From the NRHP Nomination Form:
"Mission Hill is the birthplace of Santa Cruz, the first permanent European settlement in Santa Cruz County. Until the gold rush Mission Santa Cruz was the religious, commercial, industrial and agricultural center of the county. Its only rival, the secular community of Branciforte, was not viable, and became no more than a place-name.
When Thomas Larkin established a branch of his Monterey trading post in Santa Cruz he selected an adobe building on the Mission quadrangle. When William Blackburn arrived in Santa Cruz he operated his hotel on the Mission quadrangle. The reasons for their choice was clear - there was no other location in the county that would have supported their business.
Preeminent in the county during the Spanish and Mexican periods, the Mission neighborhood remained important during the American period.
A list of important businesses and institutions that established themselves in the neighborhood in the three decades after statehood would include the following. The Methodist Episcopal Church, the first protestant church in Santa Cruz (1850). The Mission Hill public school (1856). Thomas Fallon's hotel and saddlery building, 1849 (purchased by the county in 1852, and used as school, courthouse and finally poor house). Temperance Hall (1860), the early day community and social center of Santa Cruz. The Sisters of Charity Girl's Academy (1862). James Leslie's store (1860 and possibly earlier). Jackson Sylvar's saloon (1872). The jail building (1854 and 1864).
Holy Cross Church, the successor to the Mission continued to be important replacing the ruins of the adobe chapel with a wooden church in 1856, and replacing the wooden church with the present brick one in 1884-1887.
The development of Mission Hill can be summarized as a gradual transition from the center of activity at the start of the Gold Rush to a predominantly residential district by the turn of the century.
This pattern of development is unusual as commerce usually tends to crowd out residential uses in a city neighborhood. This has been the fate of the neighborhood immediately west of Pacific Ave. in downtown Santa Cruz and replacement of buildings from earlier periods.
Perhaps the greatest asset of the Mission Hill Area is its undisturbed character. Except for the construction of a few structures, the area is relatively unchanged from the early 1900's. Few cities in California have a mission district which is as unchanged. Architectural styles range from the Mission Era to the Colonial Revival. This variety is even more unique when you consider the relatively small area in which they are located. Historically, the area is also vital to the history of the City of Santa Cruz as well as California. As one of the California mission sites, the Mission Hill area has a wealth of history. Perhaps most indicative of this history, is the fact that the Neary-Rodriguez Adobe has been continuously occupied from the Spanish Era to the present. Few buildings in California can claim this distinction. The local importance of the Mission Hill area is best attributed to by the fact that all but nine lots of the proposed district, are in a Special Use (Historic) District. This district is intended to minimize change and insure what change occurs is compatible with the area's historic character."
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Coordinates given are for a modest street sign denoting the historic district, across from the plaza.