Nestling along the shoreline of the Santa
Barbara Channel in an exquisite setting of
21 acres of century-old trees, trim lawns, and
gay gardens, with the towering Santa Ynez
peaks flaunting skyward in the rear, the hotel
is a delightful picture
(May 5, 1928,
Santa
Barbara Biltmore Souvenir
)
T
he grand opening of the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel on
December 16, 1928, was hailed as “a night of indescribable
brilliance.” Reviewers gushed about the gorgeousness of
the hotel’s setting, the perfection of its architecture, and the romance
of its location. Today, as the Biltmore Hotel approaches its 90th
birthday, the beauty and integrity of Reginald Johnson’s masterful
architecture remains intact. The story behind the development of this
cultural icon on Channel Drive in Montecito highlights the tangled
interconnections and spinning coincidences associated with the history
of Montecito and Santa Barbara.
Background to the Land
B
efore there was a Biltmore, there was the land; land that in
the 1880s was being bought and sold at a frenzied pace in
expectation of a rail connection to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
While some owners did develop working farms, others wanted to ride
the rising property values and cash out with a profit.
In 1881, Chicago railroad magnate John Murray Forbes visited
Santa Barbara with his son Malcolm’s family and stayed at the
Arlington Hotel. When his grandchildren contracted scarlet fever, he
purchased a house in the salubrious valley of Montecito and promptly
named it
Mount St. George.
Over the next several years, he continued
to buy up parcels of land in Montecito. Then, in 1887, he suddenly
sold almost everything, just before the land boom went bust and the
new rail line from Los Angeles stalled at Goleta. He truly was a man of
impeccable timing.
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