Santa Barbara (& UCSB) History
Looking to learn a little about our fair city? -- here are some links to get startedSanta Barbara is a very special place. If you're new to the area (or thinking of coming here), what better way to get to know the present-day city than through its past? This News item offers some links to articles that appeared in the local press giving insights into how we became who we are. Such snapshots can often convey the "flavor" of the town better than a standard narrative can.
Local historian Neal Graffy writes a column on tidbits from Santa Barbara's past, such as old photographs:
"Just an old photo": "It was just an old photograph of a Santa Barbara house and I probably could have left it at that. But for me, there's a thousand words behind each photograph - you just have to find them..."
This well-researched story about the house at the corner of Victoria and Dela Vina offers a fascinating glance into the city's evolution.
Or this column on a 1904 guidebook on what to do in Santa Barbara: "... No cars, cell phones, gaming devices, internet, radio, television or movies. What the heck did they or even the local populace do to keep from going mad with all the time they had to apparently do absolutely nothing?"
Graffy's June 2010 day-by-day series on the 1925 earthquake and its aftermath is also excellent, as is his January 2011 story about past floods with pictures from the 1914 deluge. Yes, it really does rain in paradise, every now and then!
For a complete listing of Graffy's columns on the local news site edhat.com, go to:
www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=1836&news=HISTORY.
Graffy is also the author of the 2008 book Street Names of Santa Barbara ($9.95 at his website, www.elbarbareno.com):
"In 1851 the Town Council of Santa Barbara appointed a committee to apply names to the fifty-two new streets being created from '…the front of the Mission Gardens to the sea and from hill to hill on each side…' ... .
"Unlike other towns whose streets bore the unimaginative A - Z, numbers, trees or names of presidents, they gave names to our streets that portrayed the geography and botany of our town, honored the Chumash, early settlers, governors, and showed a distinct sense of humor and in some cases, delightful sarcasm."
Street Names of Santa Barbara was reviewed in the SB Independent:
"A sense of the past hangs over Santa Barbara like a strong perfume, but by the time most residents can differentiate between the Carrillos and Castillos--or discover that former Mexican Governor Micheltorena's poor battle record was caused by a killer case of 'rhoids ..."
Walker A. Tompkins, author of Santa Barbara Neighborhoods (Santa Barbara Board of Realtors, 1989), excerpts of which were put on the web by santabarbarahistorichomes.com (see "Neighborhood Histories" in the left navbar), has many interesting short histories of the various areas of our town, for instance Mission Canyon, the Riviera, and San Roque. These are fascinating and entertaining vignettes.
Michael Redmon, director of research at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, also writes a local historical column, History 101, for the Santa Barbara Independent weekly newspaper.
See, for instance, this Nov. 2009 column about Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan: "What buildings did architect Julia Morgan design in Santa Barbara?":
"Julia Morgan was a trailblazer in her chosen field of architecture. She was one of the first women to receive an engineering degree from the University of California and was the first woman to earn an architectural degree from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Part of a highly distinguished career, her most famous work is the immense complex she designed for William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon. She also left her mark in Santa Barbara.
"Morgan was born in 1872 in San Francisco ..."
History of the City of Santa Barbara
The CAGen project Santa Barbara History page offers a short historical narrative, which is sourced to an earlier version of the Wikipedia Santa Barbara County page.
The Wikipedia History of Santa Barbara City page goes into much greater detail on the history of the city itself.
The City of Santa Barbara website offers a Chronology complete with bibliography at the end. It is organized into 8 time periods:
1. Exploration and Beginnings of the Mission Period
2. Founding and Early Growth of Mission Santa Barbara, 1786-1796
3. Economic Growth and Expansion of the Mission Complex, 1797-1833
4. Secularization and Structural Decline, 1834-1845
5. Beginnings of the American Period, 1845-1855
6. Expansion and Interest in Restoration, 1856-1924
7. Modern Restoration Efforts, 1925-1953
8. Stewardship and Modernization, 1953-present
This list of Memorable Events in S.B.'s History: A Chronology" (from 542 to 1990, by Michael Redmon) was published in 2007 in the SB Independent, if you want something shorter.
The January 1969 SB Oil Spill that spawned the US environmental movement and the first Earth Day is depicted in this Youth Cinemedia short film, which starts with a brief chronology of oil drilling in the area.
Earthquakes in Santa Barbara?
This really cool Santa Barbara Earthquake History page with information about the 1812, 1857, 1902, 1925, 1927 and 1978 quakes, and lots of photographs of the 1925 and 1978 ones was posted by the UCSB Institute for Crustal Studies. For each earthquake in the list, there is a list of links to full text primary sources from travelers and newspapers.
The UCSB Map and Imagery Library put online a collection of 480 photographs taken shortly after the 1925 quake.
In Jan. 2005 the LA Times did an informative story on the 7.2 magnitude 1812 S.B. earthquake centered in the Channel (pdf): 1812 California Tsunami Carried a Ship Inland: An undersea quake in the Santa Barbara Channel sent a powerful wave smashing into the coast, carrying a ship half a mile inland." It is hosted on the USC Tsunami site.
Santa Barbara Historical Landmarks
Pages on The Presidio, Casa de la Guerra and a few other local historic landmarks (links at the top of the vertical navbar) are supplied by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. See also their report on the NW corner reconstruction.
For the Santa Barbara Mission (founded 1786, this building completed 1820), the Wikipedia Mission Santa Barbara page is a great place to start.
The official Old Mission Santa Barbara site has a short narrative history of the mission as well.
A walking tour of downtown Santa Barbara churches, as in this illustrated "Urban Hike" report gives a good impression of our fair city's history.
The Santa Barbara County Courthouse (constructed 1926-29 after the 1925 earthquake), at at the corner of Anacapa and Anapamu Streets, is one of the city's prime attractions (the photo at top was taken from its tower). The informative and well-illustrated Official Courthouse website, has pages about tours and the pre-history of the present building.
The local internet news site edhat.com lists the Top Five Reasons To Visit the Courthouse on a page with plenty of pictures and links to a number of interesting stories.
Edhat's garden columnist Billy Goodnick published this excellent illustrated discussion of the courthouse garden's botanical treasures in September 2010. It ends with his discovery of a few "Crimes Against Horticulture" among the gems.
The SB train station with its famous huge Moreton Bay Fig tree are very worth seeing. You'll be surprised to learn that this fig, with a close to 200' diameter crown, was planted in 1958 from seed.
The History of UCSB is not very well represented on the web.
The Wikipedia UCSB page has the best history of the campus I could find on the web; the official UCSB website doesn't have a campus history, just this ahistorical About the Campus page.
On the Devereux/West Campus area, see the UCSB History Department's Campbell Ranch project page.
(Unfortunately, this project is no longer active.)
The History of Isla Vista, the off-campus student residential area directly adjacent to the campus, is very colorful.
IslaVistaHistory.com is a website promoting the 196 page 2008 book Isla Vista: A Citizen's History. It has some good links on the right side, such as one to Joel Melchione's photographic exhibition 1970: The Year of Rebellion.
IslaVista.org has a brief 3-part documentation as well.
Today IV is most notorious for its raucous Halloween celebrations. In 2006 a UCSB graduate student wrote her dissertation about the history of IV Halloween, which was summarized in a 3-part UCSB Daily Nexus series in October 2010 (don't miss the links at bottom); see also the 2nd article: 1990-2009.
Last but not least, the UCSB library has an Isla Vista Resources page.
Local Historical Lore
One of the most famous incidents in Santa Barbara's history occurred on Feb. 23, 1942, when a Japanese submarine shelled oil drilling infrastructure just north of Santa Barbara at 7pm (during one of President Roosevelt's fireside chats).
There are several sites with information about this incident, including:
- "The Shelling of Ellwood," an official report from The California State Military Museum.
- Japanese Sub's Coastal Shelling Unnerved Nation 50 Years Ago," This Feb. 1992 AP wire story newspaper report (courtesy of google newspapers) has a photo and is perhaps the most informative. (The link at right to the Daily News version offers a photo of J.J. Hollister at the dedication of a memorial.)
- "A Beach the Japanese Shelled Japanese in 1942" This Feb. 2, 1988 LA Times article contains a great description of a hike from UCSB to that area as well.
- When the Japanese Attacked Santa Barbara," by Ron Kurtus, 2001. (Don't miss the reader comments; the cactus story was later debunked by local columnist Barney Brantigham.)
- "SB Remembers Submarine Strike," Feb. 24, 2011 article in the UCSB Daily Nexus
- "Submarine Shelling of Ellwood Oil Field in 1942: Myths Can Obscure Consequences of 70-Year-Old Event," Oct. 2, 2011 article by Vic Cox in the SB Independent
If you would like to suggest additional links (I'm most interested in web content, not institutions), please email them to Prof. Harold Marcuse.
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Suggested Links
- The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum's main floor Exhibits Page gives a bit of information about the main themes of local maritime history, although for real content, you'll have to visit the museum itself.
- Since these links are useful for people wanting tours of Santa Barbara, it is worth pointing out that the amphibious Land Shark tours are a great way to get an overview of what Santa Barbara has to offer.
- When did Europeans first set foot in Santa Barbara? August 20, 1769. This Wishbone (Bell) Tower in Hope Ranch marks the spot.
- Dec. 9, 2010 SB Independent article: "New Santa Barbara Museum Serves Up an Eclectic Archive of Artifacts" about a former surf museum that now displays cool artifacts from Santa Barbara history. (google maps location)
hm 3/14/10, 3/21/10, 3/25/10, 5/30, 7/17, 8/22, 8/27, 9/26, 10/5, 10/26, 12/12, 1/2/11, 2/25, 3/27
10/17/11.