Thursday, April 26, 2012

Cowell Limeworks and Wilder Ranch

2012 Western Conference, Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA

Thursday pre-conference tour, led by John Barns and Frank Perry (U.C.S.C.) and by Jean Voldevort (Wilder Ranch)

Photos by Marnie Jones
Stop 1 on today's tour of the Cowell Limeworks and Wilder State Park:
 the Barn Theatre, University of California Santa Cruz. The structure was built in the 1890s and adapted
in 1968 for use as a theater. 


The Cowell Limeworks cooperage, also at U.C.S.C., served as a barrel-making facility.
Full barrels of lime were one stored underneath the structure, which stands next to four giant outdoor kilns. 

This dilapidated hay barn at the Limeworks is the subject of an upcoming feasibility study
 which will help University staff plan for it's eventual rescue. 

Additional Limeworks structures at U.C.S.C. include an historic blacksmith shop, a horse barn, residences,
a slaughterhouse, and worker's cabins. 

This Victorian home—one of several at Wilder Ranch—was built in 1897. A sizable addition was made in 1912.
The home was restored in 2005 for display to the public. 

The horse barn at Wilder Ranch. This elaborate outbuilding was constructed with lottery winnings in the 1890s. 

Tour participants dine in front of an adobe home, built by Juaquin Castro around 1840. 

Newspapers from Belfast, Ireland, dated 1870, as exposed on the second floor walls of the Wilder home. 

Two Montagues French ranges, installed side-by-side. 


The second story of the Wilder Ranch dairy barn. Some beams were hand-hewn, while others were milled. 

Tie stalls in the mansard-roofed horse barn. 
For more information on the Limeworks, visit http://limeworks.ucsc.edu/. For more on Wilder Ranch, visit http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/549/files/wilderranch_web_31609.pdf