Historic Building Preserved in the Aptos Village Project
Barry Swenson Builder, the firm developing Aptos Village, announced it is in the final planning stages of moving the Hihn Apple Barn on the property approximately 300 feet west of the current location. The 13,000 square-foot barn will be structurally stabilized by an expert team, and then moved to its permanent location overlooking the Village Green.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved the final subdivision maps for the mixed-use development on Dec. 8. Work to relocate the Hihn Apple Barn will begin in early 2016. The historic apple packing facility will then be remodeled into a grocery store to include highlighting prominent historic features of the structure and interpretive signage that will illustrate the history of the barn and its Aptos Village setting.
Village Fair, the antique collective in the Hihn Apple Barn, will remain open through the holiday season. Several antique dealers who rent space at Village Fair have expressed interest in eventually opening shops in the completed Aptos Village.
Moving, rather than demolishing, historic buildings is seems to be a tradition in Aptos. Opened in 1878 as The Anchor House, the owners of the four-story Bay View Hotel had it lifted and moved 120 feet to the other side of their garden in 1946. Built in 1933, the Deer Park Tavern was in the path of a widening project for Highway 1. Rather than demolishing the local favorite, it was moved across the road and up the hill in 1947 and is now known as the Bittersweet Bistro.
History of the Hihn Apple Barn
After the logging industry harvested the redwood timber from the Valencia Creek Watershed, Frederick Augustus “FA” Hihn, seeing the growth of the apple industry in the Pajaro Valley, hired former lumberjacks to plant apple trees on the logged-out land. Converting a portion of his 27 acres to apple orchards was a shrewd business decision for Hihn. He made a profit selling orchard land and built a small subdivision on another portion of his land so workers could be housed. He offered the lumberjacks an opportunity to buy their own parcel of apple orchard on a 10-year payment plan. Once established, the orchards provided a myriad of jobs.
The Hihn Apple Packing Plant was built by in the early 1890s and became the center of the apple industry in Aptos for decades. People were needed to pick, grade, sort, and pack the apples. Men worked in the fields and inside the apple barn where they manufactured apple boxes. Men also packed the apples, a prestigious position that paid well. Women worked as graders to separate the apples by quality and size:
- Well-shaped and unblemished ripe fruit was given the classification of “fancy,” then sorted by size and shipped to be sold fresh.
- “Good” apples, which were not attractive, were sent to be dehydrated for cooking because refrigerated shipping had yet to be invented.
- Rejected apples and remains from the dehydration process were combined and converted into cider and vinegar.
Hihn also owned the railroad, and growers paid Hihn to use it to transport apples to town. As Santa Cruz County’s first self-made millionaire, Hihn died in 1913 at age 84. By then the Apple Barn had changed hands several times and the apple industry was waning.
In 1944 “Babe” and Fred Toney bought the Bay View Hotel, the Apple Barn and surrounding land. Babe started a small gift and antique concession at the hotel. In 1965 she moved her shop over to the Apple Barn and Fred divided the building up into individual stalls to attract in other businesses. They called it “Village Fair” and soon had new antique dealers and gift sellers, as well meat and produce vendors.
The Toneys tragically died in a car accident in 1979, but their daughters continued to run Village Fair for nearly three decades. The Toney daughters sold the property to Barry Swenson Builder in 2007 for the new Aptos Village project.
The Aptos Village Redevelopment Project was approved in 2012 after a decade of planning and community input. The project features broad sidewalks, shops, homes and civic space. Located at the entrance to the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, this re-establishes Aptos Village as the civic heart of Aptos. The project is registered and in process for LEED ND certification provided by the U.S. Green Building Council for projects that “successfully protect and enhance the overall health, natural environment and quality of life in our communities.”
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For more information about the project, visit www.theaptosvillage.com and sign up for email newsletter updates, or follow the project on Facebook: www.facebook.com/friendsofaptosvillage.
For over 35 years, Barry Swenson Builder has been a partner in building the Bay Area. BSB’s Santa Cruz County team is located in downtown Santa Cruz, where BSB has invested over $80 million in historic renovations and new construction since the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Learn more at www.barryswensonbuilder.com