possible Don Lauritson with the support of the Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

LuLu Carpenter’s on Pacific Avenue, 2015. Photo: Paul Babb

Named for a local business owner and seamstress from the early 20th century, Lulu Carpenter’s, is the oldest building on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. Built in 1866, it has also been known as the Compass Rose Building because of the rose-shaped compass that used to be embedded in the adjacent sidewalk.

The building that houses today’s Lulu Carpenter’s as it was circa 1892. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

In the 1920s and 1930s, Mrs. Lulu Carpenter, a local dress designer, operated “Lulu Carpenter’s Dress Shoppe” in the building. Her shop featured dresses, sweaters, suits, and hats made from patterns that she designed.

The building burned in 1936, and it seemed that all traces of her shop were consumed in the fire. It wasn’t until 1977, during renovation for a new bar, that one relic of the dress shop came to light. Beneath the stucco and plywood face of the building, Lulu Carpenter’s storefront sign was found, preserved. The new bar, also called Lulu Carpenter’s, displayed the original sign behind the bar until the business was sold in 1986. The sign was given to the last remaining descendant of Lulu Carpenter.

After the bar closed, the building served as a stockbroker’s office and an art house until the structure was seriously damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Extensive damage on Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, California, after the Loma Prieta Earthquake, 1989. Photo: C. E. Meyer, US Geological Survey

In 1992, the building was the first to reopen for business after the quake, when it debuted as Lulu Carpenter’s coffeehouse. The original Lulu Carpenter’s sign was on display inside Lulu Carpenter’s until 2015, when it was returned to the Carpenter family again.

Lulu Carpenters in 2015. It is the last surviving building from the mid-19th century. Photo: © Linda Rosewood

The compass rose, which was once embedded in the sidewalk, was removed and framed. It was on display in the coffeeshop until the mid 2000s when it was removed to make room for a shelf. According to one of the current owners, the “very heavy” historic piece is in storage onsite, but they hope to put it back on display. The next time that you are on Pacific Avenue, stop in for a cup of coffee and maybe even impress a few customers by sharing a nugget of Lulu Carpenter’s history.

Updated August 9, 2016

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Downtown Historic-Art Tour made possible Don Lauritson with the support of the Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Del Mar Theater, located at 1120-1126 Pacific Avenue, was built in 1936.  Photo courtesy of the Santa Cruz Historical Commission.

Arguably “the crown jewel of Pacific Avenue” in downtown Santa Cruz, California, the Del Mar Theatre stands as the oldest theater in the city of Santa Cruz. Originally built as a vaudeville theater in 1936, the Del Mar is best known for its vibrant exterior lights, independent movies and Art Deco architectural design—both inside and out.

The architectural style of the theater is Zig-Zag Moderne (a style within Art Deco that used highly geometric shapes as ornamentation) and was built by architect J. Lloyd Conrich.  The façade, divided into three sections bordered by grooved piers, is focused on its tall sign and project marquee decorated with neon stars and seashells. Beneath the zig-zag, bas-relief border bare-breasted maidens can be seen. The interior of the Del Mar was designed by noted theater decorator William Chevalis.

Decorative interior lobby ceiling by noted theater designer William Chevalis. Photo courtesy of the Santa Cruz Historical Commission.

The Del Mar opened its doors as a cinema palace on August 14, 1936, with the world premiere showing of Warner Brothers China Clipper, starring Pat O’Brien. The movie experience was quite different in those days. At the opening, according to the Sentinel, “six usherettes, all blondes, in attractive red uniforms, and three ushers in white sports coats showed the guests to their seats.” Due to the overwhelming splendor of the newly built theater and its success, the nearby New Santa Cruz Theater dropped the “new” from its title in hopes that it would bring in more customers. Furthermore, another theater, called the Unique, closed down altogether.

Commemorative plaque next to the Del Mar theater. This plaque details how the Del Mar began and how the theater was saved from being sectioned off and made into shops and offices in the late 1990s.

As decades passed, movie-goers dwindled and the Del Mar closed in 1999. The following year it was purchased by the Santa Cruz Redevelopment Agency which leased it as a joint-venture between local developers George Ow Jr. and Barry Swenson Builders. The Nickelodeon, a local independent company, together with community support, restored the theater following a design by Lerner & Associates of San Francisco. The grand re-opening was held on March 2, 2001. Of special note are the restored refreshment stand, mezzanine ceiling, light fixtures and lady’s restroom.

On December, 15, 2015 the Del Mar was bought by Landmark Theaters, a large US-based company, dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent and foreign films. According to the previous owner, Landmark Theaters will keep all the existing staff and does not plan to make any changes.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Downtown Historic-Art Tour made possible Don Lauritson with the support of the Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.