Archive | SB History RSS feed for this section

Today, the Arlington Theatre celebrates its 82nd birthday! The Arlington Theatre opened in 1931; but before the theatre, Arlington meant the finest in hotel accommodations and the name has been embedded in the history of Santa Barbara.

Michael Redmon, Director of Research at the SB Historical Museum, provides history:
Continue Reading →

According to the General Plan, Santa Barbara has had ten major historical periods. Over the last months, Santa Barbara View is posting the History of the City…

ARCHITECTURAL GUIDELINES (1925 – 1939)

One of the most significant catalysts for the architectural development of Santa Barbara was a massive earthquake which struck at 6:42 a.m. on June 29, 1925. The earthquake destroyed or damaged many commercial buildings in Santa Barbara’s business district, most of which were built of un-reinforced masonry.

Unlike the commercial buildings, the vast majority of the residential structures in town were of wood-frame construction and survived the tremors, mainly losing their brick chimneys. Because of the early hour of the earthquake, only 13 lives were lost, as a majority of city residents were still at home in their wood-frame houses rather than in the more vulnerable downtown core. Had the earthquake taken place a few hours later, the death toll would likely have been much higher. One positive aspect resulting from the devastation was the opportunity to draw inspiration from its Hispanic architectural heritage when rebuilding the business district.

In an endeavor to see the implementation of this architectural style, not only new buildings, but many of the surviving Victorian era buildings were cloaked with Spanish Colonial Revival-style facades. City activists such as Bernhard Hoffmann and Pearl Chase continued to educate the public on the need for and value of architectural controls. In conjunction with this, an advisory committee of architects was established to review plans submitted by applicants. A formal Architectural Board of Review was in place for nine months. Continue Reading →

According to the General Plan, Santa Barbara has had ten major historical periods. Over the next few months, Santa Barbara View will post the History of the City…

Design Review Origins (1902 – 1925)

Like many communities throughout the country, Santa Barbara became interested in city improvement and beautification. In March of 1902, the City Council appointed the first Board of Park Commissioners. Within two years, the Board added two important parks (Oak Park and East Beach Park, now known as Chase Palm Park) to the city’s park system. In Oak Park more than 100 oak trees and other species were planted to give the park its natural, arcadian setting. Because of continued tree planting and maintenance throughout the city, Santa Barbara was officially designated a “Tree City USA” in 1980. It has retained that designation ever since. During this time period (and through at least 1931), various civic organizations purchased much of the Santa Barbara waterfront with the intention of assuring that it would be preserved in perpetuity for public use.

By the turn of the 20th Century, Santa Barbara had become a well-established destination for people from the Midwest and the East trying to escape the harsh winter months. In 1902, the 600-room Potter Hotel was constructed near West Beach. In 1911, this was followed by the completion of the equally grand new Mission Revival-style Arlington Hotel on State Street at Victoria which covered an entire city block. Both hotels were subsequently destroyed, the Potter by fire in 1921 and the Arlington, demolished in 1926 because of extensive damage from the 1925 earthquake.

In 1901, the long-awaited railroad link to San Francisco was completed. In 1905 a new Mission Revival-style train station was opened to travelers. During this time, the City’s streetcar system was expanded with lines running from the beach to the Mission, and in 1913, up to the State Normal School campus located on the Riviera. At that time, the Riviera Development Company bought about 300 acres of land on Mission Ridge and built the roads, sandstone retaining walls, underground utilities, and planted hundreds of oak trees. This was one of the first subdivisions designed to have a cohesive visual appearance both in its landscaping and layout. Additionally, there were architectural standards requiring that lot owners build “Riviera style” houses featuring white stucco walls with red tile roofs and costing at least $4,000, a significant amount for the time.

Santa Barbara’s Pearl

Shortly after the conclusion of World War I, Santa Barbara began to revamp its visual and cultural image. The nationally recognized architect Bertram G. Goodhue was hired to plan a new commercial streetscape (unbuilt) of Hispanic design. It was in the 1920’s that the idea of protecting and furthering the city’s Hispanic heritage was enthusiastically embraced. Civic leaders Bernhard Hoffmann and Pearl Chase of the Plans and Planting Committee, formed in 1922 as part of the Community Arts Association formed in 1919, were the driving force behind the movement to return Santa Barbara to its roots as a city reflecting its Hispanic heritage.
Continue Reading →

With hot rod vehicles in view, here’s a story about the first automobile in town.
“Although the first automobile ever sighted in Santa Barbara may have been the one appearing in the 1899 circus parade, W.S. Sherman was said to have owned the first automobile in town, taking delivery on Thursday evening, September 20, 1900. Townspeople watched in fascination the next day when he took it out for all to see. His sensational new purchase was a locomobile steamer, made by Stanley. The model was called a “Locosurrey.” This truly horseless carriage was priced at $1,200 and was operated as a rental machine with headquarters at Short’s Bike Shop, two doors south of Caesar’s Alley, leading to De la Guerra Plaza and the city hall. For a half dollar, Sherman would give a customer a ride around two city blocks.” - Walker Tompkins

According to the General Plan, Santa Barbara has had ten major historical periods. Over the next few months, Santa Barbara View will post the History of the City…

BOOM YEARS (1887 – 1902)

To much fanfare, the Southern Pacific Railroad finally arrived in Santa Barbara in 1887, providing regular service to Los Angeles. With this reliable and convenient transportation link to Los Angeles came the establishment of Santa Barbara as a premier destination for wealthy families from the East Coast, Midwest, and Europe, especially in the winter.

Photo of the first Arlington Hotel from the Thomas Schmidt collection.

Grand resort hotels such as the Arlington and the Potter (built in 1902) catered to their guests’ every need. New businesses and newly-constructed housing provided support for the city’s growing tourism industry. Retail shops, restaurants, and recreational businesses continued to expand the Downtown core along State Street, while service and industrial enterprises were found on adjacent blocks. In addition, wealthy families began to construct homes in the Upper East and other sections of the City. These households also required services, which contributed to the expansion of the city’s commercial development along State Street.
Continue Reading →

According to the General Plan, Santa Barbara has had ten major historical periods. Over the next few months, Santa Barbara View will post the History of the City…

EARLY STATEHOOD – AMERICANIZATION PERIOD (1848 – 1887)

At the close of the Mexican-American War in 1848, California was under the control of the United States military. A constitutional convention in October, 1849, adopted a state constitution which prohibited slavery. A little more than one month later, the constitution was adopted in a state-wide vote. (Santa Barbarans voted 184 to 0 for it.) Approval of the ad mission of California was delayed in Congress by its debate on whether California would be admitted as a free or slave state. In the meanwhile, California’s senators were elected, counties established, and Santa Barbara incorporated as an American city on April 9, 1850. Five months later California was finally admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st State.

As one of its first actions, the City Council hired Captain Salisbury Haley in the 1850s to survey the city and create an “American” grid street system to replace the existing winding pathways of the former pueblo. The overlay of a grid system resulted in the loss of a number of adobe buildings. A few streets were shifted to allow for the preservation of adobe homes. The most noticeable misalignment, at De la Guerra and Santa Barbara Streets, resulted from the position of an adobe, formerly located on De la Guerra Street just east of State Street. The survey created Estado (State) and Carrillo as the two principal streets defining the center of town with State Street marking the division between the “East” side and the “West” side of the cross streets. As Americans migrated to Santa Barbara from the East Coast and Midwest, they showed little interest in building adobe structures. Instead, they introduced the type of wood frame construction with which they were familiar. However, growth was slow because of limited access to milled lumber. At this time, the main form of transportation was by ships sailing the coast between San Diego and San Francisco. Without a wharf in Santa Barbara, timber had to be offloaded by skiff or floated to shore. Significant changes in the city would not occur until the completion of Stearns Wharf in 1872. The deep-water wharf provided the city with dockage for ships, allowing passengers and freight, including building materials, to be conveniently brought into the city. This improved access, along with the city’s beautiful setting and mild climate, made Santa Barbara increasingly more attractive as a tourist and health resort destination.

The second Arlington Hotel, circa 1910

The construction of the wharf, introduction of tourism, and the anticipated arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad initiated a speculative real estate boom in the early 1880’s. This proved to be short lived, however, when the nation entered a decade-long economic depression. In response to the influx of visitors, the Upham Hotel opened in 1871 (it is still in operation) and the Arlington Hotel opened in 1875. Both offered the city’s finest accommodations. In 1876 the city’s first public transportation, in the form of a mule-car line, provided direct access to the Arlington Hotel from Stearns Wharf. The mule-car line was later extended along Cabrillo Boulevard to the Bath House at Castillo Street. The mule-cars operated for over 20 years.

According to the General Plan, Santa Barbara has had ten major historical periods. Over the next few months, Santa Barbara View will post the History of the City…

MEXICAN PERIOD (1821 – 1848)

The Spanish period continued until 1821 when, as a result of the Mexican Revolution which began in 1810, Mexico achieved its independence from Spain and California became a Mexican territory. Santa Barbara continued to develop slowly as a Mexican pueblo. It was not until the late 1830’s that the lucrative hide and tallow trade made several Santa Barbara families wealthy. While a number of large houses were built in the pueblo by families such as the Arrellaneses, Aguirres, De la Guerras, and Carrillos, Santa Barbara, for the most part, remained a small community of modest adobe houses scattered around the decaying remains of the presidio.

A Mexican style adobe, circa 1825

During this period, Mission Santa Barbara was secularized and a portion of its lands were sold to Daniel Hill by Governor Pio Pico. Though Hill acquired much of the Mission’s property, he allowed the Franciscan friars to remain in the cloister and continue to hold services in the church. As a result, Mission Santa Barbara has the distinction of being the only one of the 21 original California Missions to have continuously remained a place of worship.

Santa Barbara would continue to remain relatively slow-growing until California was ceded to the United States by the Mexican government at the conclusion of the Mexican-American war. Under the terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, largely dictated by the United States to the defeated Mexican government, Mexico agreed to sell California, Arizona, Nevada, parts of New Mexico and Utah plus other territory to the United States for 15 million dollars.

“W.W. Broughton published the first issue of the weekly Record on April 10, 1875. Two weeks later, when the Lompoc dairy lands were sold at auction, the trustees of the Lompoc Valley Land Owners’ Association voted another $1,500 to assist Mr. Broughton in publishing his newspaper. By now (1875), Lompoc could boast of a medical doctor, a justice of the peace, a notary public, stagecoach service three times a week to Santa Barbara – a journey of sixty-three miles – and a Sunday school with one hundred members enrolled.”

History of Santa Barbara County by Walker A. Tompkins

An interesting section in the relatively-new Santa Barbara General Plan, is the  the History of the City.  According to that side bar, Santa Barbara has had ten major historical periods. Over the next weeks, Santa Barbara View will post the History of the City, as published in the Santa Barbara General Plan:

Paleoinian-Chumash period, before 1782

Santa Barbara’s history extends back at least 8,000 years to its first human settlements. In 1769 when the Spanish Portola Expedition visited this area, they found a thriving village of approximately 600 Chumash located at the beach, west of the mouth of Mission Creek. Archaeological evidence indicates that this village had been continuously inhabited for at least 800 years before contact with the Spanish. Led by Yanonali, the villagers were hunters and gatherers and were oriented to the sea. They were known for the quality of their tools and their wood plank canoes called tomols, in which they fished and crossed the Santa Barbara Channel to gather bird eggs on the islands.

Santa Barbara View is proud to publish The Capital, a monthly newsletter of the Pearl Chase Society. You can read the complete March newsletter by clicking on the PDF icon, left.

In this issue, Kellam de Forest looks at: the brick paved sloping entrance to the Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s Conditional Use Permit, the City’s Urban Forest Management Plan, and landscape architect Bob Cunningham’s interested in hearing about specimen trees that deserve recognition.

Also, the Pearl Chase Society Board of Directors considered a grant request from the Maritime Museum to assist with their plans to create an exhibit featuring the historic First Order Fresnal lens at the Pt. Conception Lighthouse. The lens, built in Paris in 1854, was installed at the lighthouse in 1856. It was decommissioned in 2000.

For more about the Pearl Chase Society, and to become a member, CLICK HERE.

A St. Patrick’s Day post from the Santa Barbara View Vault

Had it not been for the imminence of the American takeover, it is possible that Santa Barbara might have become part of a plan to establish a large-scale Irish colony, subsidized by the London capitalists with an ultimate view to British annexation of California, Walker A. Tompkins wrote in Yankee Barbarenos.

In 1845, Eugene McNamera had petitioned the president of Mexico for a $71 million grant of land in Alta California on which to establish three, tax-free Irish colonies – one in Santa Barbara. His plan would have transplanted shamrocks amid California poppies and promised to bring 10,000 Irish emigrants to the colonies.

The grant was signed by Pio Pico, the last Mexican Governor of California, but once the Yankees planted their flag in the California soil for good, the grant was declared invalid.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day Santa Barbara.