This year is the 100th anniversary of the devastating 1925 Santa Barbara Earthquake. Many events are happening to commemorate the occasion. The earthquake happened on June 29, 1925, at 6:42 AM, causing significant damage and casualties. It had a magnitude of 6.8, leading to 13 deaths and $8 million in damages. The earthquake’s epicenter was located offshore, and it impacted the downtown area.
Here are my event photos, organized in galleries.
On June 28 there were activities on State Street for the occasion. My friend and former Goleta Valley Voice co-worker Rod Tryon created one of his amazing anamorphic chalk paintings for the occasion. Dinosaurs rising out of the cracks from the earthquake!
A highlight of the activities: An earthquake simulator! My friend Steve Hoegerman, creator of the French Festival, joined me for the dramatic experience. When it was over we were sure it lasted a couple of minutes. We were shocked to learn it was just 30 seconds. Here are my videos of how it looked from the outside and how it was inside. Of course, no simulator could capture real world events like buildings collapsing around you.
Olivia Mora Perez of Photo Booths By FSU Events was on hand taking photos with a 1925 era camera. But inside the camera were modern digital innards so the photos could be shared.
The street was lined with 1925 era automobiles. Including this electric car. 100 years ago electric cars were still quite popular. Instead of waiting for them to be recharged, electric cars of that era were designed for a quick battery swap at a service station. About as fast as filling up with gasoline.
The earthquake commemoration started during the Solstice Parade. Thanks to creative genius Jonathan Smith and his partner Kym Cochran and very helpful assistant Dragon. They built a bunch of historic Santa Barbara buildings and rigged them to shake and fall apart in various ways. Check out my Solstice article to watch my video of their performance!
https://www.edhat.com/news/2025-solstice-parade-photos-and-videos/
Jonathan (at right) brought the show to State Street for this June 28 reprise. With Kym and Dragon.
The Santa Barbara Historical Museum had an extensive exhibit commemorating the earthquake.
Unfortunately, the exhibit shut down on July 6 to make way for a Fiesta exhibit. Thanks to historian Neal Graffy for helping to create the earthquake exhibit. He kindly posed with me at the exhibit during First Thursday on July 3. We seem to share colorful fashion tastes!
Check out my photo gallery here to see some of these artifacts.
https://swt.org/events/1925earthquake-2025/2-historicalexhibits/
Here were some newspaper pages.
Here were some postcards.
One feature of the exhibit was a 14 minute video made from many short film clips immediately following the earthquake. Graffy assured me there were no copyright issues, so I just sat and made a video of their video and you can watch it here. I am hoping at some point the original will be available to watch.
In this gallery you can see some frames I grabbed from this video.
https://swt.org/events/1925earthquake-2025/3-historicalfilm/
Here are a few.
Perhaps my favorite part of the exhibit was a slide show that alternated photos of scenes from then and now. Here is my gallery of photos from that slide show.
https://swt.org/events/1925earthquake-2025/4-historicalbeforeafter/
Probably most recognizable and dramatic are these side by side photos of the Mission after the earthquake and how it appears now.
Here are a few more pairs of Then and Now photos.
Neal Graffy is hopeful that some of these photos and videos can be shared online in the future. He would like them to be labeled properly by date and location.
There were some other events, including a major presentation at the Lobero. But those were sold out by the time I learned about them.
For more information about the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, here is their website.
– Robert Bernstein
Robert, thanks for putting this together! I have questions of course (like that never happens🤡); in the Earthquake ride video it appears there are 3 bottles on the shelf on the left side that may or may not contain colored fluids, they don’t seem to move? (what a dumb question…)
Mainly thank you for all visuals/links!
🚴
@bicyclist Thank you for the kind words. Sorry for being dense, but I am not seeing the bottles that you are referring to during the earthquake simulator.
The “exterior view” best seen around the 0:30ish mark; right below the car speaker looking thingy? (left front of cabin & left of the Monitor) lighting isn’t the best as it’s too close to the ceiling/shadow…
@bicyclist Thank you for clarifying what you saw. Good eye.
In my photo gallery here is a clear image of those bottles:
https://swt.org/events/1925earthquake-2025/1-statestreet/20250628-284.JPG
Yes, it is a bit of a mystery how they don’t come loose. Maybe they are glued down somehow? Thanks!