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El Paseo
updated: Aug 10, 2012, 3:38 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

Recent postings about C'est Cheese brought memories of the stores near the fountain of the El Paseo courtyard. Is my memory correct there was a cheese store, another store sold linens, another candles and mosaic glass candle holders, hmmm... Was Haskell and company there back then? Can Edhat readers refresh memories of old El Paseo?

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

EDHATBARBARA	2012-08-10 03:45 PM
There was a cheese and wine shop there -- I'd go over after work and could order a cheese plate and a glass of wine. I'd sit at a little table outside in the corridor and watch people coming and going as I'd sip and unwind and nibble. It was perfect -- ah, the memories are stirred! There also was a french bakery downstairs in front where the Coach store is now. They had some incredible pastries. My figure is expanding just thinking about them. There were quite a few retail places in the old El Paseo back in the '80's -- gift shops, card shops and such. I used to meander through them often.
REXOFSB	2012-08-10 04:00 PM
A better question is, why aren't the stores there anymore? There were lots of shops there over the years--the Tudor House, which sold English items, Maldo's Magic Shop, several jewelery stores, an antique shop or two, some dress stores--what happened? El Paseo is now exclusively offices. I repeat: WHAT HAPPENED? I think that the Trust for Historic Preservation oversees El Paseo rentals, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the blame rests solely with them. Anyone with the Trust care to comment on this? It's a disgrace that El Paseo isn't being used to its potential.
COMMENT 306997	2012-08-10 04:06 PM
There was a Unicef store for a while in the 70's. I also remember an antique toy store in the 80's. I will never forget the art gallery and my missed opportunity of buying a Borein for $800. It was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes.
COMMENT 306999	2012-08-10 04:09 PM
I used to love to go there! I remember the little English shop, the jewelry and antique stores! Gift shops, a sandwich shop! It was lovely. We don't go down there any more.
COMMENT 307005P	2012-08-10 04:16 PM
Hedge fund offices must be the preferred tenants. It's all about money?
COMMENT 307031	2012-08-10 04:47 PM
Downtown rents are HEFTY! Also, that area is tucked away and hidden, which makes it great for locals but hard for shops to get the tourist $$$ they need to stay afloat.
COMMENT 307043	2012-08-10 05:19 PM
LaBelle Modelling agency. Scary German toy store. Spanish imports. A former Santa Barbaran now in LA told me that Santa Barbara in the late '60s had all of these mom and pop stores on State Street and El Paseo where they wouldn't sell things to you. I kind of remember stores like that in El Paseo from the mid '70s as a child. You'd go in and stand there and be ignored by the owners until you left. I'd take that any day over the hedge fund and venture capital managers there now. I loved the local arts and crafts bazaar that was in the alley way of the El Paseo. I miss the vintage clothing/costume shop that briefly occupied a wing of the Casa de la Guerra in the early '80s. The setting was amazing and the clothes looked like Hollywood costume finery.
COMMENT 307044	2012-08-10 05:19 PM
This probably goes farther back in history then what the OP was asking for but do a YouTube search for "La Fiesta de Santa Barbara 1935" to see what El Paseo was like back then. Many scenes in the 18 minute MGM feature were filmed in that courtyard with many famous and soon to be famous MGM stars of the day.
GREG	2012-08-10 05:35 PM
One doesn't have to do a youtube search, as those film clips are also part of the Edhat archive, showing Fiesta and more.
COMMENT 307059P	2012-08-10 05:39 PM
My dad was a big band musician in the 1930s and 1940s and I'm pretty sure he told me he'd played in a band at El Paseo.
COMMENT 307064	2012-08-10 06:00 PM
The British shop was great. Used to stop there with mom and dad after attending Sunday mass at the Mission and pick up some goodies from home. This was back in the 80s.
COMMENT 307073P	2012-08-10 06:30 PM
El Paseo was donated to Pearl Chase's group, the Trust for Historic Preservation, in the early 1970s. After she died around 1980, the Trust was taken over by a gang of UCSB professors who then so badly mismanaged the property that it was sold to developers around 1987. They ran it into the ground even more then sold it to the current commercial owners. To maximize profits the developers converted all the shop spaces to offices thereby destroying the special historic character of El Paseo that had evolved since the 1920s. The Trust received about $6 million for the property, most of which has since been squandered by the professors and the group is now virtually broke. So much for "historic preservation".
COMMENT 307081	2012-08-10 07:15 PM
I went there in the 80s to buy fudge in a teeny shop on the s. side of the courtyard
AUNTIE S.	2012-08-10 07:50 PM
One of the courtyard shops was the Scottish Shop - full of tartans and all things Scottish.Several good stores in the "Street of Spain" - heading toward de la Guerra Plaza, including Mignon - an upscale children's clothing store - where generous grandparents bought clothes for my kids. Coming from Anacapa St. toward the interior courtyard were Tweeds & Weeds, an English store,the magic shop,a candle store, etc. I miss it all. When GE came to town and turned it into offices, it all went away.
COMMENT 307096P	2012-08-10 08:01 PM
Wasn't Tecolete Book Store in El Paseo's Street in Spain long ago? Or is that age related memory confusion?
COMMENT 307097P	2012-08-10 08:04 PM
The candy store was well stocked with hard to find candies. The toy store carried Steiff stuff animals. The El Paseo restaurant was glorious and had impeccable service. I remember going there on a rainy night with a friend. We asked if we could sit in front of the fireplace, as it was late and largely empty. The closest table sat 16. They said, "yes," so we sat there, and watched in awe as they cleared the extra 14 place settings. We never felt more like royalty. The meal was delicious too.
COMMENT 307098P	2012-08-10 08:26 PM
Our family use to go for the fashion shows in El Paso.My Mom loved to buy the clothes. I loved the toys store, I still have the toys from there. The german shop had the best chocolate. There were some great gift stores 1960s What happened to all that charm. Now it's all about money.. I miss those great days.
COMMENT 307113P	2012-08-10 09:43 PM
Yes, 096P. Tecolote was there. As for the El Paseo, the bar was great, with Frank Robinson and friends holding court.
COMMENT 307122P	2012-08-10 10:02 PM
Ingeborg - what was her last name? A store stocked with goods from Scandinavia. On the Street in Spain of El Paseo.
COMMENT 307123P	2012-08-10 10:03 PM
Depp Leather Store - wasn't that there too?
COMMENT 307125P	2012-08-10 10:15 PM
Tweeds and Weeds - hadn't thought of that name or Joe Scott the salesperson there for decades. Betty Mazetti did good deeds with young women, self esteem with the La Belle Model Agency. What an excursion down Memory Lane tonight with thoughts of El Paseo. Does anyone have any pictures to post from those days?
COMMENT 307126	2012-08-10 10:24 PM
The guy that owned the tiny touristy shop that had lots of sea shells did not like kids. Or maybe just me. Mr Maurier used to own the snack shop that catered to the courtyard fountain area . Tecolote bookshop was in the de la guerra adobe portion of that complex. When Santa Barbara was a "wet" town lots of city decisions were made at El Paseo.
ELSPETH	2012-08-11 03:02 AM
The Linen Shoppe was run by Charlie Blatsos, tucked into the little passage from the central courtyard to the State Street side, near the Travel Agent and the back door of Kimo's Polynesian Shop. And Robaire ran the Café d'El Paseo where you could buy a coffee or sandwiches and sit round the fountain, under the orange trees to people-watch. Those were the days indeed ...
COMMENT 307139	2012-08-11 06:34 AM
Way, way back circa 1920s and through at least 1940s my grandmother had her office in El Paseo, overlooking the courtyard on the State Street side. She was the personal secretary to Max Fleishmann before her retirement in 1948.
COMMENT 307143P	2012-08-11 07:19 AM
Old Towne Cafe-I was married right next to the fountain in 1995! Mark Larson ran a great restaurant and made a mean margarita, but being off State Street made it difficult to find if you were a tourist.
COMMENT 307159	2012-08-11 08:18 AM
Yes it is terrible that it is all offices now. It was Paseo Nuevo that killed it. I used to work at the antique dress shop called Marla's and the La Belle models would do fashion shows of the Vintage gear and we would dress them up and they girls would stroll around the courtyard while people ate. All the shops were charming and owned by locals. It was the best place to shop, eat and work! There apartments upstairs were fabulous! The tour buses would park in their private lot and the tourists would eat at the restaurant and shop in the shops and tour State Street,-- which pre-Paseo Nuevo and all the CORPORATE shops that ruined the local small business's on State St. It would be so nice to take our city back! I would love to see the offices returned to retail spaces and the tour buses come back to the heart of old Santa Barbara again!
REXOFSB	2012-08-11 09:03 AM
@122P: I think (but could be wrong) that you're referring to Ingeborg Landin (sp?). COMINICHIS: I don't think Paseo Nauseam had anything to do with the demise of El Paseo. @073 gives a concise, accurate account of how El Paseo was done in through total mismanagement by the Trust for Historic Preservation, which turned out to be completely untrustworthy and preserved nothing. As far as tourists go (aren't we supposed to call them "visitors" these days?), they never seemed to have any trouble at all finding El Paseo. They were always underfoot, dripping their ice cream cones that they'd bought across the street at Thrifty's, taking pictures and looking at things. Not that that's a bad thing. When I was a student at SBHS I used to spend a lot of $$$ at the Tecolote Book Store. One day I wanted a book but didn't have quite enough money. The nice saleslady suggested that I open a charge account. I told her I was only 17. That didn't matter. Without so much as a parental signature, I had my first charge account, which I used for years. Imagine that happening today. What is amazing is that El Paseo was allowed to slip into oblivion without the community even realizing the tragedy that was going on right before it's eyes. One of our greatest local treasures is now consigned to office space. How absolutely pathetic.
GRANNYFRANNY	2012-08-11 09:14 AM
The destruction of the El Paseo courtyard complex is one of the saddest stories I know about "old" Santa Barbara's demise. And I remember one more little store, called "Under The Greenwood Tree" -- lovely old musical instruments and a knowledgeable music-lover owner. I also seem to remember that Al Weingand (well known politico of the time) had an upstairs office off the courtyard. Having lunch by the little central fountain in that outdoor cafe area was one of the great pleasures of life -- Paseo Nuevo will never hold a candle to that.
MCDUFF	2012-08-11 09:29 AM
Ingeborg's last name was Landon. And on the Anacapa Street side of El Paseo in the early-mid 1970s was the country's second Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (the first, I believe, was in Westwood), operated by Tom De Corte (who moved to South Africa where he passed away a few years ago), and a RugCrafters store (which moved out to La Cumbre Plaza to survive). There was a Poster Shop (owner Kay lived above the art curio store at courtyard entrance to Street in Spain). Lovely memories.
COMMENT 307177	2012-08-11 09:50 AM
El Paseo was the focal point for tour bus groups which was the primary support for the small odds and end shops - stuff for day-trippers primarily. Give them a "spanish/mexican" meal fit for gringos at the El Paseo restaurant, let them wander the alcoves and shops and then send them back home on the bus. Yes, the proliferation of oddity/curiosity shops in our town lately run primarily by young people, which seem to attract no customers to support these allegedly State Street "high rents" does give someone pause about their business model viability. Fronts for something else? I dunno. Or do they replace those tourist odds and ends shops formerly residing in El Paseo. Unknown to many is there are residential apartments on the upper floor of the Street of Spain.
COMMENT 307179	2012-08-11 09:55 AM
Yes - my Aunt Kay owned The Poster. I worked there in the late 70's while in college. And yes, she had a wonderful apartment upstairs where we had our family gatherings. She was forced out in the early 90's. The Hammers who owned the rare book store next to the Poster also lived upstairs. There was also a shoe store? where I bought a pair of clogs. Bob's Flower stand. It was a great period of time in Santa Barbara - before all the chain stores moved in.
COMMENT 307184P	2012-08-11 10:10 AM
I remember El Paseo going back to the late 1950's, but mostly during the 1960's. Maldo's Magic Shop was in the tunnel-like passage way by the restaurant. The Shop Of Primitive Elegance in the center courtyard sold imports mostly from South America -- fur rugs, pottery, very rustic jewelry and such -- and of course Wesley Depp's leather store (custom made sandals!) and Ingeborg Langden's Scandinavian shops, side-by-side, were staples. The small linen shop, closer toward the front was owned and run by the man who hand painted all the street signs downtown in the downtown area, with the distinctive Santa Barbara/Mediterranean lettering style. In 1969 I was a runway model in a fashion show in the restaurant, put on by Joseph Magnin, which was adjacent to the El Paseo. There was also Kong's Chinese imports and a bit later a rare book store and the Coffee Bean (first bean store in SB and one of only five of that chain at the time) in the back. Last thing: the whole front of the El Paseo was originally also old style, with stone pathways -- all the way out to State Street, but was torn down for the renovation when Joseph Magnin was built around 1964. I remember going there as a young child, and the entrance from State Street was really charming, with an upper floor, flowers hanging down from wrought iron balconies, a short tunnel passage way into a first opening with a smaller fountain and some shops, then back through the two passage ways that still exist and into the larger open area.
COMMENT 307188P	2012-08-11 10:15 AM
The apartment upstairs, on the second floor of El Paseo, which I was privileged to visit on a few occasions was totally awesome, high ceilings, charming views and - too much information: When I saw the opening of "Last Tango in Paris" it was a reminder of the time, beauty, and goings on of the second floor residence at El Paseo back in the 1970's or so.
COMMENT 307189	2012-08-11 10:17 AM
State Senator Al Weingand had his office upstairs ( I worked for him); Win Shoemaker, Assemblyman, was down the hall upstairs too. Crown and Thistle women's clothing was at one end of the courtyard. Ingeborg Landen, with lovely items from Scandinavia. Remember the annual sales at Tweeds and Weeds? For some years a silver shop was on Street of Spain; can't remember the name, but I have a bracelet from there that my mother gave me. Ah, how vibrant El Paseo was then. The Joseph Magnin building ruined it by opening up the thin passageway from State St. to the inner courtyard. The passageway had fascinating little shops of jewelry and collectibles.
COMMENT 307231P	2012-08-11 12:15 PM
Frank Robinson, Architect and Mountain Drive patron, used to have an upstairs office there, and would also enjoy the nearby restaurants and bars. :-)
COMMENT 307257	2012-08-11 12:52 PM
La Arcada serves many of the small specialty shopping needs today - even an English goods shop and certainly boutique candies as well. Victoria Court is ground zero for the eclectic artsy mish-mash. All former El Paseo shopping opportunities remain alive and well in this town. Do come downtown to patronize them and linger for a cup of tea in the afternoon too. Don't let the vagrants scare you off and just give the skateboarders the right away on the sidewalks so you don't have to fret about getting flipped off as they zoom by. You can even still get some bland gringo grub so you do not over-stimulate your taste buds. Just like the good old days.
COMMENT 307259P	2012-08-11 12:58 PM
Thanks for the suggestion re: La Arcada - reminds me also of the good ole days of San Marcos Paseo - with the restaurant named "1129." Weren't there shops in that paseo also? I don't recall.
COMMENT 307261	2012-08-11 01:02 PM
There was a really nice couple, Milton and Jessica Hammer who had an apartment in old El Paseo. I think they had an antique book store. (Not Tecolote) She had a lovely daughter who worked at USPS Main Office. I think Tecolote Books was one of the last buisnesses to leave. Ah the good old days. Other State Street shops like Andera's, M Fredricks, Trenwith's, Firestones, Southwicks, El Patio Menswear,Youngwear, and my favorite, The Hughes were all independent family owned businesses.
COMMENT 307289P	2012-08-11 02:00 PM
The Hughes - with the bright pink exterior facade. And Levy's shoes, Ott's all with old fashioned good service. The Green and Yellow Basket is still with us however.
COMMENT 307385	2012-08-11 06:59 PM
Les Belle Miches
COMMENT 307422P	2012-08-11 09:53 PM
The candy shop! It was along the corridor from the El Paseo Restaurant going towards Anacapa St. I used to go in there all the time. The nicest lady ran it.
COMMENT 307423P	2012-08-11 10:04 PM
Great memories. I loved walking by the linen store. Mr. Blatsos was always sitting outside. I always felt like I was walking through a courtyard in Italy or Spain.
REXOFSB	2012-08-12 09:51 AM
Which begs the question: After engineering what has to be one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, screw-ups in Santa Barbara history, would any members of the Trust for Historic Preservation care to comment on how the Trust allowed El Paseo to become a cash cow for business by selling it? If they won't come forward, perhaps someone else might who knows the real story.
COMMENT 307479	2012-08-12 10:27 AM
Private property owners essentially get to do what they want and don't have to explain what they to anyone if they operate within the confines of their own operation. This is a good place to start. Making outside demands is not. If you are granted surrogate rights to this information through some official relationship, regulations or entity, use that as the basis for your equirey demands. But otherwise, a polite enquiry might work rather than bashing someone first with an inappropriate sense of personal entitlement.
REXOFSB	2012-08-12 01:21 PM
In its own words, the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation was founded in 1963 by Dr. Pearl Chase and other community leaders, "to preserve, restore, reconstruct and interpret historic sites in Santa Barbara County." The SBTHP was most definitely entrusted with El Paseo for preservation of El Paseo as a historical property, and if Pearl Chase knew what the Trust wound up doing with it, it would kill her all over again. So, yes, the Trust does owe us an explanation of how this travesty happened, and if one isn't forthcoming, we do have a right to demand it. #479 seems to be confusing "bashing" with the public's absolute right to know the reason behind a terrible decision that effectively took one of Santa Barbara's greatest treasures away from us.
COMMENT 307552	2012-08-12 02:36 PM
State Senator Jack O'Connell had his 1st office on the 2nd floor and Hal Conklin had a very cute lil' office with a wooden loft when he was a City Councilman & Mayor. The man who owned the linen/lace handkerchief store sat outside it at a small table everyday & greeted or talked with everyone. The previous fountain had the most beautiful deep blue tiles with dark metallic flecks in them that gave the water depth and made you want to sit & look into it as if it were a natural pond. It was a magical place to be in the morning :)
COMMENT 307556	2012-08-12 02:49 PM
The City Council of Santa Barbara killed El Paseo, as well as much of downtown. City Government wanted a bigger tax base and Mayor Sheila Lodge wanted a Nordstoms in SB. So they decided to implement absolutely draconian Seismic safety standards for the downtown buildings. That meant that the owners of the building were looking at a very big bill. To pay the bill most of the owners dramatically increased the rent as soon as they could. Organizations like the Trust for Preservation could not begin to afford the cost of the seismic retrofit so they sold it to a developer. The developer promised to keep El Paseo retail, but as it turned out the cost of seismic retrofit required greatly increased rents. That drove most of the retailers out of El Paseo by 1994. The same happened to most of the local businesses on State street.
COMMENT 307604P	2012-08-12 06:14 PM
Those "draconian" seismic safety measures may save our life or the life of loved ones. There's nothing like another bashing of City Council or Sheila Lodge. Also, Eldbeth or others: what was the name of the travel agency? This posting revives pleasant memories - had forgotten about Kimos Polynesian Shop. Is that where the old timers bought their mumus?
COMMENT 307609	2012-08-12 08:11 PM
If the Santa Barbara city council really cared about seismic safety for the public, then they would have required large buildings, like banks and department stores to do a seismic retrofit. They did not !!
COMMENT 307611P	2012-08-12 08:18 PM
"Seismic safety standards" had absolutely NOTHING to do with the Trust's sale of El Paseo to developers in 1987. That is a totally made up story to justify the Trust's collossal screw-up. The real reason they sold it was that they realized they were utterly incapable of managing the property and they wanted access to the $6 million in cash they would get which they have since wasted. The Trust's board has always been run by real losers and still is.
REXOFSB	2012-08-12 10:39 PM
@611P: Thanks for the clarification. I'd actually heard at the time that the seismic retrofitting was a total bogus smokescreen, but I hadn't heard about the $6 million part of it. The whole abortion is now starting to make sense. "Trust" indeed!
COMMENT 307684	2012-08-13 09:50 AM
A little poetry publisher, the Unicorn Press, was on the second floor off the courtyard for a few years in the late '60s early '70's. I loved that courtyard and fountain and little shops. There was a card shop near the leather store that had an amazing inventory. I was unaware of what happened after the Trust for Historic Preservation took over. What a pity!
COMMENT 307996	2012-08-14 09:03 AM
Jarrell Jackman is the executive director of the Trust for Historic Preservation. For the last 30 years he has drawn a hefty salary for doing next to nothing - which explains why the Trust has suffered such severe financial problems. The Board of directors of the Trust is made up of spineless losers who will not get rid of Jackman and actually hire someone who wants to see the Trust succeed as a viable historic preservation organization.

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