Tuttle Mansion

Morris B. Tuttle (1858–1937) built the red Victorian at 723 East Lake Avenue in 1899, commissioning architect William Weeks — who designed several prominent homes in the Pajaro Valley — to create the residence. Tuttle had come west from Iowa and established apple orchards on the surrounding land, and the house served as the agricultural household's center of operations for decades.

The Tuttle family's record of violent death began well before Morris arrived in California: family genealogy tracked by local ghost researchers traces a 1676 incident in New Haven, Connecticut, in which Benjamin Tuttle killed his sister Sarah with an axe — a case independently documented in New Haven colonial court records (Benjamin was hanged for the killing on June 13, 1677), though it has no documented connection to the Watsonville property beyond shared ancestry.

At the Watsonville house itself, family history and local paranormal researchers describe three further tragedies. As with the 1676 case, these accounts circulate through genealogical research and ghost-investigation write-ups rather than contemporary newspaper or court records: a 1911 murder-suicide involving William Tuttle and his estranged wife Hazel, both said to have visited the East Lake Avenue house frequently; the 1913 death by suicide of Iowa Tuttle, Morris's brother, in an outbuilding on or near the property; and the 1918 death of eight-year-old Irma Tuttle, who was struck by a 1,800-pound field roller in the adjacent fields while her cousin Allen was operating it.

The mansion remained in family hands for decades. The Oliver family acquired it in 1974, and twin sisters Kathy and Jennifer Oliver — whose parents purchased the property — have operated it as a combination of apartments, office space, and businesses including Oliver Property Management. The Olivers have described ongoing restoration of the original Victorian architecture.