Rispin Mansion as seen from Soquel Creek, with zigzag footbridge on right and his boathouse on left. (Courtesy of the artist Allan B. Allen, from his book “”An Architectural Tour of Historic Santa Cruz County") In the background of a picture of his study, this rare photo of a young H.
Allen Rispin was found, depicting him as a shadowy figure. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) Capitola under Rispin’s remodeling, included a stucco bath house, and a crescent esplanade, leading to the Hotel Capitola. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The atmospheric Hawaiian Gardens night club was a popular hot spot for bands, with an adjoining dance hall in the old recycled bath house.
(Ross Eric Gibson collection) Esplanade attractions included a new bath house, a merry-go-round, an arcade, a shoot-the-chutes slide, on the lagoon’s boating and swimming pond. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The first shock came in 1913 when Frederick Augustus Hihn, the legendary owner of Capitola, died a week after his 84th birthday. Daughter Katherine Henderson inherited the resort, but management shifted from a man of detail, to no management at all.
Henderson sold the resort in 1919 to oil baron H. Allen Rispin, who had big dreams to make Capitola the Western Riviera. With World War I restrictions over, and the influenza lockdown ended, the 1920 season was expected to be a lucrative return to normal.
Although a stranger to most Capitolans, Rispin was not a stranger to Capitola. He first visited Santa Cruz for t.