Local Stories by Local People

HISTORY OF THE DE LA VINA WYE
by Kellam de Forest

Following up on a viewer's inquiry about the City's plans for removing the free right turn at the intersection of De La Vina and State Streets, the following history might be of interest.

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, the City limits went no further west than Mission Creek. The route to the west went out what is now de la Vina Street. This was the route of the stagecoach line that took travelers over the San Marcos Pass to the rail terminus at Los Olivos. It also was the route to the village of Goleta and to Colonel W. W. Hollister's ranch, named after his wife, Glen Annie. Hollister widened this wagon road and had it oiled to provide a suitable entrance to his ranch. The road soon became known as Hollister Avenue. The road went through the Ontare Ranch, which is the present day San Roque. With the advent of the automobile (the first car appeared in Santa Barbara in 1900), came the demand for good roads and a state highway system. This resulted in extensive highway construction funded by an 18 million dollar bond issue. This included an automobile route north which used Gaviota Pass, rather than San Marcos Pass. The stagecoach road over San Marcos Pass was deemed too steep for the automobiles of the day.

With the automobile came roadside business and opportunity for real estate developers to cash in. Stephen Rutherford bought the Ontare Ranch in 1917, and had the tract annexed by the City. In 1923, he laid out an up-scale development with curving streets with Spanish names, naming it after himself, Rutherford Park. That name did not stick, and we know it today as San Roque, for the creek that bisects it. The lots along Hollister Avenue were zoned for business. Gas stations and motor courts sprung up, the most remembered being Bam's Motor Court. This landmark at 3740 Hollister Avenue with its signature water tower and covered wagon out front was for years considered to be the end of Santa Barbara.

The Federal Highway Act of 1925 created the numbered US Highway system. US Route 101 entered Santa Barbara from Cabrillo Boulevard and then went under the railroad tracks to what, today, we call Old Coast Highway. It proceeded to Salinas Street, went north to Cacique Street, west on Cacique to Milpas , west on Gutierrez Street and then north on de la Vina Street. At Mission Street, de la Vina became Hollister Avenue, turning where it does today to head west. State Street ended at Constance Avenue. Reasons such as the 1925 earthquake and the Great Depression prevented its extension. Mr. Rutherford must have hoped that State Street could be put through to make the access to his development easier from downtown and more attractive. He planned a one-block commercial street running east to Calle Laureles from the Hollister curve, thus creating a wye at Hollister and State, complete with landscaping and trees. He named this one block street, State Street. The wye is visible at the lower right hand corner of the 1940 aerial photograph of Rutherford Park on the cover of Walker Tompkin's, Neighborhood Series - San Roque.

By 1938, the process of building highways that avoided the use of city streets had begun. Highway 101 was rerouted with a parkway through Montecito, a four-lane highway to Milpas, and a highway paralleling the railroad tracks where Rancheria Street is, and all the way to where Five Points is today. It was not until 1950 that State Street was extended through from Constance Avenue. This finally gave Mr. Rutherford's San Roque development an easier access to town. Street names were changed. Hollister Avenue became State Street. At first it was referred to as Upper State. Hollister Avenue now begins at Modoc Road. Hollister Avenue from Mission to State became de la Vina Street. The 1924 de la Vina wye remains as a tribute to Rutherford's foresight and his street design, that tended to avoid the

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Kellam Forest follows move remove free right turn Vina State history interest