The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is located at 1100 Anacapa Street, in downtown Santa Barbara, California. The Spanish Colonial Revival style building was designed by William Mooser III and completed in 1929. Architect Charles Willard Moore called it the "grandest Spanish Colonial Revival structure ever built," and the prime example of Santa Barbara's adoption of Spanish Colonial as its civic style. The building replaced a smaller Greek Revival courthouse built at the same location in 1872â€"88 and badly damaged in an earthquake on June 29, 1925.
Description
The courthouse is composed of four buildings, totaling 150,000 square feet (14,000Â m2). It includes a Jail Wing, which is no longer used to hold prisoners. Visitors may take elevators to the summit of the 85Â ft (26Â m) "El Mirador" clock tower, which has labeled photographs that show what the viewer is looking at in all directions.
Currently, the Santa Barbara County Courthouse is undergoing several restoration projects in the various wings, and just finished restoring the disintegrating fountain in the front. In the past two years $150,000 was spent in maintenance and improvements.
Occupying an entire city block, the grounds contain a collection of palms and specimen trees from more than 25 countries. The courthouse hosts many events, particularly at the Sunken Garden, site of the 1872 courthouse. As of 2015, almost 7,000 visitors from 60 countries came to visit in the past year.
Façade
The main entrance to the courthouse features a large façade depicting two enthroned figures; between the figures is an inscription of a Spanish translation of a quote from Marcus Terentius Varro. The equivalent English translation is found on the right door to the right.
Gallery
References
Further reading
- Patricia Gebhard and Kathryn Masson, Santa Barbara County Courthouse. Photos by Daniel Chen. 2001, Daniel & Daniel, Santa Barbara. ISBN 1880284456
- McDevitt, Ray; George, Ronald M., Chief Justice of California -forward (2001). Courthouses of California: an Illustrated History. Berkeley, CA: California Historical Society. p. 365. ISBN 1-890771-49-X. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
External links
- The Historic Santa Barbara County Courthouse. Superior Court of California: Santa Barbara County
- Santa Barbara County Courthouse Official Website
- Visiting the Court House
