By Kevin Newhouse
Every town in America has a building that at some point in time is the subject of creative folklore. Sometimes there’s some truth to these stories. Other times, not so much. For me, growing up in Aptos, that building was The SeaBreeze.
I was born in June 1979 and was too young or just didn’t care enough to remember the SeaBreeze ever being open for business. My first memories of the building are my best friend and a I lifting each other up to peek through the cracks of the dirty, boarded up windows on the side of the building. What we saw inside was the closest I’ve ever come to time travel. There was a really old cash register sitting on the counter with dusty old half-empty liquor bottles on the shelves. The bar stools were all lined at the bar eagerly waiting for the customers to come in and sit down. However, there would be no customers that evening. There would be no drinks served. No conversations. Inside that building was a deserted ghost town.
This, of course, led to stories of the building being haunted and had once been the scene of a terrible murder. The most common story I heard involved the mysterious character living upstairs. She would never leave the building and would chase you away if you tried coming in. Legend has it she closed the doors to the bar, turned off the lights, and went upstairs never to come back down. Based on how the bar looked when peeking in through those dirty windows, this story was easy to believe. As I got older and did some research on the building, it turns out that story actually wasn’t far from truth.
The Oldest Building in The Rio Del Mar Flats
In 1926, A.A. Liederbach purchased an empty lot next to Aptos Creek and soon after erected the very first building in the Rio Del Mar Flats. This building still exists today and is now known as “The SeaBreeze Building.”
The late 1920s were a booming time for Rio Del Mar. The Peninsula Properties Company, run by Monroe, Lyon & Miller, agreed to purchase 820 acres of land in 1924 and is responsible for the development and naming of Rio Del Mar. They heavily marketed the area as a tourist destination.
The Aptos Beach Country Club’s golf course was laid out in 1925. A dam was built across the mouth of Aptos Creek in 1928, resulting in what was advertised as the “world’s largest freshwater swimming pool.” In 1929 a huge hotel was built overlooking the bluff on today’s Aptos Beach Drive. And of course in 1930, the S.S. Palo Alto (the Cement Ship) made her way to Seacliff Beach where she still remains today. A lot happened in a short amount of time, but it all began with the SeaBreeze Building.
It was the first sales office for the Rio Del Mar Company. In 1931, Liederbach entered into a lease with Rachel Kramer who would serve hot dogs from the ocean side of the building to tourists and beach-goers, and would also rent changing rooms to swimmers at the rear of the building. In 1944, Steve Beusan and Nick “Shorty” Butriza purchased the property. Shorty also owned and operated the popular Deer Park Tavern. Throughout the years, the building served as an office, apartment house, bathhouse, restaurant, and tavern.
The Georgia May Derber Era
One of the most interesting owners of the SeaBreeze building was Georgia May Derber. She purchased the property in 1973 when she was just 30 years old. She opened a bar and ran a successful business until 1988 when she closed it’s doors and retreated to the upstairs apartment. For the next 16 years, she lived as a recluse, rarely leaving her apartment as the rest of the building sat vacant and deteriorating.
The once young and beautiful woman who was the life of the party had turned into a cranky and difficult person whose alleged alcoholism led to her reclusion. Sadly, she was also a victim of breast cancer. She died on June 8, 2004 and is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery. She wrote her own obituary and made it known that she was an only child who never married, had no children of her own or any close relatives.
The SeaBreeze Tavern
The County of Santa Cruz administered her estate and the building was sold to Sarah Unger and Rich McInnis, who in September 2007 re-opened as The SeaBreeze Tavern.
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101 Esplanade, Aptos. Open Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday from 6 pm to 1:30 am. www.theseabreezetavern.com
For more information about the Aptos History Museum, upcoming events, or becoming a member of the museum, please visit www.aptoshistory.org.