History of Santa Barbara’s Stearns Wharf: A 150-Year Journey of Survival and Resilience

For more than a century, Stearns Wharf has stood as one of Santa Barbara’s most iconic landmarks and a place where the city meets the sea. 

The wooden wharf has survived storms and fires, standing strong for more than 150 years. 

Steamships carried passengers to Stearns Wharf for more than 40 years, during which it served as a busy industrial and fishing pier. 

A witness to several historical moments, the wharf was closed for commercial uses during World War II. 

Stearns Wharf: The Early Days

When John Peck Stearns moved to Santa Barbara in 1867, he did not know he would go on to build a pier that would end its isolation from the rest of the world. 

At the time, Santa Barbara was difficult to reach and was almost cut off from the rest of the world due to its natural barriers of the mountains and ocean. Back then, the city was mostly accessible by small boats. He had originally planned to open a lumber mill, which he eventually built at the end of present-day State Street. 

However, Santa Barbara lacked railroads, a highway, or even a pier. Cargo and passengers arriving to the city would be loaded into small rowboats from large ships and then ferried to reach the shore. 

A small pier was built in 1868 to ease these problems, but stretched only a short distance into the water and was too shallow for coastal steamers. 

Passengers still had to use a ‘chapala,’ which meant wading or splashing through the water to deboard. It eventually inspired the name of Chapala Street, where the pier was originally located. 

Stearns volunteered to invest and expand the pier, but the owners refused. Local lore suggests that the rejection inspired Stearns to build a larger wharf just a block away from the little pier. 

Completed in 1872, with the financial assistance of Colonel William Welles Hollister, Stearns Wharf became the longest deep-water pier between Los Angeles and San Francisco, helping Santa Barbara evolve into a commercial hub. 

In 1925, the State of California transferred the Tidelands and Harbor area to the City of Santa Barbara to be held in trust for specific uses. The following year, Max Fleischmann, heir of Fleischmann’s Yeast, offered the city $200,000 to construct a harbor, provided that the city match the amount, according to the official website of Stearns Wharf. 

With the funding, a detached breakwater was completed in 1928, with an extension to the shore completed in 1930. Sand began accumulating behind the breakwater, creating Leadbetter Beach and the existing harbor within seven years. 

Today, Stearns Wharf stretches 2,300 feet into the sea, with an area of 3.8 acres that are supported by more than 2,300 pilings. 

The wharf was operated by the Santa Barbara Wharf Company from 1955 to 1973. In the early 1980s, the City restored its substructure, built new buildings, and took over operations. 

Brushes With Disasters

In 1878, a Chinese ship crashed into the wharf, destroying around 1,000 feet of decking. The same year, the city’s first recorded tornado struck the area on New Year’s Eve, compounding the damages. 

In 1887, the pier was extensively used by two hundred Civil War Veterans, causing the structure to weaken and almost collapse. Nearly 3,000 people would have fallen into the sea, according to Stearns Wharf’s official website. 

The same year, railroads made their debut in Santa Barbara, resulting in the slow decline of ship traffic. In response, Stearns constructed a 1,450-foot wye onto the wharf that could carry a railroad spur to ensure lumber could be transported from ships onto cars. 

The wye, however, became too costly to maintain and was abandoned. A section of the wye has been kept at the Sea Center marine museum and the Nature Conservancy exhibit hall. 

In 1921, the wharf narrowly escaped destruction when sparks from the 600-room Potter Hotel landed on the wharf and ignited the pilings. The wharf caught fire but the structure could be saved. 

Another major fire struck the wharf. In 1973, when the Harbor Restaurant was destroyed in a fire, it caused the wharf to close down for eight years. It was reopened later with almost the same area and number of parking spaces. 

In 1983, the “100 Year Storm” hit Santa Barbara, which caused extensive damages to the wharf and harbor. Damage to the wharf was estimated at more than $500,000, according to the official website of Stearns Wharf. 

Another storm took its toll. In 1987, a storm sent a derelict barge and fishing boat crashing into the wharf, knocking out nearly 30 pilings and causing the wharf to sag near the beach. The wharf was closed for a week and damages were estimated at $100,000, with merchants losing some hundred thousands dollars in revenue. 

Another fire scorched the wharf, on its shoreward finger in 1986. A malfunctioning water pump sparked the fire, which heavily damaged the newly opened Sea Center, the wharf’s underpinnings, and the Nature Conservancy building. 

While the fire did not damage the gray whale models inside the Sea Center, a section of the wharf had to close for six months for repairs. 

In 1998, a fire broke out near the Moby Dick’s restaurant, damaging more than 420 feet of the wharf. The fire also destroyed three businesses. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stearns Wharf Today

Despite all odds, the Stearns Wharf has rebounded each time. Today, the Stearns Wharf has withstood time to become California’s oldest working wharf. 

It is home to 17 businesses, including three full-service restaurants, an ice cream shop, wine tasting, a bait and tackle shop, souvenir shops, and a marine museum. 

Located on the wharf, the Sea Center is the sister campus of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The interactive aquarium offers visitors a close look at the marine animals found in the Santa Barbara Channel. 

One of the leading tourist attractions in Santa Barbara, the wharf attracts roughly 5 million visitors every year. The wharf offers stunning views of the city’s coastline, the Santa Ynez Mountains, and the Channel Islands. 

Fishing is a popular and free activity at the wharf. Supplies can be found at the bait and tackle shop.