Watsonville Celebrates the city’s 150th birthday

The city of Watsonville is celebrating it’s 150th anniversary with a big birthday bash.

Watsonville was officially incorporated on March 30th of 1868.

It has gone through agriculture and architectural changes, but with those changes has come growth. While many things will continue to change, there is one thing city officials plan on keeping the same, “The past has had a rich example of immigrant communities coming to the community and they bolstered our economy, they bolstered our traditions here in Watsonville so I’m excited of our past and I’m excited to continue that tradition in the future,” says city Council Member Felipe Hernandez.

Hernandez says the city has dabbled in all kinds of agriculture from flowers, apples and now berries.

Walking the streets of downtown Watsonville you can also see the history in the buildings. One prime example the Mansion House on Main street. It was first built 1856 and has been renovated several times, but still stands as one of the city’s oldest wooden buildings.

Residents tell KION the historical buildings are just one of the things the city has to offer. Susie Davis says she’s lived in the area since 2014, her favorite part, “absolutely without a doubt the library, they’ve got great people and great resources.”

Grace and Jeff Amagal live in Salinas, but have been visiting Watsonville for more than 30 years. They say their favorite parts are “The parks, cause really that’s what we do we walk around the parks and the plaza we can walk in there.” They enjoying coming here so much, they say they might call it home someday, “If I was to move from Salinas I would move over here to Watsonville I like it very much.”

That is another aspect of the city that continues to grow, the housing market. Residents tell KION they see a lot of people coming here to find more affordable housing in Santa Cruz County. The median price for a home is about $560,000.