Local, Local, Local: A Reader's Guide to Santa Barbara
A prominent SB author and historian offers an essential guide to understanding and appreciating "the most beautiful residential environment in the nation"
By Cheri Rae
My bookshelves are lined with books about Santa Barbara and books by local authors—a few of which I have written myself. And I confess that I haven’t read them all.
That had to change, I decided, and came up with an idea to combine two interests into one: A passion for literacy and an appreciation for Santa Barbara’s past, present, and future
The writing life is often a solitary one, so a little more than a year ago, I started a weekly book group focused on works about Santa Barbara.
For two hours most Tuesday mornings since then, our small group has met to read aloud and discuss a wide-ranging selection of material that has deepened our knowledge about, and enhanced our appreciation of, our community, its people, historical significance and literary heritage.
Asserting my personal privilege as the organizer—unanimously agreed to by our new members—we started out by reading A String of Pearls: Pearl Chase of Santa Barbara, the biography I wrote about the visionary community leader for most of the 20th century. Our thoughtful conversations about her commitment to Santa Barbara history, tradition, and civic activism were just the beginning of our enriching gatherings.
We moved on to explore three brilliant anthologies edited by Steven Gilbar: Tales of Santa Barbara: From Native Storytellers to Sue Grafton (1994); Red Tiles, Blue Skies: More Tales of Santa Barbara from Adobe Days to Present Days (1996) and Santa Barbara Stories: A Selection of the Best Short Stories Set in Santa Barbara (1998).
Through them, we’ve been introduced to a comprehensive collection of local literary gems.
These include Chumash mythology and evocative poetry, as well as accounts of Santa Barbara events, ranging from the De la Guerra family fandango described by Richard Henry Dana in Two Years Before the Mast (1840); Thomas M. Storke’s account of post-earthquake challenges (1925); and the Santa Barbara oil spill excerpted from Robert Easton’s Black Tide (1972).
We’ve reflected on John Sayles’s harrowing account of immigrants’ experiences during Old Spanish Days; read poetic impressions by Claire Rabe and compared several accounts of the sad story of Juana Maria, whose life was fictionalized in Island of the Blue Dolphins.
After Erin Graffy’s recent passing we’ve paid tribute to her prolific writing on the city she loved. We’ve appreciated her funny takes on our town in The Society Lady’s On How to Santa Barbara: An Insider’s Guide and learned about our city’s patron saint thanks to her book, Saint Barbara.
Our current selection may seem like an unlikely one; it’s a textbook written by Walker Tompkins copyrighted in 1962, California’s Wonderful Corner: True Stories for Children from the History of the Santa Barbara Region.
The Acknowledgments page offers some significant insights: This regional history designed for use as a supplementary reader to meet the curriculum requirements of elementary Social Studies in California, was made possible by the generosity of a group of public-spirited citizens in Santa Barbara. It goes on to thank several community leaders, school officials from throughout the County, and the Samuel B. Mosher Foundation, which donated fully half the funding.
The textbook may be dated, but the writing is at a high level and the historical accounts are sound.
Importantly, this community-funded educational tool provided local students with a solid grounding in local history, essential knowledge for responsible stewardship of our community legacy.
One of my Santa Barbara-raised children attended public elementary school, the other attended private school, but neither was introduced to the colorful and interesting stories of historic local events that I’m now learning. These real-life events include Goleta’s whaling industry; the revolt of the Native Americans at the Mission; the prank-burial of the actual lost cannon from Cañon Perdido Street.
I wish they had been taught these meaningful tales. I wish we all had. A working knowledge of Santa Barbara’s history and cast of colorful characters over time might help inform decisions and instill more appreciation for the value of protecting this special place from losing its identity.
Some essential reading. Here is some essential reading for Santa Barbarans. These literary accounts give context to the spirit of place that has long been recognized and ought to be heeded now more than ever:
A call to action. Los Angeles Times editor Charles Fletcher Lummis’s classic call-to-action essay was once reprinted annually in the local paper. Stand Fast Santa Barbara! serves as a reminder of what makes this place so special. In his words from 1923:
“Beauty and sane sentiment are Good Business as well as good ethics. Carelessness, ugliness, blind materialism are Bad Business. The worst curse that could befall Santa Barbara would be the craze of GET BIG! Why big? Run down to Los Angeles for a few days—see that madhouse! You’d hate to live there!
“By all that is fine and reverent and high—Faith to Patriotism—get together! The honor of Santa Barbara is in your hands—and do not fancy for a moment that her Good Name will stand if you let the materialists strip her of her Romance and leave her nakedly Common.
“It is up to you to save Santa Barbara’s romance and save California’s romance for Santa Barbara. I would like to see Santa Barbara set her mark as the most beautiful, the most artistic, the most distinguished and the most famous little city on our Pacific Coast. It can be, if it will, for it has all the makings.”
A place behind the Mission. Former president of Wellesley College, Caroline Hazard wrote an essay about how in 1885 her family purchased “a little place behind the mission,” called Mission Hill. She wrote poetry about prized garden she lovingly tended.
It’s the same property where out-of-town developers now claim the right to jam in an absurdly massive housing project without apparent concern for how completely inappropriate it would be for that cherished place:
“No sooner did they stand on the little hill, with the wide view of the sea at the south and the Canyon and its mountains at the north, than they were enchanted. I have been told not a word was said. My father looked his question to my mother, and she slightly inclined her head. “We’ll take it,” said my father, without more ado, and so Mission Hill was bought.”
The last stanza of her poem, “The Garden,” written in 1927:
“The inmost heart of the heart of the world Home here in my garden lies, For life is in every blossom curled, In every wing that flies. ’Tis a home of love, of care’s surcease, And all its paths are paths of peace.”
“A best resort of Europe.” Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s (1990), by the late longtime California State Historian Kevin Starr, is a classic. As he describes, “Santa Barbara did not have an overall appearance or controlling ambience beyond that of any other late Victorian city in California—or for that matter, the entire Midwest.” Through astonishingly thorough research he reveals “the materialization of Santa Barbara as a Spanish dream.”
In just two sentences he conveys an essential history lesson:
“Pearl Chase stepped up her Better Homes campaign so that by 1926 the Better Homes in America jury judged Santa Barbara to be the most beautiful residential environment in the nation. Chase also came up with the bull ring idea for the Southern Pacific roundhouse, fought billboards and garish signage and prevented an oil company from chopping down the Moreton Bay Fig Tree to make room for a gas station.”
He quotes writer Charles Stephen Brooks, who offered his thoughts on Santa Barbara residents and social scene in 1935: “To find another group so smart, one would need to visit a best resort of Europe.”
It’s doubtful that any other city of this size has had as many words or books written about as Santa Barbara has. Read some of them and give some thought to the part you play in its story.
Note: Cheri Rae is the former editor of California Scenic Magazine and the longtime editor of The Capital, the newsletter of the Pearl Chase Society; she writes the monthly column “Our Santa Barbara” for the Independent.
Image: Amaryroad.com.