Where Shipwrecks Meet Sidewalks - The Creative Origin of Ventura Street Names
- Katie Rowe
- Aug 1
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 4
By Katie Rowe, Ventura Yacht Club Historian
When my husband and I got married and moved to our first home on Buena Vista Street in west Ventura in the late 1980’s, we heard from neighbors that several streets in our community were named after local shipwrecks: Ann, Kalorama and Crimea Streets. Over the years, we’ve repeated that story, not really knowing the facts and whether or not it was really true. Well, after some research, I learned that it’s true, and here’s the result:
In the course of five months, between December 1875 and April 1876, three vessels ran aground on the Ventura beach. During this era, the Ventura wharf was a busy port for transportation of passengers and delivery of goods. Notice of the arrival and departure of sailing and steam ships was regularly published in local newspapers. A shipwreck was prime entertainment for people in town. If a ship were to become grounded on the beach, crowds would rush down to watch the drama and lend a hand if they could. Though a plan to salvage cargo from a beached ship was quickly arranged, the boat hull and stranded goods were strewn on the beach and battered by the surf for quite some time.
A decade later in 1886, portions of land in west Ventura were being divided into tracts and sold. Business partners “Brooks & Cooper” bought and named the streets within the “Cooper” tract. Three streets in the tract are named after the three ships that had wrecked and had been big news in the community several years earlier. I can only imagine why J.M. Brooks, a realtor, and Charles E. Cooper, a carpenter, decided to name streets after the shipwrecks. Perhaps they had experienced the excitement of the wrecks first-hand.
Dive into the history of each wreck, with original headlines and news excerpts from The Ventura Free Press of the time.
December 4, 1875 - Wreck of the Lucy Ann – Breaks mooring and drifts ashore
The brigantine Lucy Ann was a lumber boat that went aground in December 1875 about a quarter of a mile south of the Ventura Wharf. The street name was shortened to “Ann” Street.
“The wreck of the brig Lucy Ann, occurring so near this town, was the exciting topic of conversation all day yesterday, and crowds of people went down to the beach to look at the ill-fated vessel and see what was being done to save her and her crew.
Her crew stood on deck all through the night, watching anxiously for morning. When daylight broke, four of the sailors launched the brig’s boat, got into her and reached the shore in safety. The sailors then came up to town to get breakfast, and afterwards returned to the beach. When they reached there they found that the rope which they had used as a line to reach the beach had been stolen in their absence. They however managed to send the boat back to the vessel.”
Then published again on December 11, 1875
“The work of removing the rigging from the wrecked brig, Lucy Ann, is going ahead rapidly. Removing the lumber from Lucy Ann is being pushed with vigor. The cargo will all be saved.”
March 4, 1876 - The Loss of the Kalorama
The Kalorama, a steam ship built in 1858, had capacity for forty passengers and nearly 700 tons of freight. The U.S. Navy acquired the vessel and used it as a freighter during the Civil War, possibly transporting cargo, food or arms to blockaded cities. After the war, the vessel was sold and renamed Southern Star, Crusader and eventually Kalorama. In 1870, it was the first steamer to visit Ventura County ports, making regular stops, carrying passengers and freight. It carried people from San Buenaventura to Santa Cruz Island on the first known Channel Islands excursions. While pulling out from the Ventura wharf on February 25, 1876, a line fouled in the propeller and the ship drifted helplessly onto the beach and was a total loss.
“The causes of the disaster are not far to seek. Finding the swell chafing his ship against the wharf, Captain Elliott determined to swing off to the buoy anchored nearby, but as he had ran alongside the wharf stern on, the hawser was carried out from the vessel’s stern. On letting go from the wharf, the hawser fouled the propeller, rendering it useless. Finding the buoy dragging, an attempt was made to let go the steamer’s anchor, but it caught in the chocks and before it could be released the vessel was on the beach. The fouling of the propeller in the first place and the anchor afterwards are probably due to the fact that most of the hands employed on these steamers, although tolerably good freight-handlers and coal-passers, are not sailors. Some of the hogs were gotten ashore alive, but the remainder, with a considerable amount of corn, was lost.”
April 1, 1876 - Another Wreck
The brigantine Crimea was a lumber boat, built in 1853, regularly serving San Buenaventura. It appears to have been in disrepair when it was wrecked in heavy wind on April 1, 1876, carrying 24,000 feet of lumber for Daly & Rodgers building and fencing purveyors of Ventura.
“On Wednesday, about noon, a sudden breeze from the westward, which soon developed into half a gale, caught two vessels at the Ventura wharf. One of those at the wharf put to sea at once. The captain of the old brigantine “Crimea” however, concluded to swing to a buoy, and a rotten old hawser was attached for that purpose, which parted so soon as it felt the strain. An attempt was made to get sail on the vessel, but there was not time to get steerage way on before she would be ashore, and both anchors were let go. As these have been eaten by the salt water over twenty years of service, there was not iron enough left to hold anything and the vessel rapidly dragged ashore, striking the beach…some four hundred yards east of the Kalorama. For a time, the seas broke over her, carrying away the bulwarks, and forcing the men into the rigging, but at sunset the gale hauled to the northwest, thus blowing off shore, and measurably breaking the force of the waves. The crew remained on board until five o’clock Thursday morning, when they lowered the boats, one of which was capsized in the surf, but the other came ashore all right.”
Sources:
Map of the City of San Buena Ventura – Compiled by Ed. T. Hare, Civil Engineer and Surveyor - 1888
(courtesy of Ventura.Museum.org)
The Streets of Ventura by David W. Hill 2008
The Ventura County Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 1 No. 1, November 1955
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