Garden Street Thanksgiving Dog

Thanks for clearing up the SB myth of the dog having saved the family in a house fire - I grew up here and also heard that apparent bs passed on. Good to know.

So… my good friend (a very reputable Santa Barbara resident with the initials of JD) texted me that the REAL urban myth is that the property’s deed includes a clause that any owner must adorn Rover (the Garden Street dog statue) throughout the year with appropriate costumes. I dug a bit more and found that the deed clause is probably not a myth. See below please.

The Dog Statue House
October 8, 2018 National Purebred Dog Day®

Do you live in an area that has a statue that gets dressed up in appropriate holiday attire?

You do if you live near the corner of Mission and Garden in Santa Barbara, California.  “Rover,” a 4-foot tall, 340-pound bronze Labrador Retriever, has been standing guard over Santa Barbara’s Upper Eastside neighborhood for nearly 115 years, a house that heads a line of five historic houses known as Crocker Row.

The dog statue been seen pulling wearing reindeer antlers or during December, though last December, he had an N-95 mask over his face when ash and smoke fell over the area during the Thomas Fire.

The house built in 1894 by William H. Crocker didn’t have “Rover” in the beginning. The statue came in 1904 with the second owners of the home who transplanted from Michigan. As the story goes, they had the statue made in the memory of a beloved pet, a Labrador Retriever born the same day as their daughter, Eleanor, in 1884. The real-life Rover grew up with Eleanor, and reportedly lived to be 18 years old.

It won’t be a surprise to learn that over the years, the statue has been subject to pranks. Once, the statue was stolen by a group of high schoolers, one of whom went on to become a Superior Court judge.

As of February, 2018, the historic house – known as the Dog Statue House – went on the market and was listed for more than $4 million – but the sale came with a caveat: The next owners had to agree to continue the tradition of dressing up the dog (apparently within the deed (comment added by RockwellBad2).)

Garden Street Dog (from Noozhawk Brooke Holland, Noozhawk Staff Writer
February 21, 2018 | 2:24 p.m )

In 1904, the second owners of the home brought the dog statue with them from Michigan, Colleen Beall, a real estate broker with Compass has stated.

The Warren Willet family, which purchased the property from Crocker, had the statue made in memory of a favorite pet — a Labrador that was born the same day as their daughter, Eleanor, in 1884. The real-life Rover reportedly lived to 18 years old and grew up with Eleanor.

It is apparently myth that the dog was anything but a favorite pet.

Is the urban legend true that the dog, whom this statue portrays, pulled a baby out of the burning house?

That bigly pup is ready to have some turkey that he helped his Master to hunt down. He deserves a bigly turkey leg.

Thank you dog owner for keeping this tradition going. So cool.