Episode 41: History of Mission Canyon

Scott Williams: Sweet Home Santa Barbara, where the skies are so blue. Sweet Home, Santa Barbara, what’s worked for me can work for you.

Jonathan Robinson: Welcome friends to another episode. Is Sweet Home Santa Barbara. I am your co-host, Jonathan Robinson. I’m with my friend realtor and co-host.

Scott Williams: Scott Williams.

Jonathan Robinson: today, Scott, I’m very curious about this because we’re going to be talking about the Mission District, and as being a longtime resident of Santa Barbara, I know a good four seconds of information about the mission and I look forward to knowing a bunch more. So Santa Barbara history starts with the Spanish days. So tell us a little bit about the Santa Barbara Mission and Mission District.

Scott Williams: Yeah. Most of us would call it Mission Canyon, but it is the mission district because it goes down into town and then goes up the hill into Mission Canyon Heights and up the canyon, up the mission Creek up there. Back in the day, most of us think of Father Junipero Serra, who set up a lot of the missions, toured up from Mexico. He picked a place actually in Montecito that he wanted to have the mission built. However, this was sort of in Indian territory, there were lots of bears, it was isolated. So about the time this was in the late 1700s, 1780s, there was a decision to not build the mission in Montecito, but move it up into town because the Spanish had built the Presidio, Presidio being a fort. This was out on the edge of civilization, and they decided to put the mission within sort of a stone’s throw of the fort. So where we see it today is where they decided to finally put it.

Jonathan Robinson: When did that happen and how was it intersecting with the Chumash Indians at that time? Well,

Scott Williams: The Chumash Indians, those were the people that were living here. That’s our indigenous peoples. In the 1780s, they decided to build the mission. In the beginning of the mission, it was pretty much a rough Hutt built out of Tule’s. Tule’s are basically water reeds. So this was not the tile roof multiple tower structure that we see today. It was dedicated on December 4th, which was Saint Barbara’s Day in 1786. Soon it took up its job of converting the Indians to Christianity because that’s what they were about in those days.

Jonathan Robinson: Is that how Santa Barbara got its name or was it already called Santa Barbara at the time?

Scott Williams: What nailed it down is the dedication of the mission on Santa Barbara, Saint. Barbara’s Day. This was the 10th mission by the way of a string. There were 21 of them, and they were each about a day’s ride on a horse or 20 to 25 miles apart. They go from down near San Diego all the way up to Northern California. This is number 10.

Jonathan Robinson: It’s often called the Queen of the Missions. Any idea why?

Scott Williams: Yeah, sure. Architecturally, it’s quite interesting. By the time we got to the early 1800s, they had torn down the rough structure and began to build the mission that we see today. It was really actually dedicated in its more or less complete form in 1820. Now, in 1820, it had only one tower. We think the one on the right was the one that was originally built. By 1830, they had added the second tower and pretty much it had taken on the look that it has today. However, even when they built that new tower in 1830, it collapsed. In 1833, they rebuilt it. So I’m not quite sure what was buildings out of mud, but they had their problems back in those days. It was pretty much used as a church. Soon after the 1830s it was secularized and rented out to Goleta Ranchers and it was in the 1860s that it returned to the Catholic Church. So it’s been used more or less continuously since the early 1820s. It’s the only one, I think that’s probably still in the Catholic church today. I think I’ve got that right. It’s considered the sort of the sweetest looking one, I guess you’d say.

Jonathan Robinson: Now I know there’s a dam in the Botanic Gardens that I used to spend time at in Mission Canyon. What’s the history of that?

Scott Williams: In the early 1800s they decided down in town with the Presidio and with the mission that they needed to bring water down to it. So they built the dam up on Mission Canyon in 1806 and they built all these chutes, they carved them out of rock and they had redwood pipes right down by the mission. It’s still there and it’s still part of the water system of the Santa Barbara water system today that we used for drinking. They built this gravel and charcoal filter system. It was like a big reservoir that it’s still in use. They pretty much had finished that by 1808, and they started doing laundry down there on the steps of the mission. The fountains went in and they started using the water decorative and there was a grist mill and reservoirs. We can still see these aqueducts in these various buildings that they built back there. 1806 to 1808.

Jonathan Robinson: That’s fascinating. So Mission Canyon is a great place to hike. I used to hike around there. How did that develop?

Scott Williams: In 1850, that’s when statehood came to California. This was seen as a good place to settle in Santa Barbara. This was an ever-flowing stream in Mission Canyon in those days. Unfortunately, that dried up in 1911 when the mission tunnel was bored through the mountains and redirected the water that was coming down the creek. They put it into the water system for drinking water, but the creek was now no longer a fully running stream, except when it was raining heavily.

Jonathan Robinson: There are some landmarks in Mission Canyon. What do you know about those?

Scott Williams: Well, it’s always been a sort of a hideaway. It’s right there at the back of the town. It’s like in town, but it’s like in the country. There was a ceramics kiln set up in the 1870s, had a 30-foot-tall smokestack. It was visible from down in town. There was a couple of schoolhouses that were built in the area. The Rockwood Inn, which was a hotel and rooming house, was built right down by the Mission, right at the entrance to the Mission Canyon, although it burned down in 1927. The Women’s Club organization bought that land and they got together with Plunkett and Edwards, the people who did the Arlington Theater, and they built the Rockwood Spanish clubhouse for the women’s club. I remember my mother had belonged to the women’s club there. That’s at 1670 Mission Canyon Road. Then Saint Anthony’s seminary was also built there. You can see that from all over town. That was destroyed in the 25 earthquake. They rebuilt it in 27, but it is a 137-foot tall tower that’s visible from all over town.

Jonathan Robinson: I know that area well. It’s a nice area. Now, of course, there’s a museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. How’d that end up there?

Scott Williams: Well, there was a gentleman in the early 20th century, William Dawson, who had an ornithological collection, that’s birds. So he wanted to house his bird collection, the nests, and the birds, which has become the center of one of the most interesting parts of the collection there or what became the museum. Max Fleischman, the yeast king, Fleischman yeast. He built the auditorium there. Fleischman Auditorium is much used for events in Santa Barbara.

Jonathan Robinson: Are there any other landmarks we’ve missed in the Mission District?

Scott Williams: There’s two of them because they’re preservationist style that really makes Santa Barbara kind of a fun place to live. The Botanic Gardens, that area around where they built the dam back in 1806, I think the 2030 acres right around there were purchased by a group of people in the city of Santa Barbara as a place to display their goal is to display all of the plants that can be found anywhere in the state of California, beautiful trail system, fantastic collection of plants, that’s the Botanic Gardens. Then after the earthquake in 1925, the mission decided to sell the acreage, I think it’s like six acres or so, across the street from the mission. We’re going to sell it for housing. They had to raise money to restore things after the earthquake. But a bunch of people in the cities just did not want to see houses built right straight up to the boundary of the mission. So that was bought and we know it now as the Rose Garden Park and there’s all that beautiful open land and it’s far enough back that it gives sort of a place for the, the mission to kind of breathe when people kind of want to come and visit it.

Jonathan Robinson: It’s a really beautiful open space. So sounds like the preservationist really shaped this part of town.

Scott Williams: That’s true. While we’re talking about it, they also bought the Rocky Nook Park, which wraps right around Rockwood, the women’s club area there. That’s just a beautiful park. For the last hundred years, there’s been an organization that’s been organizing this sort of thing in the Mission Canyon area. Hats off to them for just making this really a special place to live with all the history and all these beautiful features that have become part of our town.

Jonathan Robinson: Fascinating. Any new stuff going on in that area nowadays?

Scott Williams: Well, you see public art that’s being put into various locations and I think it’s a fun place to walk. This is a place where you just want to get out and hike all back up above town. There are just marvelous places for hiking. So it continues to be really a draw. People from all over town go up to Mission Canyon just to walk up into the mountains. This attracts people from all walks of life. It’s certainly one of the most sought-after residential neighborhoods in Santa Barbara, that’s Mission Canyon.

Jonathan Robinson: Put me down for a dozen houses, Scott.

Scott Williams: We’ll see that you get at least 10.

Jonathan Robinson: Okay. Thank you. It’s a fascinating history and one that I didn’t know, and it’s nice to hear about. If people want to get in contact with you, what’s the best way?

Scott Williams: Reach me at scottwilliams.com.

Jonathan Robinson: Sounds good. Thanks for these histories, Scott. I feel more connected to Santa Barbara than when I lived there, so I appreciate that and hopefully, our audience appreciates it as well. Tune in next time to Sweet Home Santa Barbara.

Scott Williams: Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to our podcast on your favorite app. If you know someone preparing to sell their home, please tell them about the podcast. Visit scottwilliams.com to contact me and download the two free e-booklets. Is My House Saleable Now? and How Not to Buy a Money Pit? Thank you for listening.