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prideful hyperbole and purple prose, the reporter described “the velvety lawn flanked
by gaunt Eucalyptus trees” and a field that “rolls off toward the ocean, dipping
sufficiently to give a fine view of the distant Rincon and its sunlit cliffs.” Polo players
the world over, he claimed, agree that no field could compare with the new Bartlett
Field. (Never mind that none of these players had yet seen it.)
One hundred and forty thousand dollars of the cost was financed in part by the
selling of residential lots nearby and through the generosity of W. H. Bartlett, Sr. Forty
box holders had agreed to pay $250 a year for five years, and 15 others contributed
$2,000 each for construction of the clubhouse and for putting the grounds in shape.
Among the box holders were names familiar to the game of polo and to the new
generation of noted Montecito philanthropists. They included Clinton B. Hale, Esther
Fiske Hammond, George Owen Knapp, Henry Bothin, Frederick Forrest Peabody,
Milo Potter, George W. Batchelder, Samuel Calef, and Charles Frederic Eaton.
The new field opened with a gymkhana program and the public was invited to
attend, free of charge as always. The American Film Company was on hand to take
motion pictures of the event, and every box was filled, every parking space taken and
the roof of the new clubhouse was put to use for extra viewing space.
Both men and women riders took to the field for dashes and straight-aways and
bending races as well as novelty races like the egg and spoon race. In this race, women
were given a wooden spoon on which to carry an egg as they raced to a post and back
again. Touching the eggs caused disqualification, and, like the old fable, this race went
to the slow and steady.
In another novelty race, Mr. Leadbetter outshone Dr. Boeseke when he raced to
the end of the field, opened a bag, quickly donned the oriental robe inside, leaped
(left) An aerial view from
the 1930s shows Bartlett
Field in Montecito. The Santa
Barbara Inn is the large
building on the corner of Olive
Mill and the Coast Highway
(today’s Coast Village Road)
(Courtesy Santa Barbara
Historical Museum)
(below) Esther Hammond,
seen here at Bartlett Field,
was one of many Santa
Barbara and Montecito girls
who took up the sport of polo
(Courtesy Santa Barbara
Historical Museum)