California Real Estate & Relocation Guide

Soquel, California

Population: 8,000

Located in Santa Cruz County

Soquel is an unincorporated mid-county community of approximately 8,000 and is rich with history and pride. Its downtown is a mix of the old and the new. Antique hunters can have a field day in this quaint community. Across from the church, twenty-two small shops are clustered in a quonset hut called the Trader's Emporium. A sign outside warns: "Unattended children will be towed." There are more than twenty gourmet restaurants, plus many diversified shops in Soquel Village.

As you reach the village, huge oak trees crowd up to the roadsides, and the old white steepled church, where Soquel Drive crooks, is straight out of New England. This is the Congregational "Little White Church in the Vale," founded in 1868. Just off Soquet Drive up the hill on Center Street is another charming old structure. Now in private hands, it was the parsonage, built at the same time as the church. Soquel's small pockets of nostalgia are fascinating.

Between Soquel and Aptos on both Highway 1 and Soquel Drive, you'll pass Cabrillo College, whose architecturally unusual buildings overlook Monterey Bay. The Junior College sponsors many lectures as well as the prestigious Cabrillo Music Festival in August.