Court of Mysteries 515 Fair Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

"I grew up down the street from this building. My brother and I used to go inside and hangout in the early 80's. Can not believe a family is living there now."

"It's a private residence, not a museum. There's nothing to see other than what's visible from in front of a high walled concrete fence."

"This place has had a few names over the years and even the address was mysterious. I grew up on the next block. In the 80s and 90s it sat abandoned and unattended, it was inhabited by transients and sometimes people did seances or whatever on the porch. It was built by Kenneth Kitchen in the 30's, a brick worker, his work is scattered all over the Westside. His brother Raymond Kitchen helped him. Raymond had his own castle home further up the Fair Ave, a block away from Mission Street. Its been torn down. Both brothers were brick layers and stone masons. It was said they would get in explosive and violent fights while they were building the home/Red Castle/Yogi Temple/Court of Mysteries. It was built as a home and an apocalyptic shelter. It was supposed to be a 2 story that, if completed, would have been a shelter made to survive some apocalyptic event. Apparently, there are railroad pieces underground to anchor it. Kenneth never finished his home though, so it's not stabilized like he planned. During WW2 there was a fear of ocean attack in Santa Cruz. They had blackout curtains on the Boardwalk, facing the ocean. The Red Lighthouse on Steamers (the surfing museum now) looked like a military base. The Monterey Bay has a sudden drop into deep sea, which was a cause for concern of enemy submarines. Kenneth invented a device that could hear submarines in the Bay. There are 2 "flagpoles" on the property and it looks like antenna on the top of each. It was said that Kenneth lost his mind and would stay in the well room for weeks at a time, listening for submarines. Raymond would bring him food and pour water on his mattress to keep him awake. They tore the well room down, when they started remodeling the property. They used pieces of it to make a fountain out front. I was very interested in this place and read all the articles I could find about it. These 2 women (the Kitchen sisters, no joke) interviewed neighbors and one old man had great info. He said one day men from the government came to talk to Kenneth and they made him a deal or something because Kenneth disappeared after that. The sisters talked to a historian at a SC library, she had info and death certificates on everyone in the family, except Kenneth. It was as if he just disappeared, as she put it. The building is expertly crafted. It's adorned in abalone shell scraps that he got from an abalone processing plant in Santa Cruz. My Mom said that back in the day, before they had real street lights on Fair Ave, the abalone shells would make the entire place twinkle in the full moon. Above the gate there is a symbol in a triangle. If you look at it, it resembles a clock. I believe its an astrological clock (?) It has a sun, a moon, stars and arrows on it. The gate was called "The Gate of Prophecy". Not even kidding you, I really read all this lol!! Inside the house, there is a fireplace and a staircase, both heavily adorned in abalone. There used to be another clock above the fireplace. When both clocks matched each other, that was the event that Kenneth was worried about. The clock over the fireplace was stolen, all the remains is the one over the gate. I snuck inside this building when I was about 10 years old, 1993. We passed by it all the time and it was a cool thing for a kid to explore. There was a crumbling brick wall on the side of it that served perfectly as stairs to get up to the top of the building. It was supposed to have a second story, but it never got finished, so there was a hole on top. It was really easy to get up there and to climb down into the building. I walked around in there a bit, it had smooth gray cement colored walls inside, with arched doorways and little round windows, enough to have natural lighting. Very echo-y. I saw a bum mattress and left in a hurry. It was up for sale for many years until a Silicon Valley couple bought it and built a home on the lot. Another home is being built there, too. I've been anxiously watching all these years, praying that they would not tear down the original structure. Thank you for not bulldozing it!"

"Kinda cool local photo op for first time visiter. Looks like the owners have done a nice job fixing up the front of the property."

"Not much to see. Closed due to COVID, but even so I don’t think there would have been much. Nice neighborhood though and worth the walk."