Way Back When in 1925: Bye Bye Horses!

“Santa Barbara is now completely modernized. No more will the tramp of horses’ feet resound within the city barns at Santa Barbara and Ortega streets [about where La Cuesta High School is today], no more will drivers pat their faithful charges before hitching up of mornings to prepare for the labor of the day.

“Only the sound of trucks being cranked and delivery car starters whirring noisily will break the quiet of the early hours from now on … The death-knell of the equines’ service has been tolled by the City Council, ostensibly in the interests of economy … the horses are to be sold to the highest bidder at once, and the proceeds applied to the purchase of a more efficient and economic truck … So now, Santa Barbara, the city that has depended upon the aid of horses to do its work ever since … 1850, is going to get along without them.”