Way Back When: A Bit of Hawaii in Santa Barbara

(Image: By Semi-tropic Seas: Santa Barbara and Surroundings, E. McD. Johnstone, 1888. Courtesy of Neal Graffy)

By Betsy J. Green

A small notice in the local paper a century ago this month listed the dairies in Santa Barbara with information about their milk passing the sanitary test. One of the dairies near the top of the list was the Aloha Dairy. 

This name goes back to 1887 when a wealthy San Francisco attorney bought 54 acres on the north side of the Mesa. He subdivided the land and called the subdivision “The Aloha Tract.” The area is bounded by Gillespie Street on the north, by Robbins Street on the south, by Victoria Street on the east, and by Arrellaga Street on the west. In the middle is a street called Kowalski, which was the name of the attorney. 

Betsy’s Way Back When book — 1918 — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the fifth book in her series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time. Learn more at betsyjgreen.com​