Tag archives: history

Welcoming 1925
By Hattie Beresford   |   January 28, 2025

No popping champagne corks announced the arrival of the new year in 1925. Prohibition still ruled the land. Nevertheless, Santa Barbarans could look back with pride to 1924 along with enthusiasm and hope toward 1925. The Morning Press headline blared, “Santa Barbara Greets the New Year with Noise and Church Services.” The dance floors were […]

Jessie Tarbox Beals Photographs Santa Barbara
By Hattie Beresford   |   January 7, 2025

Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870-1942) became America’s first female news photographer when The Buffalo Inquirer and Courier of New York hired her as a staff photographer in 1902. The road to a career in photography, however, began in 1888 when she won a camera for selling magazine subscriptions. At the time, she was living with her […]

The Granada’s All-Star Centennial Celebration
By Hattie Beresford   |   October 22, 2024

Back in 1924, when Edward A. Johnson celebrated the opening of his spectacular Granada Theatre, he arranged for a program that highlighted the flexibility of the new venue. In addition to one of the first-ever 3-D movies, cartoons, a ballet performance, and the world premiere of Mae Murray’s Mademoiselle Midnight, he hired Antonio P. Sarli […]

New Members on Board
By Richard Mineards   |   October 1, 2024

Lucy Firestone, Gregory Fuss, and Greg Giloth have been appointed to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Board of Trustees for a three-year term. Firestone is a producer, transformation coach and co-founder of Firestone Sisters’ natural perfume line, with more than 20 years’ experience creating content that inspires healing and growth. A Princeton graduate, […]

Casa del Herrero Awarded Largest One-Time Grant in Its History
By Joanne A Calitri   |   September 17, 2024

In a press conference on Monday, September 9, David Bolton, Executive Director of The California Missions Foundation, presented a prestigious $750,000 matching grant award to Board of Trustees President Heather Biles and Executive Director of Casa del Herrero Rose Rafferty for preservation work at Casa del Herrero. The grant is awarded from the Department of […]

Shakespeare and Skateboarders Between the Sky and Sea
By Ella Catalfimo   |   August 20, 2024

Synchronized swimmers, Shakespearean actors, and trespassing skateboarders have all felt the magic of Mar y Cel, although many of those who live below the singular arched wall that still stands today have yet to hear the stories of the land between the sky and the sea. Henry Bothin, the original owner of Mar y Cel, […]

Fiesta Celebrates its 100th Birthday
By Hattie Beresford   |   July 9, 2024

Old Spanish Days Fiesta is rooted in the dozens of short-lived attempts to establish an annual festival in Santa Barbara, starting, perhaps, with the 1886 Mission Centennial celebration. In 1924, the fiesta that was created to celebrate the opening of the new Lobero Theatre succeeded spectacularly. This year marks its 100th year anniversary. Months of […]

Montecito’s Hot Springs Canyon Revised from MJ Vol. 17 Issue 19
By Hattie Beresford   |   June 18, 2024

By 1880, Montecito’s Hot Springs were so ancient that the Morning Press felt compelled to write their history. The hot springs, the article said, had been used by the Chumash since time immemorial. After the coming of the Europeans, the springs, though belonging first to the Pueblo and then to the City of Santa Barbara, […]

The History Keepers
By Hattie Beresford   |   June 4, 2024

Though the ancients relied on oral tradition to pass along the history and culture of their societies, today a community’s history exists in written forms. Civic, personal, and business records provide accurate facts about past events and issues. Often, however, news articles are the best starting point for uncovering the past. In fact, newspapers are […]

Chumash Exhibit and NAGPRA Compliance
By Joanne A Calitri   |   March 19, 2024

Administered by the National Park Service, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was updated effective January 12, 2024. The act was first established in 1990.  The NAGPRA requires all Federal agencies and all museums, institutions, universities, colleges, state agencies, and local agencies that receive Federal funds, to identify all Native American human […]

The Venerable Covarrubias Adobe 
By Hattie Beresford   |   January 30, 2024

In July 1909, much to the alarm of the Santa Barbara populace, the Morning Press announced that the venerable Covarrubias Adobe was to be razed and replaced by a modern apartment building. Without notice, Nicolas Covarrubias had sold it out from under his aging siblings, Camillo and Amelia. The first they heard of the sale […]

Montecito’s Dirt Bike Days
By Jeff Wing   |   January 23, 2024

Montecito! (excuse me) While our fairly liquid little village has never been known as the “Home of the Mink Stole,” neither has it ever sported the tagline “Central Coast Epicenter of Tweens Helling around on BMX Bikes.” That branding would likely have been discouraged by the Montecito Association. The descriptor, though, would not have been […]

New Board Members at SB Museum of Natural History
By Joanne A Calitri   |   December 12, 2023

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History announced the newest members to its Board of Trustees: our town’s Hiroko Benko and Amanda Lee. Both women have long histories as professional businesswomen and philanthropists.  Benko is renowned for her historic ocean exploring vessel, The Condor Express, founded by her late husband Fred, for which she is the […]

Avery Brundage: Montecito’s Fallen King
By Anthony Wall   |   December 5, 2023

Few have had a grander international presence while living in Montecito than a wealthy Chicago businessman named Avery Brundage. His story is a quintessentially American one – a rags-to-riches, Horatio Alger tale, though not without its twists. Brundage grew up in the Teddy Roosevelt era of bold, rugged achievers. Born to modest circumstances in Detroit […]

Edwin Deakin’s Missions
By Hattie Beresford   |   November 14, 2023

In January 1904, the Santa Barbara Independent informed the public that a “very notable art exhibit” had opened at 1212 State St. in the building that recently housed the Chamber of Commerce. For 25 cents, visitors could see the much-lauded oil paintings of the 21 missions of California by Edwin Deakin. “Each of the 21 […]

Dudley Saltonstall Carpenter: A Life in Art
By Hattie Beresford   |   October 31, 2023

Upon the death of beloved local artist Dudley Saltonstall Carpenter in 1955, the newspaper expressed the esteem in which he was held and commented that he had continued to paint to the end of his full and creative life. And what a life that was. Born into a military family in 1870 in Nashville, Tennessee, […]

Waterhouse Goes Solo
By Richard Mineards   |   October 31, 2023

Artist and gallery owner Ralph Waterhouse, who just celebrated this 80th birthday with a boffo bash at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, hosted his first solo exhibition in 25 years at his new gallery on Coast Village Road, just a tiara’s toss from Ca’Dario. “My wife Diane thought it would be a good […]

Twilight at Bellosguardo
By Hattie Beresford   |   October 3, 2023

A late afternoon sun graced another lovely event at Bellosguardo on Thursday, September 21. That day, the Bellosguardo Foundation hosted a reception and book talk by Liz Brown, author of Twilight Man: Love and Ruin in the Shadows of Hollywood and the Clark Empire. As guests mingled and explored the estate, docents were on hand […]

Barbie and Me (and You)
By Hattie Beresford   |   September 26, 2023

I couldn’t believe they made a movie about Barbie. Seriously? The doll whose body gave three generations of prepubescent girls inferiority complexes and set a standard so high some became devotees of augmentation surgery? Then I read Josef Woodard’s movie review, one which doesn’t end in a resounding nay or yay, but with – “…the […]

La Madrugada de Fiesta
By Hattie Beresford   |   August 1, 2023

Celebrating the 99th anniversary of its founding this year, Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days Fiesta was established in August 1924. Civic celebrations commemorating Santa Barbara’s old Spanish days, however, date back to the December 1886 fiesta celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Mission Santa Barbara. The purpose of that four-day celebration was to […]