The Apple Annual

The Apple Annual was held in downtown Watsonville from 1910 to 1913. For the first event in 1910, William H. Weeks, a renowned Watsonville architect, designed a pavilion on Second Street, now the site of the Fire Station, to house the show exhibits. The week-long festivities included box-making contests, band concerts, vaudeville attractions, speeches, and parades with horns, bells, and confetti. The first apple show drew some 30,000 people from across the state and nation. During the 1911 Apple Annual, 5,000 people from Santa Cruz came to the show on Santa Cruz Day, with almost every professional and business office in Santa Cruz closed for the day; they arrived on four special trains, 33 cars, and the road from Santa Cruz to Watsonville was one continuous line of automobiles. During the 1912 show, downtown Watsonville hosted its first actual automobile parade, with 135 autos moving down Main Street. The 1914 Apple Annual was moved to San Francisco, and in 1916 it was discontinued because World War I reduced the domestic crop.

Watsonville, California · United States