The Santa Barbara of Peter J. Barber

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THE SANTA BAKBARA OF P. J. BARBER The Career and Work of a California Architect' By Herbert W. Andree In 1891 President Benjamin Harrison visited the quiet, established re sort community of Santa Barbara, and the town, known for its floral parades, held one in his honor. Riding in the carriage willi the President was Peter J. Barber, mayor and leading architect of the city, and as the parade progrossed up Slate Street. Barber could look out upon a town which was his as its mayor, but more importantly as the designer of almost all of its major buildings and many of its houses.

P. J. Barber ^\'as an adventurous 22-year-old when, in 1852, he set out from Nelson. Portage County, Ohio, for the gold fields of California. Trained as a cabinet maker and carpenter, he became one of many designer-builders to push San Francisco rapidly from village to city during the 1850s and 1860s. However, his importance in 19th century California architectural histor\' does not begin until 1869 witli Ins relocation in Santa Barbara, where he became the major contributor to the town’s final and permanent change from a Spanish garrison-mission town to a 19th century American resort communitv.

In 1851, following the death of liis parents, Barber left Cleveland, where he had been working as a cabinet maker, to return to Nelson for his share of the family property, and there he joined fornia.

group of friends bound for Cali-

1 he San Francisco Barber found in the summer of 1852 was just be ginning to cope with the problems of phenomenal growth. In the space of three years, it grew from a village of 850 people- to a city of 36.000.●> Barber spent his first summer in California working as a carpenter, but that fall he was in Marysville, gateway to the Mother Lode country. Barber’s stay in Marysville was brief and unpropitious — his investment in the Mammoth Joint Stock Company was lost when the company failed in December. Also, he was taken seriously ill with a recurrence of a fever contracted on the unsafe and lengthy journey from the East. .After he recovered. Barber returned to San Francisco and joined the many other unsuccessful prospectors scouring the city for odd jobs. He did carpentry, farmed a few seasons on property in Piedmont in the East Bay, and worked a short time in a mill at Santa Clara, a communilv at the low er end of the Ba\'. It was not until 1855. when he opened a carpentry shop with R. Moury. that Barber found his direction and began drafting lessons with Prosper Huerne, an important architect in early San Francisco. ’I’he follow ing year Barber worked part-time in the office of Reuben Clark, another pioneer architect of the cit\-.‘ but he did not accompany Clark to Sacramento u'hen the office was awarded the commission to design the Capitol Buihling.

During the late 1850s and early 1860s, Barber continued carpentry piecework and was contractor for some buildings, and by the mid-1860s he was firmly established in the carpentry and building business. He is listed in city direc tories of the lime as carpenter and builder, but because of his drafting expenence and from his references to himself in later writings, we might correctly attach to him the label of designer-builder.’ His ability to execute a diverse yet standard group of buildings shortly after his arrival in Santa Barbara indicates a wealth of previous design experience.

Barber’s professional progression, from carpenter to designer-builder in San Francisco to architect in Santa Barbara, followed a common pattern of the day when a man became an architect more often through experience. desire, and a successful building business than through formal education or a licensing process. Not all designer-builders became architects; monetary ambition, self-confidence, freedom to design, and perhaps a desire for pro fessional status had bearing on careers of this kind. The second half of the 19th century was a period of organization for architects, a period when the criteria of the professional were established. Many more builders began to want professional status and consciously regarded themselves as profession als, a step up from the master craftsman level on which they, and even many architects, were considered."

Although Barber’s career transition was typical of his time, his move to the southern part of the state and change of emphasis from designerbuilder to architect were significant for another reason: the relocation of a highly trained and experienced practitioner from a population center to a rural village (a relocation not uncommon in an era of new and rapid growth) meant for these communities an immediate infusion of current knowledge, expertise and finesse. Barber, and men like him, were architectural trans mitters of a higher order than books and mail order plans.

Thus, Barber’s arrival and subsequent activities in Santa Barbara consti tute a major contribution to the city, not only because of the buildings he designed but because he established a level of professionalism which has stayed with the town ever since with such firms as Edwards, Plunkett and Howell (active c. 1925-1940), Soule, Hastings and Murphy (active c. 191019401, George Washington Smith (active 191.5-1930), Lutah Maria Riggs (active 1930-present), and Robert Hoyt (active late 1940s-present).

It must have been a traumatic uprooting for Barber and his family to move south, to say nothing of the shock to his career. Since the move was precipitated for health reasons, the adjustments a displacement and resettle ment of this l\pe called for permit us to understand certain things about his character. Barber was a pioneer with all the qualities that word im plies: an adventurous spirit, a strong independent nature, and a capacity to make the best of new situations. He was a hard worker, ambitious, com petitive, earnest, responsible and businesslike, and, as became apparent.

inclined towards politics. It was by these qualities, and his capabilities as a designer, that Barber earned prominent place in his new home. A sentence from his obituary sums up the respect and affection the community gained and held for him during his thirty-five years of residence: . . . In the death of Mr. Barber the city has lost one of its most respected citizens, beloved by a large number of friends and acquaintances, one who had always held the city’s best interests at heart, giving the best years of his life to the promotion of its general welfare ..

From the beginning Barber showed his commitment to his new city by immediately buying property, moving his Odd Fellows Order membership from San Francisco, and becoming a stockholder in Santa Barbara College.

Some of these, besides being good for business, reveal a man willing to commit his total personal and economic resources to establishing a perma nent home.

Santa Barbara in the spring of 1869 was just emerging as an Anglicized town. It still had a definite Hispanic character, an active mission and many adobe buildings, along with some wooden and brick structures the Americans had built since the 1850s. Generally speakin Santa Barbara’s changes during the lifties and sixties were the same as those in all of Southern Califor nia. However, during the later sixties more obvious signs of growth occurred in the state’s southern part. Before then population growth and change in general were limited to the north, and only after the railroad arrived in Sacramento in 1869 and rumors began of its extension south did specula tion, activity and thus growth come to Southern California.” But other factors brought change to the south during those times: the droughts of the 1850s killed the vast herds of cattle upon which depended most of the area s economy, causing an enormous shift in the direction of agriculture. This in advertently helped increase the numbers and influence of small landow ners.

A major change in land ownership occurred during the 1860s, for as a resuit of the droughts, Anglos with gold from mining or money from business ventures in the north bought large tracts of land grants, and two of Barber’s more important clients, W. W. Hollister and Thomas Dibblee” had purchased enormous land grant acreage in Santa Barbara County in the mid-lo60s. Finally. Southern California’s climate, talked about in the East even in the 1860s, stimulated growtii, although climate did not become a salable item nationally until the 1870s and 1880s when towns like Santa Barbara. San Diego, and Pasadena became havens for Eastern and Western well-to-do. Santa Barbara grabbed the lead in actively attracting winter visi tors when tile first resort hotel in Soulhern California was built there. The Barber-designed Arlington House (1875, Fig. 1) was an impressive and attractive structure for a small town.

Barber had

house shipped from San Francisco, and although order ing a pre-cut house was a common thing to do in rural areas, he may have

Fig. 1.

Arlington Hotel.

felt some trepidation concerning the locale into which he was venturing. It was an Italianate row-house to which he later added an office. But whatever his fears, if any, he immediately set up business, advertising himself as a “Car penter, Builder, and Architect,”*® and essentially continued where he left off in San Francisco with a design-building practice. He augmented this with a building supply service and was also part owner of a lumber business.

Santa Barbara had probably never seen the likes of such a whirlwind! Bar ber’s parochial approach showed a desire to offer complete services with a get-the-job-done attitude, and this made an immediate impression on the town: by January, 1870, he had received such a large commission as the grammar school. In 1871 and 1872 he designed the Santa Barbara College, the Lincoln house (later the Upham Hotel), the second Santa Barbara Court house (the first permanent one), remodeled the Lobero Theatre, and de signed a number of houses, one of which, the Mortimer Cook house, we will consider below.

It was not until 1874, however, soon after he was commissioned to do the Arlington House, that he billed himself more as an architect than a builder, as this excerpt from one of his advertisements demonstrates: . . . having had upwards of twenty years experience as a builder and architect on all classes of buildings and having been a student with the best architects in the slate, [I] feel myself competent to execute all 11 work and transact all business pertaining to my profession ...

Barber used his San Francisco days partly to support his change of emphasis.

People knew of his recent accomplishments, but he also wanted to impress upon them that he was a builder of many years’ experience and that he merited being considered a professional, an architect. Though creating a professional image was part of the general desire to reach a higher profess ional level, the particular vehicle used by different individuals varied. Barber here projects himself as a man of great experience and, what is equally im portant, a gentleman architect — a man of learning, of culture, of letters.

He knew it made little difference to his clients that he have an official Beaux Arts credential — he had received that second-hand from Huerne, a means most provincial architects used — but what was important was that the pub lic be convinced by his experience and the image he projected. Here is another passage from the same advertisement: . . . My extensive library of architectural works shall be open to the inspection of parties wishing to build for themselves, showing the various modern ways of planning and arranging the interior of build ings and the improvements connected therewith .. .

While presenting a social invitation to come in and meet him, as well as offering a kind of reference library service. Barber is reinforcing the idea of a man of learning, an up-to-date architect who can produce the latest and most correct buildings of any type.

It is perhaps important to ask why he waited four years to refer to himself solely as an architect. It probably look that long for him to feel tliat his building business had reached a level of success to equal the pro fessional respect he desired, knew he deserved, and for which he was advertis ing. As a member of the professional class, and in order to firmly establish his professionalism, he made his fees commensurate with his status: My fees hereafter for professional ser\'ices will be as follows: for scale drawings, 2% for specification and details, 1% additional for superintending and construction of the work, 1% based upon the cost of tlie building of other works . . .13 Santa Barbara, from its beginnings as an American town (c. 1855), responded to anyone who presented himself as a cultured person, for it considered itself cosmopolitan, having had a theater from the mid-1860s, a college (in reality a boarding school) from 1871, and a resort hotel from 1875.

Barber s new image as architect, ending his professional transition, was achieved by tlie mid-lS70s. and from then on he was established as one of Santa Barbara's most prominent citizens. Whether his career and his social acceptance ^vouId have been less successful if he had not pushed himself upward is hard to say, for he was certainly not wanting for work in the early 1870s. However, he did see this elevated status as important. How one views oneself has much to do with what others see, and it is quite clear that

Santa Barbara saw Barber as a professional, first-rate architect, as well as one of its leading citizens.

The remainder of the seventies was immensely successful for Barber.

To judge by his work load and the numerous brief newspaper references to new public works projects which “Mr. Barber” had been requested to look after, it was almost as if he were “architect in residence.” There were other men whose names appeared in advertisements for periods as long as three years, but then disappear, presumably because the 1870s, like the 1880s and 1890s, had boom and recession times. Thomas Nixon, Barber’s chief 14

competitor during the eighties and nineties, did not arrive until 1877.

Barber ran a one-man office for most of his career in Santa Barbara.

During the 1890s, however, city directories list him twice in partnership for short periods. It would seem that there was either not enough work for a permanent enlargement of his office, or he may have been trying to pass the business to a younger man. The character of his and Nixon’s operations was quite direct, as both undoubtedly supervised the building of most of their projects. Apart from the fury of activity during the 1870s and mid1880s, they probably had little need even of drafting help.

During the 1880s the number of Barber’s projects dropped off some what, partly due to competition from Nixon, partly to the scarcity of money (the middle part of the decade was the only prosperous lime), and partly to his duties as mayor (1880-1881), postmaster (1882-1886), and again as mayor (1890-1891). While these posts were non-paying part-time jobs, they show an important aspect of Barber’s character: they speak of a man who wanted more than to be a designer, for it was rare that professionals, excluding lawyers, got involved in politics. Though the jobs took time away from his practice, he obviously wanted and enjoyed the prestige and acclaim of public office. His first election showed the town’s respect, and that it re-elected him eight years later, after petitioning him to run, showed still further that Barber, with his administrative gifts, was held in high regard.

The accomplishments of his terms of office were primarily those of public works construction, of which the most significant was the spectacular treelined ocean-front boulevard which today is still an important contributor to the city’s beauty and a testament to Barber’s vision (Fig. 2).

After his second mayoral term. Barber remained active in his practice until the latter part of the decade, but few buildings by him after 1893 have been found. One of the ways he kept busy was by serving on civic commit tees, including the presidency of the Santa Barbara Committee for the San Francisco Midwinter Fair of 1894, the answer to the Chicago Fair of 1893.

The fair, among other things, is given credit for furthering the establishment of Mission Revival in California. Santa Barbara County’s exhibit was a small replica of its Mission, a testament to the new Mission Revival, and a

Fig. 2.

Cabrillo Boulevard.

step toward the 20th century Spanish Revival. Barber and his work were part of the 19th century.

BARBER’S BUILDINGS Since Barber was responsible for a great number of Santa Barbara’s buildings between 1870 and 1900, his most active years being between 1870 and 1890, his work embodies the idea of what a small town architect in Cali fornia was called upon to do in terms of styles and types of structures. It also gives us a limited picture of what was happening architecturally in California.

Like most American designers in the second half of the 19th century, Barber used a number of styles of Victorian architecture. His use of archi tectural history was essentially romantic, a part of the artistic romanticism which ultimately stretched back to people such as Salvator Rosa and the Italian art of the 17th century. The romantic or picturesque viewpoint was popularized and transmitted to America from England, but it was in America that picturesque, or Victorian, architecture reached its highest and most unusual expressive levels.

Gold rush settlers brought in Victorian architecture, in all its modes.

Here the style reached an unprecedented level of variety and exuberance,

sometimes bordering on the bizarre. This was partly because it was new when California was new, and partly because Californians, like all Americans (but perhaps a little more so) soon learned that architecture was part of fashion: building styles were adorned and changed as often as clothing. The bizarre quality of much of California Victoriana may also be attributed to Califor nia’s rich and upper middle classes, who felt impelled to display their wealth, the house becoming an obvious sign of affluence.

Architectural style and fashion bring to mind the subject of taste, im portant in any discussion of Victorian architecture. Russell Lynes, in The Taste Makers (1954), demonstrates that stylistic taste, or the idea of being tasteful, became a general public concern after 1850 in America. He states that this concern was an important direction for design between 1845 and 1880. The American public was encouraged in this architecturally (interior decoration and landscaping) by Andrew Jackson Downing who, followed by others, called for public awareness of architectural style, and instructed the public that building style was a matter of fashion. By taking this stand, Downing showed his faith in the average man’s ability to be tastefully dis criminating about building styles. This change in critical attitude toward the public’s ability to be trusted esthetically took place in an America im bued with Jacksonian democratic ideals.

Downing’s admonitions about style, and his faith in the layman’s taste, resulted in the diversity of styles and freedom of expression which became hallmarks of Victorian architecture. The ingenuity which helped create Victorian architecture, even the idea that every designer could be ingenious, was new in the sense that it gave freedom of interpretation to a designer: it gave him the right to interpret styles and their elements as he wished. Pre viously such freedom had been a privilege of only the most formally trained and successful architects, but now it became the right of all dabblers in de sign. Freedom of expression became a universal right, and as such had a leveling effect in the field of design, not only in the art of design but in helping to open the profession, creating a new mobile environment in which a builder could progress to the level of architect more easily than before.

An egalitarian attitude prevailed in American architecture and design in general for approximately fifty years between the demise of the Greek Revival mode and the Centennial Exhibition (1876), an attitude founded on the democratic principle that every man should have educated tastes, that every designer could create tasteful architecture, and that all architecture was w orthy of being tasteful. This environment of freedom allowed the cre ation of a wide variety of forms and details under the same style labels.

The diversity of Victorian architecture has only recently been viewed in a positive way. We now see freedom in design as healthy, but until this atti tude became widespread it was difficult to appreciate and evaluate 19th century architecture after 1830.

The inspiration for styles had other sources besides freedom of expression. Contemporary buildings, as w’ell as those in a designer’s background, were influential.^® Equally important were pattern books and archi tectural journals, books being the more used until the 1870s. Before that time only a small number of American journals existed.

I^ext issue: A catalog of Barbers work and its relation to contemporary architecture.

NOTES 1. I would like to express sincere thanks to Professor David Gebhard for his guidance, encouragement and criticism of this project, to Esther McCoy for criticizing the manuscript, and to Mrs. Marilynn McLaren, P. J. Barber’s great granddaughter, who gave me access to the remaining Barber papers. I also received invaluable help from Mrs. Henry Griffiths and Mr. Robert Gates, Director and Librarian respectively of the Santa Barbara Historical Society, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Bonilla, Mr. Walker Tompkins, and Mrs. Virginia Dibblee Hoyt. Kathleen di Stefano, Douglas Dutton and Merrill Tilghman were extremely helpful in editing the article.

2. Zoeth S. Eldredge, The Beginnings oj San Francisco (San Francisco, 1912), 565.

3. Warren S. Thompson, Population oj San Francisco County from State Census oj 1852, Growth and Changes in California's Population (Los Angeles, 1855), 9.

4. Clark arrived in San Francisco in 1849, and one of his projects was the Marine Hospital in 1853. He won the competition for the new State Capitol building in Sacramento, but the construction bond failed and the project was not started again until 1860 when a new competition was held and M. F. Butler became the architect.

Clark was appointed Supervising Architect (California State Capitol: Workers of the W'.P.A. in Northern California. Sacramento, 1942, p. 40).

Huerne was a well established and successful architect in the city’s early history.

He was trained in France as a civil engineer and arrived in San Francisco in 1850.

He is credited with many works: the North Point Docks (1854), the French Hospital on Bryant Street (1853), the Spreckels Sugar Refinery on 8tli Street, and others (Harold Kirker, California's Architectural Frontier. San Marino, 1960, p. 209; Cali fornia Architect and Building News, Vol. V, August 1885, p. 147). Barber probably studied under him in 1855. Prof Kirker notes, “. . . Despite the increasing influence of regional professional schools and local Beaux-Arts societies, apprenticeships con tinued to be the major phase in the education of Western architects. These were served almost entirely in the San Francisco offices of David Farquharson, Prosper Huerne, W'illiam .Mooser, and S. C. Bugbee and Son” (p. 90).

5. In one advertisement in Santa Barbara Barber talks about designing all types of ijuildings in San Francisco, and in a biograpliical sketch he wrote for local history he says the same. Nowhere docs he mention what these buildings were, and no list was uncovered in his papers. Thus his works in San Francisco are part of anonymous history.

6. The American Institute of Architects dates from 1857 and the California chapter was established in 1878. The “professionalism” of architects and the lack or attain ment thereof was a recurring theme in the California Architect and Building News (begun in 1880). and mostly through its efforts licensing became part of California law by 1895.

7. Obituary, Santa Barbara, The Morning Press, 1905.

8. Tliere were two growth booms in the latter part of the century that gave Southern California the profile with which it entered the 20th century. They were both associ ated with the railroad, the first occurring in the 1370s. a part of the initial trans continental route which pushed south from Sacramento through the Central Valley to Los Angeles, the second during the 1880s when the Santa Fe and Southern Pa cific connected Southern California directly with the Midwest and South. The de velopment of Santa Barbara and San Diego was aided by the first, as was that of

Los Angeles to a certain extent, but the principal boost for Los Angeles came with the boom of tlie 1880s (see Glenn Dumke’s The Boom of the 1880s in Southern Cali fornia).

9. Colonel William Welles Hollister, after whom Hollister, California, was named, came to Santa Barbara in 1866 and was in most senses the major benefactor of the town until his death in 1886. Thomas Bloodgood Dibblee had made a fortune in Northern California and had come south in the mid-1860s to invest in land. He had also married into the De la Guerra family, the family of the last comandante of the Santa Barbara Presidio. Dibblee was second to Hollister as a benefactor of Santa Barbara. Barber designed for him a large Italianate villa in the late 1870s.

10. Santa Barbara Times, July 25, 1870.

11. Santa Barbara Daily Press, December 9, 1874.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Thomas Nixon was born in Canada, and it is not known whether he slopped in San Francisco before settling in .Santa Barl)ara.

15. Designers saw details in the work of others which they liked and used, and clients were impressed with buildings they saw and no doubt wanted ones just like them.

This discussion of sources does not mean to imply that Victorian buildings were always unique — many pedestrian structures were produced speculatively by car penters and builders. Victorian architecture simply had a higher degree of freedom and individuality. Sterility of design can occur for many reasons, not the least being that the first buildings needed in rural areas are plain and unadorned for lack of money, utility being the primary concern.

99

A “BOUQUET OF CAPITALISTS AT THE POTTER HOTEL, 1904 We ivish to thank Stanley and Juanita Crane of Santa Barbara for their per mission to publish this chapter from A French Journalist in America by Jules Huret, written in 1904 when its author made a ten-month trip through the United Stales. It was translated by Mr. Crane s father, the late Jonathan Mayo Crane, tvho was an editorial writer for the old Chicago Tribune, ami is not to be reprinted without the permission of the Cranes.

We know our readers will enjoy this glimpse of Santa Barbara high life when the century and the Potter Hotel were young.

— Editor In Los Angeles evervone said to me, "‘You should not leave California without seeing Santa Barbara, Coronado Beach, Monterey, and San Diego.

These are the fashionable beaches of the West Coast, and if you return to Europe without seeing them you cannot say that you know America,

But

if I cannot say that I know America after having traversed it from North to South and from ocean to ocean with many zigzags during eight long months, I can at least say I did not quit that distant land with the remorse of being knowingly uninterested.

So I went to visit the shores of Southern California. They were all pretty much alike as to the warmth of the climate, the gentleness of the water, the luxuriance of the vegetation, the abundance of the flowers and the high prices of the hotels. At San Diego I saw some palm trees nearly twenty meters high which were planted in 1769. Near Santa Monica there is an avenue of eucalyptus sixteen kilometers in length. Nearby can be seen the interesting Spanish missions, in shady spots at the base of the mountains, far from noise, in the midst of Edenic orchards abounding in figs, oranges, peaches and flowers, b'ranciscan fathers live there under the arches of the white cloisters covered with red tiles, and lead the same life that was led a century ago by the Spanish and Portuguese planters. An old fountain plays in the midst of the court in a mossy stone basin; roses and geraniums cover the long brick pillars. People go to visit these places as the only vestiges of the past in the new world, and the Americans, before these walls without history and without architecture, display the same curiosity and the same respect that we feel before our cathedrals of the Middle Ages or the ruins of the Parthenon.

A vast amount of advertising in broadsides, pamphlets, prospectuses and newspaper announcements is used to attract to the West those Americans who wish to retire, but this must be hard to do among Americans who have to work, for the days are short and California is a four- or five-day journey from the East. In any case, one sees comparatively few people there. Most of the men are between fifty and sixty years of age; the women are middleaged and there are few young girls.

One evening in the brilliantly lighted grand parlor of a hotel at Santa Barbara, among people coming and going before dinner in an animated crowd of black jackets and elegant evening gowns, someone pointed out to me John D. Rockefeller. You know the name of this man, the richest American, which is to say the richest man in all the world. In this country, where individual effort can display itself so easily and where it is so well rewarded, John D. Rockefeller evidently is the most extraordinary man. His fortune is estimated at 4,000,000,000 francs, but no one has ever counted it with him and he never takes anybody into his confidence. But it is known that nine or ten years ago, when a census of United States bonds was taken, it was found that 8400,000,000 worth of 4% bonds were in his name. It is known also that the Standard Oil Company, his great business enterprise, commonly called the Petroleum Trust, brings him an income of $20,000,000 per year. In addition to this, he is one of the largest stockholders in some of the greatest American railroads. Yet in 1864 — forty years ago — he did not

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have $1000. He was a poor clerk in a bookstore in Cleveland, Ohio. He began to study the petroleum industry and made some small speculations which were fortunate, and since then his prosperity has continued without interruption. Today he is absolute master of the petroleum market of the entire world. Every new oil well discovered adds to his riches, and if he wishes upon rising in the morning to make a gift of several million dollars to his friend Harper, president of the University of Chicago, he has only with a stroke of the pen to add a penny to the price of oil.

So you can see what a powerful man he is. He is also a man everyone I have encountered some of fears. In New York, Pittsburgh and Chica the friends, or at least intimate associates, of John D. Rockefeller, for he has no friends. These men, themselves worth hundreds of millions, at the me heads of great banking houses or railway companies, willingly talked to about their own affairs and received me in their homes, but as soon as I pronounced the name Rockefeller a shadow passed over their faces, the tone of their conversation changed, and if I requested them to present me to their “friend” I saw in their embarrassment and silence that they preferred that I should not insist upon it.

As we were about to sit down at table one evening in Santa Barbara, my friend the Irish priest pointed out to me the potentate. Ah, how the newspapers lie! I had read in France before my departure that Rockefeller was a walking skeleton, pale and bent, tottering along supported by a cane, that he had not eaten anything in six years and was kept alive only by arti ficial nourishment. I remember reading HE IS DYING OF HUNGER. Alas! Shakespeare! Aeschylus! They must be humbled. John D. Rocke feller is a tall man, of powerful frame. His shoulders are scarcely rounded at all and he walks with an alert, sure step, without a cane. Besides, he is only sixty-four years old. True, he is not handsome. You will not find a single hair on the top or back of his head nor on his thin and bony face, with its prominent jaw, but his complexion is rosy and sanguine. It is the face of Pierrot in a serious mood and the skin is like the pink flesh of a chicken carefullv plucked. His long nose separates two little round black eyes whose glance is direct and hard. His lips are very thin and almost in visible above the pointed and projecting chin. In regarding him attentively one gets the impression of strength and rigid, inflexible will without demon strativeness. Wearing a coarse black skull-cap, he resembles an old monk of the Inquisition such as one sees in the Spanish Museum. Draped in the folds of a toga, he might be a figure from the best period of the Roman

Republic.

At seven o’clock everyone entered the dining room, but I never lost sight of the magnate. In passing he greeted Mr. Frick of Pittsburgh, the partner of Carnegie and the stronger of the two, it appears, as it is he who has the

ideas and realizes them. He also greeted Mr. Lincoln', son of the great Lincoln, and Marshall Field, the Chauchard- of Chicago, but a Chauchard worth $500,000,000, and took his seat at a table near mine. Chance had fa vored me and I was about to see the Petroleum King die of hunger.

Rockefeller was seated before a large round table, surrounded by his family: his wife, a thin small woman, gray-haired and ugly, in a red gown; his son, about twenty-five, cleanly shaven, glasses on his nose, hair pomaded and parted, his head that of young clergyman; his daughter-in-law, with long nose and chin; and one of his daughters, a tall, insignificant-looking brunette, very badly dressed (it appears that he expects to give her only $15,000,000 for her dowry). With them was the family physician, a large man with short side whiskers like rabbits’ feet, of ruddy color and pleasant manners, in fact the image of the good godfather in the comedies of Scribe and Augier.

John D. Rockefeller did not die that evening; in fact he ate everything brought to him, and God knows the cookin; was bad enough. When the billionaire had left the table I questioned the girl who had waited on him.

It seemed to me that he had eaten everything, but I wished to be sure. The girl said, He not only eats everything but has a good appetite. However, he drinks milk and eats crackers in place of bread.” Crackers are a sort of dry biscuit found on all American tables, along with butter and ice water. The girl to whom I was speaking was large and healthy, with rosy cheeks and brilliant eyes. “He ought to be a very generous man,” I remarked. She began to laugh and said, “He came here from Pasadena and the Los Angeles papers say he left the Hotel Green without giving a tip to any of the domestics. He left them only the tears in their eyes.” I asked, “Wouldn’t you like to be in his place?” She replied, “Oh no, no! If only he had some hair!”

Such is the life of Monsieur Rockefeller. Even the poor waiter girl in a hotel does not envy him.

Everyone sits in rocking chairs in the large hall. I talked for a moment with Mr. Frick, who is not an ordinary man. He is about fifty-four years old, born in Switzerland, and came to America without a cent, but today is worth 850.000,000. He owns 23,000 hectares of coal lands, including eightythree coal mines in which 11,000 miners work for him in order to supply two thousand coke furnaces at Connellsville. He informed me that he pro duced in one year 330,000 carloads of coke.

Mr. Frick talked a while with Rockefeller, and near them Mr. Lincoln and Marshall Field were standing. It was a pretty bouquet of capitalists: Frick, short and thick-set, resembles King Edward VII with his large blue

'Robert I odd Lincoln, eldest son of the President, at this lime board chairman of the Pullman Company.

“Alfred Chauchard. French department store magnate and art collector.

eyes and gray beard; Lincoln, tall, with pointed russet beard, his hair in disorder, looks like an artist; Marshall Field, a combination of a longerhaired Galliffet» and a stouter Lockroy^' but ruddy, nervous and active; Rockefeller resembles the confessor of Phillip II, and his son, the Dauphin of Petroleum, receiver of future trusts, looks like a Sunday school teacher in the Baptist Church. Altogether they make a precious picture to be handed down to the descendants of these captains of industry.

What will remain of this dynasty in a hundred years? Americans lack a sense of history; they think too much of the present. In the future, they will regret not having made a better study of these pioneers of their richness and glory, for, curiously enough, at present these heroes of future legends attract little attention from those around them. Is this affectation? Is it indifference or simply distraction? Little wonder is excited by this Rockefeller who from his own pocket could pay our 5,000,000,000 franc indemnity to Prussia. He walks about with his hands in his pockets, greeting old women in white lace caps, but even they pay scarcely any attention to him. I seemed to be the only person who noticed his big shoes, his pleated shirt, his narrow collar, his white cravat, and his keen smile of an aging clown. When he turn ed I saw that the back of his head was completely bare and on each side of the occiput, in the shadow of his ears, which were well separated from his skull, were two enormous excrescences, the significance of which led me to consult phrenologists.

A dance began in the small parlor. Rockefeller stood in the doorway looking at the dancers, and without losing sight of him I engaged in con versation one of his friends who had just left him.

“Rockefeller today is worth $750,000,000,” he said. “The Standard Oil Company gives him an income of almost $25,000,000 a year. He is very able, very quick. He is a man of regular habits and will go to bed as soon as the clock strikes ten. Every year on May 3 he leaves New York for Cleveland, always on the same train, and stays there until September, when he returns to New York, goes to Lakewood, then comes out here. He is very solid and muscular and is fond of golf and all open air games; he has a and drinks milk because he loves it. verv good appetite, eats everythin He lakes no interest in buildings but buys large tracts of land. He is pas sionately fond of gardens, orchards, lawns, parterres and flowers.”

“Is he not regarded as a miser?” I asked.

“A miser? He has given $30,000,000 to the University of Chicago and large gifts to other institutions. If he refuses to give tips, it is because he believes it wrong to do so. He pays what he owes, and that is all. He does >General Gaston Galliffet, French military hero of the latter part of the 19th century. ^Edouard Lockroy, French politician of the day.

not believe in wasting money and he gives as much reflection to an expendi ture of S20 as he would to that of $2,000,000. He no longer gives his personal attention to business. He has trained his son, who is very keen and who will become a first class business man.”

“He is said to be merciless in business,” I remarked.

“He is merely exacting. Business is business and what is due him he wants. He follows his idea and realizes it in every possible way. If he has become so rich, it is to some extent the fault of others. In forming the trusts he has always offered some of the stock to those with whom he negotiated.

They did not wish it, preferring to have the money. He alone had confidence in it, and it has paid him.”

The clock in the large hall struck ten. I saw Rockefeller verify the time by looking at his watch, then signalling his wife and directing his steps toward the elevator.

—o— The next day I took a stage coach to visit a ranch at Montecito. On the way the driver told me he had taken Rockefeller in a cab to church and back to his hotel in the evening. He had expected a liberal tip for the journey, and his astonishment may be imagined when Rockefeller gave him a quarter.

What a beautiful country this will be in a few years when roads are laid out and houses constructed amon the blue sage flowers, fuchsias, nasturtiums, mimosas, araucarias and geraniums!

On the immense beach some young Mexicans are training Mexican ponies for the young American women to ride. On the water are flocks of ducks which dive frequently among the clumps of red seaweed. I understand that pelicans are frequently seen here.

On the side of the shore toward the city some children are playing and some gray donkeys are browsing. Against the high rocks the sea dashes and moans.

From Santa Barbara to Monterey, which is situated in a warm and sheltered bay, is a succession of creeks which have their source in the sur rounding hills. Cattle graze on the plains, and working on the highways are Chinese in European clothing, their pigtails rolled up and concealed under felt hats. Offshore is the boundless Pacific Ocean and in the background is a little Switzerland with its mountains and valleys in which black hogs feed.

There are no roads on which bicyclists might travel, only the railway track.

Everyone rides horseback.

SOCIETY ACQUIRES STAMP MILL FROM CASTAC GOLD MIINE

By Marshall Bond, Jr. Early this year a fine stamp mill from the Castac Gold Mine was erected on the Historical Society’s grounds. The mine itself is located on Piru Creek in what was part of Santa Barbara County until 1873 when the eastern por tion was split off to form Ventura County. The mill is of historic interest because it shows the most common method used in the nineteenth century for crushing ore, before the more modern and efficient ball mill replaced it.

The mill was probably installed around 1911 when Alexander Frazier in corporated the mine and issued stock. At that time there was no road to the site and all machinery was brought in on the backs of mules or on wooden sleds pulled by mules. The great vertical weights, or stamps, were lifted by action of the horizontal camshaft to one end of which was fixed a large flywheel connected by a belt to a power source, in this case a water wheel and later an internal combustion engine. As the weights fell, they crushed the ore which was then washed out of the trough through a fine screen onto an amaIgamation plate (a large sheet of silver-plated copper covered with mercury which absorbed the free gold particles). The residue passed on to the concentrating table for further separation and recovery.

The Society is indebted to Klaus Kemp for the gift of this mill and to Nancy de L’Arbre for arranging its transportation to Santa Barbara.

Most people assume that gold was first discovered in California by John Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, but it has been definitely established that Spaniards and Mexicans were working a mineralized region in the Frazier Mountain-Lockwood Valley-Piru Creek area of northern Ventura County for both quartz and placer gold well before the Mexican War (18461848), possibly as early as 1820. Accurate information about early mining, especially gold mining, is virtually unobtainable, since few if any records were kept, changes in ownership were frequent, and rumor and exaggeration were rampant in the minin business. However, we do know that in 1842 Santa Barbara’s Alfred Robinson shipped some ;old to Philadelphia for Abel Stearns, for Stearns wrote an account of the discovery for the Pioneer Society in San Francisco: Los Angeles, July 8th, 1867 Sir: On my arrival here from San Francisco, some days since I received your letter of June 3d, last past, requesting the certificate of gold sent by me to the mint at Philadelphia, in 1842. I find by refer ring to my old account books, that November 2, 1842, 1 sent by Alfred Robinson, Esq. (who returned from California to the States by way of Mexico), twenty ounces, California weight (18*% ounces mint weight) of placer gold, to be forwarded by him to the United States Mint at Philadelphia, for assay.

In his letter to me dated August 6, 1842, you will find a copy of the mint assay of the gold, which letter I herewith enclose to you to be placed in the archives of the Society.

The placer mines from which this gold was taken were first dis covered by Francisco Lopez, a native of California, in the month of March, 1842, at a place called San Francisquito, about thirty-five miles northwest of this city [Los Angeles].

The circumstances of the discovery by Lopez, as related by him, are as follows: Lopez, with a companion, was out in the search of some stray horses, and about mid-day they stopped under some trees, and tied their horses out to feed, they resting under the shade; when Lopez, with his sheath knife, dug up some wild onions, and in the dirt dis covered a piece of gold, and searching further around found some more.

He brought these to town, and showed them to his friends, who at once declared that there must be a placer of gold. After being satis fied, most persons returned: some remained, particularly Sonorenses who were accustomed to work in placers. They met with good success.

From this time the placers were worked with more or less success, and principally by the Sonorenses until the latter part of 1846, when the most of the Sonorenses left with Captain Flores for Sonora.

While worked, there were some six or eight thousand dollars taken out per annum.

Very respectfully yours, Abel Stearns Another account tells of a party of some twenty Spaniards under SantiFeliciano which went north from San Fernando Mission in 1820 and at a camp in what is now Halsey Canyon discovered placer gold. For about six years, however, hostile Indians prevented mining and the attempt was abandoned. After the Indians left, Mexican prospectors began arriving in considerable numbers and found gold in neighboring canyons, but the work ing of these deposits was halted once again, this time by tlie perennial Cali fornia problem of drought and resultant scarcity of water. Operations were finally resumed in 1843 when a fairly efficient method of dry washing was developed. Of course, discoveries often went unreported either because of illiteracy or to prevent competition. For example, J. J. Warner, an associate of Ewing Youn wrote to the Los Angeles Star in 1871 that Captain Young’s party had found a brick furnace in San Emigidio Canyon in 1832 that had been used for smelting ore. They were unable to find the owners and had no idea how long it had been in use or why it had been abandoned.

According to historian W. E. Bean, in 1842 Francisco Lopez pulled up some wild onions along Placerita Creek and found small particles of gold.

Gertrude Atherton wrote that the discovery took place on Piru Creek, but J. W. Caughey claimed it occurred in San Feliciano Canyon. At any rate.

the area is the mineralized zone in the mountains north of Piru — sometimes called the Snowy Mining District — and the Castac Mine was developed there at an altitude of 4000 feet. Production of gold in the area was insufficient to excite the outside world, but Mr. Kemp has been told by old timers that some of the placer gold and high grade quartz was packed to the Ventura and Santa Barbara Missions on burros. It is not known, then, who discov ered the Castac Mine, historians agreeing only that gold was dug up in the vicinity in 1842. According to the State Mineralogist, the gold occurs in fissure veins, and the country rock is largely granite and schist. Because of the steep terrain, tunnels rather than shafts were dug to get at the ore. The quartz vein can be traced for a couple of miles, and values are spotty. The higher grade sections have been penetrated by 3000 feet of tunnels, and water for milling was brought in from Piru Creek by a flume about a mile long.

Mr. Kemp says that he bought the Castac Mine in 1940 because of high values in the dump, which he hoped to recover. Unfortunately, these tailings were washed down Piru Creek during a severe storm in 1944. The ore was what in mining terms is called “free milling,” so that the mercury amalga mation process of recovery was used, and the surrounding rock was hard enough to make timbering unnecessary. Some metal arraslras for grinding ore were brought in by Americans after the Mexican War, but those used by the Mexicans were usu ally made of large round stones like cartwheels.

The first road to the property was built by Mr. Kemp in the early 1940s.

Alexander Frazier patented three claims in 1907, incorporated the mine in 1911, and issued stock the following year. In fact, Frazier, Jacob Gale and the company president, Don G. Bowker, promoted the stock in London, w'hich was then the mining capital of the world. William C. H. Dibblee was treasurer of the company. Mr. Kemp is of the opinion that the Castac Mine has produced around S3,500,000. The gift of this interesting stamp mill is a colorful addition to the Santa Barbara Historical Society’s collections.

THE INTERPRETER COUNCIL OF THE SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY In November, 1967, the Junior League of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Historical Society entered into an agreement whereby the League would sponsor an educational program in cooperation with the Historical Society Museum. Planning for this program had been underway for more than a vear when the Board of Directors of the Historical Society gave their unanimous approval to the project, and the first Training Program for in terpreters was conducted in the spring of 1968.

The Interpreter Program was designed “to expose school children to their rich American and Cultural heritage by means of tours and lectures, and other activities. Such an experience would give children a strong feeling for — and an understanding of — their cultural heritage, and the relationship of the past with the present and the future.” The Museum offers facilities and exhibits which are effective in carrying out such a program.

After consultation with local school administrators, the decision was made to create tours for third and fourth grade students, since units of study at that grade level emphasize California and local history. With this fact in mind, the content of the Program was structured to correlate with the cur riculum and texts used in these grades.

Although the Interpreter Program would operate on a smaller scale, the Art Museum Docent Program served to provide management guidelines.

The first Interpreters (so named because they would interpret the Museum’s exhibits for visitors! were members of the Junior League, and the tour pro gram begun in the fall of 1968 proved most rewarding and worthwhile. In 1970 another group of guides was trained. The Junior League renewed its sponsorship of the Program for an additional two years, continuing to under write all expenses. Membership was opened to interested volunteers in the community at large and two more groups completed training by 1973, by which time the Junior League relinquished to the Museum the sponsorship of this highly successful program.

Seven years have passed since the Program’s inception, during which time the Interpreters, in cooperation with city and county schools, the Junior League, and the Historical Society, produced a narrated film strip entitled How History is Revealed through Things. This film serves as an introduction to a Museum visit and explains to the student the importance of historic preservation. A cover brochure was also printed for distribution to area teachers in order to bring the film to their attention.

The tour program has expanded to include student and adult groups of all ages, and the variety of tours available has increased from three to five. In October, 1973, Interpreters began staffing the public tours given on Wednesday afternoons. During 1974 Interpreters guided more than 4000 people through the Museum and its facilities and to nearby sites of historic interest, and in October of that year representatives from the Interpreter Council met with representatives of the Art Museum, Botanic Garden, Child’s Estate, Museum of Natural History, and Court House Docents to form the Docent League of Santa Barbara. The League is an alliance of volunteer guides who offer public tours of their respective institutions, and its pur pose is to share knowledge and experience in order to improve docent ser vices in the community. The Interpreters are also affiliated with the Docent League of Southern California, and exchanges with these other groups in respect to touring and public relations have proved mutually beneficial.

At present there are twenty active Interpreters. Another Training Program will begin this September. Prospective Interpreters meet one morning a week from September through May for a course of intensive study of Santa Barbara and California history. Training consists of a series of lectures, field trips, a considerable amount of outside reading in related texts, and the presentation of a research paper or project upon completion of the Program. A two-year voluntary commitment to the Program is desired.

If you are interested in participating in the Program, please get in touch with Mrs. Henry Griffiths, Museum Director.

NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK

Interpretive Guides A tour for adults, conducted by a member of our Interpretive Guides, is now available each Wednesday at one o’clock.

Conferences Our Board Member and Exhibits Chairman, Mrs. Albert de L’Arbre, has just returned from the Annual Woodlawn Conference on Historic Site Administration held at Woodlawn Plantation, Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Congratulations Our Director Emeritus, W. Edwin Gledhill, has been awarded a :rant in aid from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D. C., for the purpose of preserving his historic collection of photographs. Folios of these will be sent to museums throughout the country, including the Smith sonian Institution.

Mr. Gledhill is a nationally known portrait photographer, and he has also worked hard over the )ears to preserve Santa Barbara’s historic heritage for future generations.

Congratulations. Mr. Gledhill.

NEW MEMBERS

ACTIVE Ms Jane Barber

Miss Marjorie Hester

Mrs. Joseph Bertino

Mr. Perry Kenly

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hernandez

Mrs. Edna A. Worth

Mrs. Muriel Young

SUSTAINING Mrs. Leona Pierce Frasconi

IN MEMORIAM Mr. William F. Kurfess

Mr. J. E. Robertson

Mrs. John D. Graham

Mrs. William Poole

Mrs. Mildred Couper

Mrs. Courtenay Monsen Mrs. Nelson Nidever

HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS Classes of membership: Benefactor, $5000.00 or more: Life. $1000.00; Patron, $.500.00; Fellow, $100.00; Associate, $50.00; Contributing, $25.00; Sustaining, $15.00; Active, $10.00; Sliiclenl, $5.00.

Contributions to the Society are tax exempt.

Mailing Address: 136 East De la Guerra Street

Santa Barbara, California 93101

SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS Mr. Francis Price

President First Vice-President

Mr. Patrick Lloyd-Butler

Second Vice-President ....

Secretary Treasurer

Col. Henry deB. Forbes, Jr. Miss Lilian Fish Mr. John D. Gill

Museum Director

Mrs. Henry Griffiths Mr. Robert Gates

Acting Editor of Noticias

DIRECTORS Mrs. William Azbell

Mr. J. V. Crawford

Mrs. Elizabeth Hay Bechtel

Mrs. Albert de L’Arbre

Mrs. Roger Brewster Mrs. Charles Cannon

Mr. Gene Harris

Mrs. E. G. Chambers

Mr. William W. Murfey

Mrs. M. Cameron Conkey

Miss Frederica D. Poett

Rev. Virgil Cordano, O.F.M.

Mr. Russell Ruiz

Mrs. Edwin Deuter

HONORARY DIRECTORS Mr. Thomas More Storke*

Dr. Hilmar 0. Koefod* Mr. E. Selden Spaulding

Mrs. W. Edwin Gledhill

Mr. Hugh J. Weldon Mr. Paul G. Sweetser

Mr. Edwin Gledhill Director Emeritus

Sir John Galvin

LIFE MEMBERS Mrs. Charles Deere Wiman Mrs. Elizabeth Bechtel

Mr. Spencer Murfey Mrs. Alfred Millard

Mr. J. V. Crawford

Mr. Don Kilbourne*

Mr. and Mrs. William W. Murfey

Dr. and Mrs. Melville Sahyun

Mr. M. Cameron Conkey * Deceased

QUARTERLY BULLETIN OF THE SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 136 EAST DE LA GUERRA STREET

Non>Profit Org. U. S. Pottage PA I D Santa Barbara, Calif.

Permit No. 534

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA 93101

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