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52
winter
|
spr ing
In 1906, with the oil boom in full swing, several civic-minded citizens
became alarmed when oilmen began eyeing the salt marsh (today’s Bird Refuge)
as a potential drilling site. With the devastation at Summerland in mind, banker
George Edwards and 70 local citizens bought the property and held it until the
city could purchase it for a park. Two years later, the city was able to open Citizen’s
Park on the site of Bradley’s former racetrack, which had circled the salt marsh.
The park, however, was not maintained and suffered years of neglect, becoming
unsightly and odiferous.
In 1909, J.L. Barker created Shore Acres, a resort of cottages thatched with palm
leaves, across from the beach just west of Salsipuedes (today’s Calle Cesar Chavez).
Barker’s cottages were small but included the most modern of conveniences such
as gas, electricity, hot and cold running water, baths with shower
attachments, and telephones. The beds could fold into the walls to
make, as he said, “attractive sideboards and couches.” He planted a
grove of palm trees to complete the tropical ambiance.
East Boulevard, too, was rife with problems. It kept washing
out in winter storms, and after each effort to reinforce and rebuild,
Poseidon sneered and sent another onslaught. East Beach, itself, was
not particularly popular with bathers. The city sewer outfall, which lay
MOGULS
&
MANSIONS
(top) A woman examines the collapsing seawall on East Boulevard in 1916; (right) Second
major repair to seawall and East Boulevard in 1907; (bottom) A storm in 1914 reduced East
Boulevard to rubble (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum-SBHM)