Joe DeLise
With the re-opening of the Plaza Del Mar Bandshell, I wanted to share two of my colorized images of prior band shells.
The red tile roof 1901 bathhouse had a band shell seen (above) in the arched opening in the middle of the building.
The earlier gray/brown bandshell on the left seemed to have not only provided the orchestra sounds but also captured and amplified the sounds of the ocean breaking waves too! It appears that they built another bandshell (to the right) perpendicular to the ocean for better acoustic results!
The 1901 bathhouse and its band shell burned to the ground in March 1913.
The bathhouse was rebuilt in 1915, however with no musical section, which I believe led to the Pershing Park 1919 bandshell—perpendicular to the ocean… we are now re-dedicating.
Below are the original photos courtesy of the USC digital library.
And here’s another original photo with a better idea what the 1901 band shell looked like…after a cold spell… that I have not colorized.
Concerts were well attended back then in the days as recorded music was rare.
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Re: icicles pic – The fountain froze during an exceptionally cold morning in January 1913. Local photographer William Warren Higgins took the photo. He then produced postcards with the photo. Reportedly, the Chamber of Commerce froze in horror, and bought up all the postcards lest the world be informed that we sometimes had real weather here in Santa Barbara.
Self correction:
The 1901 bathhouse with bandshell was destroyed in APRIL 1913, not March. Cheers!
Joe
Great old images of SB. Amazing to see what things looked like back then. Hopefully the money we spent on renovating it won’t be a waste. We’ll see.
Thanks for setting us up with this incredible time machine. I was out of town for the Lobero street party. That event, to me, evoked a time when folks gathered in public spaces to hear music. I’m curious, Joe, if you use software to do this good work or do you use the technique that my 95-year-old mother used when she colorized photos of movie stars when she was a teen.
You are very welcome Don! I’m sure the technique is the same, only the technology has changed.
Done by hand using imagination, a mouse & software these days.