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60
winter
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spr ing
Finally, in October, against the recommendations of the city
attorney, city council approved new plans for East Cabrillo Boulevard.
Mrs. Lillian Childs donated some of her land for the use of the
boulevard, and the Cornwall Construction Company won the contract
for the work. When the project was completed in May 1928, J.T.
Cornwall announced, “We have put our hearts and souls into this
work and are happy to be part of the effort to enhance this section of
Santa Barbara.”
Dwight Murphy, president of the City Parks Board, could now
proceed with the East Boulevard beautification program. On the
north side, the planting of tall shrubs and small trees screened the
rail tracks and buildings. On the ocean side, between Milpas and
Santa Barbara Streets, a five-foot parkway between the curb and
sidewalk was to be planted either in ice plant, ivy, or lawn. Palm
groves sprang up in the Bermuda lawns on the oceanside of the
sidewalk.
In June 1928, city council, in an effort to protect the new
boulevard and parkland from heavy traffic, prohibited commercial
trucks from traveling on it for more than one block for the purpose of
making deliveries.
In May 1929, the
Morning Press
announced that developments
on the oceanfront were essentially finished. Ornamental lights lined
the length of one side of the boulevard, and a large parking space now
lay west of the Cabrillo Pavilion. The beach park at the foot of Milpas
Street had a pergola, and the park commission was now turning its
attention to the bird refuge, whose improvements were made possible
through a donation of $50,000 by Mrs. William A. Clark.
DEVELOPMENT
I
n 1930, the Southern Pacific Railroad considered the idea of
building a subway for their tracks along East Cabrillo Boulevard and
moving the roundhouse and ice plant and other industrial facilities.
Nothing came of the underground rail line (unfortunately), but the
property was later developed in part as a resort hotel, Fess Parker’s Red
Lion.
Also in 1930, Samuel E. Kramer built a two-story apartment
building in the Spanish style on Orilla del Mar and named it
Los
MOGULS
&
MANSIONS
(top) Well-established plantings and a pergola at the end of Milpas
Street in the 1930s; (middle) The Hotel Mar Monte in the early
1930s; (bottom) 1932 aerial shows Los Patos with its ocean view, the
Pavilion and the hotel and a few houses in the Cabrillo Park Tract,
as well as a polo and ball field laid out to the east. (John Woodward;
Santa Barbara Historical Museum)