Santa Barbara County was one of California’s counties that originally formed in 1850. Almost immediately its populace centers began to grow, even while maintaining its long-held tradition of ranching. Aged adobes were leveled to make room for public buildings in downtown Santa Barbara as commercial red-brick buildings began to rise as well, heralding the beginning of an expansion that continued more than a century.
These humble beginnings and the county’s impressive evolution are encapsulated in For the People, By the People, the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission’s current show. The exibit currently hangs in the Betteravia Gallery in Santa Maria, which is located at the Joseph Centeno Betteravia Administration Building, after showing at the Channing Peake Gallery in Santa Barbara. The public can view the show during regular office hours.
The exhibit is the result of a push to digitize thousands of pages of historical documents made possible through funding approved by county supervisors, explained the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission’s Chief Curator Maiza Hixson. Clerk of the Board Michael Allen amassed plenty of information to accompany many black and white photographs provided by the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, giving context to the photos of people long gone in places still familiar. The Santa Maria Valley Historical Society contributed a couple of images—though the show focuses primarily on South County—as well as a hand-drawn hose cart used by the Fire Department in 1890.
There are also maps, ledgers, and other materials on display. The exhibit is arranged in several different spaces, each thematically demarcated to showcase a particular time or project in the county.
“Development of the parks was one theme, shining a light on the emerging parks, because even then there was an awareness of trying to create more recreational opportunities,” Hixson said. “Some of the early photos show people relaxing in this pastoral setting and kind of unspoiled nature during the turn of the century.”
One black and white image brings to life a particularly sharp-dressed lady as she sits straight-backed at Nojoqui Falls among children. Other images reveal travelers and workers upon wooden wagons sitting among the spiraling oaks that are most likely still standing today.
The development of government buildings, including the original Santa Barbara County Courthouse, is on show next to the planning commissioner’s map of downtown Santa Barbara. This building met an untimely fate along with many others, as is detailed in an entire section about the 1925 earthquake that devastated Santa Barbara, Hixson explained.
“It was a magnitude of 6.8, and it hit at 6:42 a.m. on June 29,” she said. “It took 19 seconds to destroy 85 percent of the commercial buildings in the city.”
One particular image is powerful in its frankness. In it, Supervisor Sam Stanwood and Sherriff Jim Ross stand in front of the courthouse’s jail portion, stoically posing among the rocky ruins of the towering building, with jail cell floors akimbo, still clinging to their frames.
“They were just standing in the rubble, trying to figure out what to do next,” Hixson said.
The county persevered of course, even through the Great Depression that was soon to come in the 1930s. A number of photographs and placards in the exhibit display the efforts and result of the Works Progress Administration, the largest of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, and how it changed Santa Barbara County.
Several familiar landmarks were constructed during this period, including the Naval center, which later became Santa Barbara’s Maritime Museum, and the cultural cornerstone that is the Santa Barbara Bowl.
“It’s interesting to see just how the WPA played out in Santa Barbara County in the construction of parks, schools, roads, and bridges,” Hixson said. “According to Mike Allen, there was collaboration between Santa Barbara County and the state and federal governments that really continues to define our communities today.”
Other sections of the show detail the booming oil industry, including the famous Old Maude oil well discovered in Orcutt by the prospector who gave the town its name. There are also details of the dams and reservoirs created in the county and the veterans memorial buildings still maintained today.
The entire show can be viewed within an hour, but within that hour is a generation’s worth of history, increasing the curiosity and drive to find out even more about the massive projects, natural wonders, and people that shaped the county we know today.
Arts Editor Joe Payne is always in search of historical context. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 7, 2016.
