Holy City, California: Once Bustling Bay Area Commune Is Now Nearly Erased 

Wow! You did a great job researching this. I was fairly amazed to see this video pop up in my feed. I’m currently 60 years old. I lived in Los Gatos, California into my late twenties. As a 10-15 year old kid, I used to walk through the abandoned buildings of this strange little town. It was a crazy ghost town that was both fun and scary to explore. The small town of Redwood Estates (just below it) began to expand around 1976, and most of the buildings quickly disappeared. I’m really glad I got to see it before it was gone. Thanks for putting this together. It’s very well done.

I have been in Father Riker's house. In the early 80s, a co-worker of mine rented it. She invited us up for a visit. That house was, as the kids would say, "Creepy AF". I'm not a believer in spirits and ghoulies, but the house left an impression of oppression and menace. We got out of there as soon as we could.

It used to be quite a trek from San Jose to Santa Cruz, and Holy City became a place where people could stop, get out, stretch their legs and get the kids to a restroom. Cars often overheated climbing through the mountains so to have a place to pull over and take a break was very welcome. A friend recalls driving thru the SC mountains during wartime, at night, and her car's headlights were half painted over with black paint by law. With the usual fog and narrow winding road, it was a nasty drive for anyone.

The building you were looking at through the fence was used as a garage. Riker's disciples lived in dorms with women on one side and men on the other. It was located near the museum of philosophy. Nice video. I have so much information on Riker and HC in case you want to expand your video.

Thank you for doing this. I had always wondered about Holy City & what the story was about it.

You should delve into the new owners of Holy City. That’s also interesting.

Not sure but I believe the commercial building shown used to be the site of the old Holy City post office. Thousands of people would come there in mid- December to get their Christmas cards post stamped HOLY CITY CALIFORNIA. Later it became the site of a artist and craftsman who designed quality stained glass, hand blown Christmas ornaments and the like.

10:20 that’s a early 1960s Corvair Greenbriar Van!

The concrete bases to the gas pumps which used to be at the service station station across the street was bulldozed about 20 years ago. About the same time I walked up to the zoo and an attached small storage room with the roof missing. 9:47. Thr floor was covered in 12 inches of decaying organic matter, which I started clearing away. At the bottom I found a dozen or so old vacuum tubes, which I believe may very well have been to service the radio station transmitter. I still have the tubes. The antenna was just up the hill from the zoo. The call sign of the radio station was KFQU. Seriously. You figure it out!

When l was young, before the artist bought that building but after Rikers death,l went with my parents to look at buying it. Maybe mid to late 60s.l have done metal detecting there and looked for antique bottles.

The vacant building used to be the Holy City post office. Our father mailed us letters from the post office on its last day in operation.

Where did you get that map? Nice

He was just a garden-variety scammer. 'Religious leader and aspiring politician', lol.

this guy completely missed the creepy circle of redwood trees that looked like it was used for religious ceremonies. we would go here in the 70's. i don't know what the grove looks like now, but at the time it was still well cleared out and had a creepy look like it was used for some kind of cult ceremony. it was very spooky. it is beyond the fence that you can see at the 7:59 mark if my memory serves me correctly. it may still be visible through the fence if it has not become too overgrown. there was no fence back in the 70's.