Focal point | Italian Fishing Village at Capitola Wharf in the 1880s – Santa Cruz Sentinel

A circa 1880s view of the Capitola Wharf, originally known as the Soquel Landing Wharf when it was built in 1857 by Frederick Augustus (FA) Hihn. When immigrant fishermen, mostly from Riva Trigoso, Italy, arrived in Capitola in the mid-1870s, FA Hihn leased them properties at the foot of his pier. Soon a collection of wooden carriages appeared. The Italians were soon joined by a few Irish, Portuguese and German fishermen who sent their catch daily to local markets or to San Francisco by train. The small fishing colony of about 20 boats flourished for several decades, but the deteriorating condition of Hihn’s wharf led most of the Italian fishermen to move to the new and larger Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf by 1918.