bjgreen
Dateline: July 1924
This 9-by-12-foot mural was the largest in Santa Barbara in 1924, and it took three weeks and hundreds of working hours to paint it. Artist Dan Sayre Groesbeck painted the mural depicting Cabrillo landing on one of the Channel Islands for a bank on State Street.
The colorful mural would be on display in the bank, assuming that it was possible to get the mural inside the bank. “The ingenuity of the bank officials will be taxed to get it through the door, Mr. Groesbeck prophesied.”
[Spoiler alert – In 1929, Groesbeck painted the even more spectacular murals in the courtroom at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. His 1924 mural is now in the courthouse in a hallway near the courtroom.]
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Nice story tidbit….
FYI- The Mural Room inside the Santa Barbara Courthouse on the second floor was never a “courtroom.” It was used as a courtroom once in 2008 when the Courthouse hosted the California Supreme Court. The room was designed as the Board of Supervisor’s meeting room until 1965, when their meeting room was relocated to the County Administration Building across the street from the Courthouse. The Mural Room has been used since 1965 as a venue for weddings, parties, and celebrations. Dan Seyer Grosebeck painted the 4,200 square foot mural that surrounds the room and is an artist’s interpretation of historical events that took place in Santa Barbara over the centuries.
Thank you for the correction. (I’ll be sure to make that correction in my “Way Back When: Santa Barbara in 1924” book, due out this fall.)
In about 2002, before the subsequent massive cleaning/restoration of the murals in the mural room…I, as a professional paperhanger, was vetted and hired by the docent committee. The entirety of the artwork is painted on canvas panels, meaning prior to painting the mural, all walls were covered in 4-6 foot wide canvas panels, after which the mural was painted on the canvas. Over the nearly 80 years since the mural room was finished, many of the seams where canvas panels joined together had lifted and curled, some quite noticeably. I spent 4-5 days on an extension ladder using a safe, clay-based adhesive, to methodically re-glue all of the loose seams. One surprise benefit was the person who was destined to become my life partner walked in one day, we met, and began what is now our 22 year relationship…!
Cool story! Thanks for sharing. The murals in that room are said to be some of the largest of that type in California.
Alonzo, thank you for your service to our most beautiful courthouse building …… and your happy ending story 🙂