Main Street Boulder Creek Mable Baker donated first bench to husband Jay Baker

by Tamera O’Kelly

Having spent most of my life living in the Santa Cruz Mountains, I have always had a deep love of our small townships, our history, and our connection to the environment.  I live in a historic house, and at one time operated an inn here.  When guests stayed with me, they usually did so to experience a little bit of what it was like to live in a simpler time.  They would marvel about how rare small towns like Boulder Creek were.  Whenever I travel, I also seek out small historic towns with “Main Street” districts populated by mom and pop shops, and stay at small historic inns. That is where the heart is. Innkeepers are always a wealth of information. Over a breakfast, not only can I learn about their history, but how they are preserving their culture while continuing to be economically prosperous.  I learn something new from every historic town I visit.

When I refer to “Main Street“ districts, I am referring to a grassroots movement that follows a four point approach to help revitalize older historic districts. “Main Street America” is a program under the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  It provides a roadmap for a community to set their own destinies by working together to increase locally driven prosperity.  There are over 1,200 “Main Street” communities across the United States.

There are many signs of a successful community, but the most immediate one would be how it feels as you drive into town. Is it welcoming? Are the sidewalks bustling with people? Are the mom and pop shops open? Are the buildings well cared for? Are there places to sit and linger and be part of the community? Is there a central gathering place? Basically, is there a sense of place, and do they take pride in preserving it?

In my “previous life” I had the unfortunate experience of having to commute for work. As I drove through Boulder Creek every morning just before sunrise, I would admire all of the historic buildings, but noted that downtown in general looked a bit weathered.  The twinkle lights on the buildings had failed, there was no seating, some of the trees were dying, the old concrete trash cans had rebar sticking out and the lids were broken, and the building facades could use a coat of paint.  The highway lights were even leaning!

So, I approached the BCBA with the idea of following a “Main Street America” approach to begin a downtown beautification project.  It had been attempted before in 1992 when Boulder Creek had created its Specific Plan, but it was valleywide (too big of an area) and each town was too unique. What I found interesting in my research was that the Boulder Creek community still desired the same things that they did way back when.  The easiest thing to begin with would be to fix things that already existed but had failed…basically all of the building lights that framed the facade of downtown.  The second item was to replace highway lights with something more becoming of a historic downtown district, seating so people can linger downtown and shop, and new trash cans to match.  Of course, I knew I could not do this alone.  Before I knew it, I was on the board (early 2000’s?) and began working towards all of these goals. Because we are on a state highway, everything we work on has great hurdles to overcome through a very complicated permitting process. It is only due to the hard work of the entire board that we are able to accomplish these things. We are all volunteers with busy work lives, families to attend, etc.  Sometimes we need to step back due to life circumstances, and let other board members step forward and carry the ball forward.      

So when you ask who’s idea it was, I would have to say the community of Boulder Creek. Seating throughout town has been something that has repeatedly come up in community polls over the decades. It is one of the drivers of a functioning and thriving downtown district.  I simply saw the need, found something that would be historically accurate for our period of significance (which is focused around the year 1900) and implemented it.

The entire downtown beautification project started when I began on the board in the early 2000s, but the fundraising and purchase of our first bench actually happened in 2019.  The first “demonstration” bench was donated by the BCBA and installed in front of the Boulder Creek Hardware store, hosted by Morgan Scarborough.  We were held up quite a bit in a complicated permitting process through CalTrans, then the Covid shut down, then the CZU fire. By the time all was said and done, that first bench was not installed until May 2022, three years later. Our goal was to have at least one bench downtown for folks to experience, then begin an “adopt a bench” program to install more throughout town.  A long time and very beloved community member, Maybel Baker purchased the first bench of the “adopt a bench” program.  The bench is dedicated to her husband Jay Baker, one of the founders of the BCBA back in the 60’s and the owner of Boulder Creek Hardware store, where the BCBA bench is currently installed.  It seems appropriate that Jaye Baker’s memorial bench is placed there.  We will locate the BCBA bench to another location.  There are four more benches on order simply by word of mouth.  

Each bench can be purchased singly, or families can team up and share the cost. We are not marking up the bench, so there is no income being made from this project. It is simply a mechanism to move the project forward and involve the community in the process.  

Why are benches needed?

Benches spread throughout our town will not only to beautify our district, add historic ambiance, but also to provide a more accessible place for our community to gather and linger downtown in comfort.  When folks gather, it activates a space, decreases crime by having “more eyes on the street” and encourages more shopping of our mom and pops shops.