The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation has proven itself adept at much that it undertook over its more than 50-year history. Not least was its commitment and ability to acquire properties that advanced its preservation goals.
Besides El Paseo, there were literally dozens of real estate transactions that SBTHP has been involved with. In this column, I will mention three as indicative of the expansion and fulfillment of the organization’s interests and goals.
The 1995 purchase of the Santa Inés Mission Mills properties, the acquisition and gift of the Castagnola parking lot in the area of El Presidio de Santa Bárbara in 2003, and the 2007 acquisition of Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens Restaurant and Bar represented multiple transactions, as each would eventually be conveyed to California State Parks.
Santa Barbara underwent an architectural rebirth after the destructive 1925 earthquake. The town was rebuilt in the Spanish colonial Mediterranean architecture that distinguishes its downtown landscape to this day.
One of the models for its rebirth was El Paseo, a complex of shops, restaurants, offices and apartments built in the early 1920s, prior to the quake.
Occupying most of the first block on the north side of East De la Guerra Street between State and Anacapa streets, it was constructed around the historic Casa de la Guerra, at 15 E. De la Guerra St., and incorporated the adobe into the complex.
El Paseo had come through the earthquake with only minor damage but, from the 1920s to 1970, it had had a series of owners, none of whom had done any major renovation since its opening.