William M. Lemos

Cypress Point

Born in New York, William Lemos (1861–1942) earned money by wandering the streets and painting on request as a boy. He moved to San Francisco, California, in 1887, where he established a studio at 106 Geary Street. With his wife, Mabel, he worked in Los Angeles for a few years in the 1890s. He later moved to Santa Cruz in 1896, where he settled, painting murals for many local businessmen and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. When the original Beach Casino was built at the boardwalk in 1904, Lemos was the first concessionaire and worked there for nearly 40 years. On his platform in the casino, Lemos created paintings of redwoods, still lifes, forest fires, beach scenes and marines. Many of his oils were done on redwood slabs, which were popular with the tourists; in the early days these paintings sold for one dollar and up, depending on the size of the work. After his vision failed and he was unable to paint, Lemos’s last years were mostly spent fishing off the municipal pier with a friend who baited his hook for him because he could no longer see. Lemos died in Santa Cruz in 1942. His work was included in many exhibitions, such as the California State Fair in 1885 and the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco in 1889. His paintings are also part of the collections of the Santa Cruz City Museum and the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite.