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62
winter
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spr ing
Patos
. Designed by William Mooser, Jr., who along with his father
was the architect of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, it is
clearly one of the most charming buildings in Santa Barbara even
today. Each apartment had a view of the ocean, as well as a small
patio or porch and separate entrance. All apartments looked over the
tiled courtyard with its multi-colored tile fountain. Ralph T. Stevens
was the landscape architect.
In July 1930, hotelier Fred Bartholomew, owner of the
Atascadero Inn and Annex, announced plans for the construction
of a hotel on Cabrillo Boulevard. Initially, it was to be called the
Arlington Inn, but strenuous objections to the expropriation of
the name of Santa Barbara’s beloved former hotel caused him to
rethink his plans. He invited the public to come up with a name
that would be acceptable and settled on
Vista Mar Monte
– view of
the sea and mountains.
The city owned the property west of Sycamore Creek and planned
to use part of it as a parking lot. A pedestrian tunnel was to carry
beachgoers underneath the Sycamore Bridge or under the boulevard
closer to Vista Mar Monte. In the end, the parking lot was placed west
of the Pavilion, and the vacant lowlands west of Sycamore Creek may
have served for a time as polo grounds before being laid out as ball
fields, today’s Dwight Murphy Fields.
Vista Mar Monte opened to great fanfare in June 1931. It had
cost $400,00 to build, furnish, and landscape. The Los Angeles
architectural firm of Walker & Eisen designed a Spanish Colonial
structure embracing a garden patio. It featured a roof garden with
authentic rawhide chairs and tables. Imported draperies, furniture of
Siberian oak, rugs woven in the design of tiles, and deep hall carpets
all enhanced the Spanish motif and the luxury of the hotel.
For his opening night, Bartholomew invited the families of
hotel men of Santa Barbara and Montecito as his guests. The Vista
Mar Monte orchestra with Victor Janssens as leader, as well as Pete
Puente’s tipica Mexican orchestra entertained. It was a rousingly
successful opening. Every available space in the dining room had
been reserved by noon, and it was so crowded the tango dancing
exhibition could not be given, though it was to become a regular
feature.
HARBORING
RESENTMENTS
T
he location of the Santa Barbara harbor had been a point of
contention for dozens of years. Some favored dredging the salt
marsh/bird refuge and creating a harbor there. Some favored digging
out the low-lying area along Sycamore Creek and building a harbor
there. Some favored a breakwater off Castle Rock, and didn’t believe
those who warned that this would change the littoral drift and
undermine the beaches. Max Fleischmann favored the breakwater idea
and offered to pay for the construction of the harbor.
MOGULS
&
MANSIONS
(top) In 1930 and ‘31, construction of revetments of enormous
boulders protected the new parkland from erosion; (bottom)
Anna LaChapelle Clark paid for two groynes to capture the
sands of East Beach east of the pavilion (Courtesy Santa
Barbara Historical Museum)