Subscriber Comments for
Potter Hotel and Then Some

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 331055	2012-10-13 06:47 PM
Thanks for sharing.
COMMENT 331064	2012-10-13 07:40 PM
Wonderful! Oh to have experienced Sb back then.....
COMMENT 331066	2012-10-13 08:06 PM
Thanks for sharing! I love it when old photos of SB are posted. How about starting a feature for just old SB photos or historic information of our town?
FLICKA	2012-10-14 07:54 AM
Great pictures, like seeing the "naked" foothills. 064, the "experience" would have been, no paved streets, horse and buggy days in the early ones, outhouses and no electricity. By the time of the Potter Hotel Henry Ford had folks in Tin Lizzys, but not everyone could afford one, still buggies for some (like my family). My Mom was born in 1912 and remembered when she was a youngster, State was the only paved road. She also watched the Potter Hotel burn when she was 9.
COMMENT 331142	2012-10-14 08:32 AM
The location of the house in the top photo is the Santa Barbara Zoo aka Vegamar (Meadow by the Sea), "The Child's Estate" and "A Childs Estate. The home was built in 1897 by bachelor John Beale who married Lillian Bailey Brown about eight years later. After Mr. Beale's death she married John Child, hence the name "Child Estate." She died in 1951 leaving the estate to the Santa Barbara Foundation who in turn gave it to the City. She allowed a group of hobos to live at the edge of her property, giving them life-tenancy, the last one moved to a rest home in the early 1960's. The house was rented to a college fraternity but by early 1959 it was declared "an attractive nuisance" and torched by the Fire Department in July, 1959. The water in the foreground is the slough from Sycamore Creek. The former wetlands are now covered by the short lived El Escorial Hotel, now El Escorial Villas. - Neal Graffy
RDH	2012-10-14 08:47 AM
We are indebted to you for providing such fascinating glimpses of the early days of our city.
COMMENT 331187	2012-10-14 10:29 AM
Wonderful having some early pictures. Thank you! Frustrating that they are so small and difficult to see detail. Maybe somebody has a web site that they could be put on larger and with more detail possible.
COMMENT 331194	2012-10-14 11:00 AM
The Montecito Association History Committee in the Montecito Library in the Upper Montecito Village has many thousands of similar photos, articles, maps, phone books going back to the 1800's, etc. We are open on Tuesday and Thursday from 10 AM to 2 PM and can be reached by telephone @ (805) 969-1597 history@montecitoassociation.org
COMMENT 331142	2012-10-14 11:54 AM
@ 331066 - Click on "Local History" on the edhat sidebar. They show a number of history columns though for some reason the history features written in 2009 don't show.
COMMENT 331576	2012-10-15 01:49 PM
love these almost as much as i love santa barbara...only wish i could afford to live there. ?

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