Neighborhoods

Downtown Santa Babara consists of the following areas: Upper East, Oak Park, West Downtown, Downtown, Laguna, and Lower State Street.


Upper East

Oak Park

West Downtown

Downtown

Laguna

Lower State Street


History

Salisbury Haley was the original surveyor of downtown Santa Barbara, California.  He plotted two 80-foot intersecting principle streets (later named "State" to honor California's statehood, and "Carrillo" after a prominent Spanish family) with all other streets to be 60 feet wide and blocks 450 feet square.

Haley began his survey by hammering an iron stake to designate the future "midtown" - State and Carrillo.  From that point the accuracy of his survey went awry, reputedly because he mended his measuring chain with rawhide thongs which expanded or contracted with the humidity.  As a result, our city blocks vary somewhat in size. 

State Street established where the Americans' "downtown Santa Barbara" would be located.  Haley's streets looked great on Wackenreuder's 1853 maps, but they were merely pencil lines which ignored existing structures.  Many adobes, including the Presidio itself, found themselves squarely in the center of future streets and had to be demolished eventually to make way for the road graders and paving gangs.  Two owners flatly refused to vacate adobes which blocked East De la Guerra Street.  One was the Leyva home at the southeast corner of De la Guerra Street; the other was an Arrellanes family adobe near today's Historical Society Museum at De la Guerra and Santa Barbara.  This resulted in the "jogs" which route De la Guerra Street around the north end of City Hall today. 

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse

Located in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara County Courthouse was built in Spanish Colonial Revival style.  Take a trip up to the tower and view the beautiful Spanish tiled rooftops that appear all over the city of  Santa Barbara.

Built in 1927-29, the Santa Barbara County Courthouse was designed by William Mooser and Company during the period immediately following the earthquake of 1925.