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| Santa Barbara Mission |
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Santa Barbara
Approximately ten thousand years ago, the Chumash Indians settled in the Santa Barbara Coastal region. Rich in culture and innovative in architecture, they were a tribe that thrived in the microclimates of Santa Barbara and were one of the few Native American cultures governed by a woman.
Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator, was the first European to set foot on the California coast, claiming it for Spain in 1542. On the feast day of Saint Barbara, the Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcanino’s ship anchored offshore and the ship’s priest appropriately named both the channel and shoreline in honor of the patron saint of mariners.
In April of 1782, the Santa Barbara Presidio Real was formally established in ceremonies conducted by Father Junipero Serra. This was the fourth and last military outpost for the Spanish Empire in the New World. During the first 70 years of Santa Barbara’s existence, the flags of Spain, Mexico, independent California and the United States flew at various times over the Presidio chapel’s roof.
The construction of Stearns Wharf in 1871 changed Santa Barbara’s development drastically into a real seaport. In addition to access by boat, the railroad was arriving and depots were created first in Montecito, than later moved to Cabrillo Boulevard along the waterfront. With access to Santa Barbara made easier, the arrival of barons of industry and socialites brought nouveau ideals and hence, the development of elegant hotels, taverns, and opera houses. Along with the wonderful climate, these developments enhanced the City’s reputation as a hot spot and thriving cultural center. Today’s Lobero Theater stands on the same site as the original opera house, the first of its kind in Southern California.
Among the many Missions and churches that can be found in and around the city, one remains as the most spectacular. Mission Santa Barbara was the 10th of 21 missions built between 1769 and 1823. Originally, the Mission was going to be built in Montecito, but the Spaniards felt it was too far away from the protection of the Presidio. It is the only Mission with two towers. In the early 1800’s the original Mission was destroyed by earthquakes, so the present Mission had to be re-constructed. Damaged by another earthquake in 1925, Mission Santa Barbara looks very much the same today, thanks to careful restoration with modern materials.
State Street, a seven-mile boulevard that starts at Stearns Wharf and winds its way toward the mountains before it veers northwest, more or less defines the city’s center. In fact, it is at the intersection of State and Carrillo streets where Captain Salisbury Haley hammered an iron stake in the ground in 1850, declaring it official that this is the city’s future midtown area.
Sometimes dubbed the American Riviera, Santa Barbara is defined as much by its beaches as its historic landmarks, good restaurants, red-tile rooftops, and celebrity citizens. These coastal stretches are beautiful and numerous, and each one is known for a specific attribute. East Beach is known for year round volleyball activity; Leadbetter for its windsurfing and surfing, lush greenbelt with picnic tables and barbeque pits; Arroyo Burro Beach with an on-the-sand restaurant, Butterfly Beach with mating Monarchs and schools of Dolphins, Miramar Beach, and the West Beach between Stearns Wharf and East Beach for sunbathers and the weekend arts and crafts display.
The signature style of Spanish Architecture, the incredible gardens that thrive in each of the micro-climates make the city of Santa Barbara one of the most beautiful places on the Pacific.
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| Montecito Country Club |
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Montecito Home to wealthy industry icons, jet-setters, the nouveau riche, and famous celebrities, Montecito remains one of the most spectacular places to reside in the world. Hidden behind its hedges and gates are some of the most beautiful estates you will ever see, steeped in history and tradition.
While it’s true that Montecito, which means “little mountain” in Spanish, has attracted the privileged class for more than a century, its beginnings were a little more humble. Montecito was originally inhabited by Chumash Indians who farmed the lush landscape and fished local creeks. The woods swarmed with grizzly bears and wolf packs and to the Spaniards, who were thinking about building a mission there, appeared too far from the protection of the Presidio.
When the first Americans began arriving in the 1850’s, Montecito was still a raw frontier. Outlaws and bandits lived in the bosques and the turbulent times continued until the arrival of the railroad in 1887. California grizzly bears, now extinct, were so numerous in Montecito that as recently as 1869 a $50 bounty was offered for every beast slain inside the community. One such specimen weighed in at over 1000 pounds!
The year the railroad arrived, a prominent San Francisco banker, William H. Crocker, and his mother-in-law Mrs. Caroline Sperry, bought Rancho Las Fuentes soon to be Crocker-Sperry Ranch. The Ranch was devoted to citrus, and a large sandstone-block packing house was built to handle the lemon crops grown by most of Montecito’s ranchers. A huge reservoir, the size of a football field, stood until 1965 near the present gatehouse of the now gated community of the Birnam Wood Golf Club, (Birnam Wood was so named from the Shakespearean play “Macbeth.”) Inside the gates, estates currently sell for 2 million and up. If you are thinking of buying property in a gated community and on the golf course, this is the only choice.
Another fabulous attraction to Montecito is walking and biking distance to the beach, in particular Butterfly Beach. Every year Monarch butterflies gather to mate at the aptly named spot and can be so thick, they resemble tree trunks. Situated beneath the world class Biltmore Hotel with its beach and swim club, the Coral Casino, Butterfly Beach is pet friendly and one of the most enjoyable to walk. On warm evenings, one can observe schools of dolphins arcing through the water and see pelicans diving into the green ocean and coming up with fish. Truly, a spectacle of paradise.
Other famed hotels are the Montecito Inn, (Charlie Chaplin was noted to be involved, but hoteliers actually just used his name to draw attention to the hotel), the Miramar, and one of the most romantic places to kiss in Santa Barbara, the San Ysidro Ranch.
Montecito has two shopping areas, the Upper Village at East Valley and San Ysidro Roads, and the Lower Village, along Coast Village Road. Many excellent restaurants can be found as well as interesting boutiques and amenities. There are excellent public and private schools, a tennis club and 3 golf clubs, Birnam Wood, Valley Club, and the Montecito Country Club.
For those who can afford to live in Montecito, life is as grand as you want to make it.
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| Hope Ranch |
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Hope Ranch
Thomas W. Hope emigrated from Meath, Ireland, to become a cowboy in Texas at the time of the massacre at the Alamo. Moving westward by wagon train at the age of 29, Hope passed through Santa Barbara on his way to San Francisco, where he met and married Delia Fox. They operated a rooming house to generate enough money to purchase 2000 sheep, which Hope then drove down to Santa Barbara. He leased land from the Cieneguitas Indians for his sheep to graze on. Shortly afterward, Hope had a golden opportunity. He borrowed $8,000 from a fellow Irishman to purchase the entire Las Positas y Calera Rancho from a widow who could no longer manage the 6,000 acre ranch. From that time on, it was known as Hope’s Ranch. When wool prices skyrocketed during the Civil War, Hope became a very rich man. Although he never learned to read or write, because of his good fortune he lived quite affluently. With a love for horses and racing he laid out the first flat racing course in California for trotters and pacers, with hurdle courses surrounding Laguna Blanca, (the fresh-water lake also known as the White Lake). The equestrian tone of today’s Hope Ranch was undoubtedly set by Hope’s pioneering. The Hope House built in 1875, still exists today and serves as a historic landmark, as well as a private residence.
In 1904, a massive program of ornamental planting was initiated to mold the image of Hope Ranch into its present image of a wealthy suburb of Santa Barbara. Dr. Francheschi’s famous nursery atop the Riviera supplied 360 palm trees to line Marina Drive and Las Palmas Drive, along with pines and cypress. Today, those Phoenix Palms tower magnificently as you drive in and out of Hope Ranch.
After birth of the Air Age, the Ranch became a favored place for the wealthy to stage weekend picnics and parties, especially around Laguna Blanca. As the word spread among the wealthy, the first scores of major estates would soon be developed. Complete with mansions and formal gardens to rival the finest Montecito had to offer, were “Las Terrasas,” completed in 1925 by Harold S. Chase; “Florestal,” for Peter Cooper Bryce; and the elegant mansions of Milton Wilson and William R. Dickinson. These estates bore the unmistakable hallmark of two of America’s foremost contemporary architects, George Washington Smith and Reginald Johnson.
Many of the amenities offered only to Hope Ranch residents began in 1930 during the depression. They included cabanas for the private beach club fronting the Ranch, a polo field, archery range, skeet-shooting facility, tennis courts and 30 miles of bridle trails. In addition, a luxurious clubhouse was erected on “la cumbre,” or the summit of a hill east of Laguna Blanca, giving the name La Cumbre Golf and Country Club to the 18-hole course. Strictly private, the club remains a hub of Hope Ranch social life today.
Residents of Hope Ranch are a combination of middle and upper class families, as well as affluent socialites and industry barons. One of the lures of families attracted to Hope Ranch is Laguna Blanca School. One of the most respected educational institutions in California, students are educated from kindergarten through twelve, and its graduates are courted by some of the top universities in the nation.
With residents jealously guarding their autonomy, Hope Ranch remains a place of hidden mansions, family lifestyles, beach parties, and a horse owner’s paradise.
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