Santa Barbara Grocers

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NOTICIAS Quarterly Magazine Of The Santa Barbara Historical Society Vol. XLIX, N0.4/V0I. L. No. i

Wincer 2003 / Spring 2004

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Santa Barbara ;

GROCERS

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ROQiRY STORES hold a Immai'j iJosiLion in the process ojgetting loodjrom the Jidds to ow dining room tables. 'Ike methods to accomplish this through the decades have changed, and these changes have often refected economic,social, and technological shifts in society at large.

I lattic Bere.slord examines the changing role oj thepuiveyors oJ fond in Santa Barbara through histoi~y. I lersto)-y beguis ivilh the earliest days ofSpanish settlement on the South Coast U)id brings the stoix up to ourenvn times with a special loof eit lunc small Jieighborhood grocers have adapted in this period ojchain store conglomerates. She reveais hoiv pattenis ojtrade, changes in bwisportation,social mores, economic conditions, tind comnmnications all aljccted the buying and selling ofjoodsiujjs. She telLs this story with heroivn bacltground in mmd;members ofherjamily engaged in thegroeax trade in the "old country"oj I lolland.

Iront cover image isjrom the cover oj Diehl's Catalog No.i i, Fall-Winter LgiS-ic). Bacl{cover image is tal{enjrom the cover ojlDichl's Tltblc Topics, April 1926. All images arcfrom the collection oj the Santa Barbara[listorical Society unless noted otherwise.

/ lattie Beresjord's maternal grandjather, Cjcnidus Johannes van den Flsl{en, on right, at the marketplace,'Ihe blague,Aktherlands.

Courtesy ojthe author.

THE AUTHOR: / lutcic Bercsjord is the granddaughter and sister ojgrocers.!ler matenial grandjather hawked vegetablesjroma horse-dimon wagon through the streets ojIhe Hague,AJetherlands, while her gnindmother tended theirstore in jwnt ojthe stables. I ler brotheris a manager in amajorgrocei'y chain in northern Calij'ornia. Ihe author earned a B.A.in Fnglish zvith a minor in I lisloryjrom I.IC Santa Biirbara in ig~i and her teaching credential in igji. She has taught English and liistoiy in the Santa Barbara School District jor twenty-nine years. She is the author oj a histoty oj the El Alirasol!lolel which appeared in Noticias in zooi.

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS: NOTICIAS is a quattcrlv joiima! devoted to the study ot the historv of Santa Barbara County. Contributions ol articles are welcome. Those authors whose articles arc accepted lor publication will receive ten gratis copies of the issue in which their article appears. Further copies arc available to the contributor at cost. The authority in matters of stvle is the University oj Chicago A ianual oj Style, igth edition. The Publications Committee rc.scrvcs the right to return submitted manuscripts lor required changes. Statements and opinions exprcs.sed in articles arc the sole responsibility ol the author.

Michael Redmon, Editor Judy Sutclil Ic. Designer ® 2004 The Santa J3arbara Historical Society 136 E. Dc la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara, California 93101 ● Tclcjihone: 805/966-1601 Single copies $7.00 ISSN 05RJ-5916

SANTA BARBARA

GROCERS Diehl’s. Over the years, the changing needs, desires, and mores of an ever-increasing

THE EVOLUTION of grocery stores in Santa Barbara is a unique reflection of the city’s cultural, political, technological, and economic history. The history of Santa Barbara grocery scores began with the ar rival of the Spanish in 1782 and was influ enced by the laws and culture of Spain. In these early days, after Spanish supply ships had ceased their annual visits, the inhabit

population gave, and continue to give, shape to these stores.

THE FIRST GROCERS When the band of forty-five presidio soldiers arrived in Santa Barbara on April 21,1782, under the command of Jose Fran

ants of Santa Barbara rode furtively up the coast to Jose Francisco de Ortega’s rancho, Nuestra Sehora del Refugio. There they could buy treasured silks and spices brought in by British and American smugglers.

Under Mexico’s ranchcro economy, the women of Santa Barbara braved loamy breakers as they were rowed out to the hide and callow trade ships for a bit of ship board shopping. After the establishment of Yankee culture and improvements in trans portation and technology, the women of American Santa Barbara languished over tea and scones in the elegant emporium of

cisco dc Ortega, they were not disposed to the native Chumash diet. Tliey came some what prepared for a more familiar life by brinaina o o with them seeds and livestock. For the rest, they would rely on the occasional Manila galleon and on Spanish supply ships which came from San Bias once a year from 1782 to 1810.

Each year in March or April, the presidio comandantc would prepare a list of items needed for the following year.'

Although the presidio’s main function was to provide lor the military defense of the

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With Spanish settlanent, the HpyaL Presidio became duefirstfood distribution center on the South Coast.

Watercolor on paper by Fuseli Ei-dz-

province, over the years it also came to function as a trading center for the annual requisition and distribution of goods to the soldiers as well as the people of the small pueblo which had grown outside the presidial walls. Since money was scarce, a soldier’s pay was often in the form of credit at the presidio store.^ Santa Barbara’s first grocer, therefore, was Ortega, first comandantcoi the presidio.

In 1786 Mission Santa Barbara was founded. Unlike the presidio, which relied on supply ships, the mission was to be selfsufficient. although it could requisition some supplies from the archdiocese in San Fernando. The neophyte Indians were to provide the labor as they learned craf ts like weaving and tool making as well as the techniques of farming and animal hus bandry. Grub-staked with livestock and seed from established missions,^ the com munity at Mission Santa Barbara set about

the task of becoming independent by plant ing staple foods such as wheat, barley, corn, beans, peas, and horse beans.

As the years progressed, the number of Chumash converts to Christianity, and therefore laborers, increased. Orchards and vineyards were planted and herds of cattle and sheep increased in impressive numbers.

Auguste Duhaut-Glly, a French navigator, visited Santa Barbara in 1827 and noticed olive trees as well as banana, apple, pear, orange and cherry trees in the gardens.

Vineyards thrived at the San Jose vineyard near Golcta and excellent wine was pro duced there. While essential foodstuffs were cultivated and stored in mission ware houses for the common good, some of the Indians were allowed to cultivate private gardens on land between the mission and Dos Pueblos in the Goleta Valley. In these gardens, they grew melons and other vari eties of food which they could sell.

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS The mission became very successful in providing for itself and the community.

Since most of the surrounding land was being held in crust for the Indians, the mis sion had access to hundreds of thousands of acres on which to graze its herds. The mission was glad to sell its surplus bcel . shoes, blankets, candles, and produce to the presidial soldiers, usually at government controlled prices.'' The second grocers in Santa Barbara, therefore, were the mission padres.

The presidio soldiers and their tamilies.

3 chough chcy had developed gardens and raised livestock, relied on Spanish supply ships like the t'avorita, San Carlos, and Princesd for any staples they lacked and the luxuries they desired. Vegetable and fruit seeds lor the presidio gardens as well as staples such as corn, rice, and dry noodles, shrimp and oysters were among the foodstuffs sent each year from San Bias.

Other staples chat were not produced lo cally included certain beans, sugar, brown sugar, chilis and lard. Spices, such as salIron, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cumin.

'Ihisfrigate is similar to ships such as the Princesa ivhich supplied the South Coast xvith goods in the late iyoos. Penandinlidrau-ingby Qorc/on Qrant/arThe Book ot Old Ships, igi^. Qrantivas thejathcr ofCjordon and Campbell Qrant who ivent on to distinguished art careers in their own right.

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anise, lavender, nutmeg, as well as olive oil

When war broke out between Mexico

and honey, preserved sesame and oregano, annually made the crip. The variety and quality of the presidial menu, at lease for the olficers, muse have been impressive.

That the presidio and the pueblo which

and Spain in 1810, no more Spanish sup ply ships arrived in Santa Barbara. The presidio relied more and more on the mis sion for the essentials of food and cloth

grew up around it prospered over the years is indicated by a comparison of goods req uisitioned in 1782 and chose of 1808. In 1782. Ortega ordered four hundredfanegas of maize one hundred fifty fanegas of beans, ten arrobas ot chili, thirty arrobas of lard, six loads of brown sugar cake, ten an-obas of sugar, three boxes of cigars, and twenty loads of bar soap.(A fanega equals 1.5 CO 2,5 bushels; an arroba equals about twenty-five pounds.) For the rest he or dered basic equipment like saddle pads, halters, boots, etc.-"' By 1808. the list had quadrupled in size and included a huge order for a variety of fabrics from white common cloth to Brit tany linen to Chinese silk. In addition to items like mandolin strings, candle snuff ers, and copper pots, the foods ordered cook on the flavor of exotics and luxury items as well. The comandante ordered twelve pounds of cinnamon from Ceylon, eight arrobas of cocoa, half of Caracas and half of red. twelve arrobas of gift chocolate in trunks, six arrobas large and small candied fruit, four arrobas preserved sweet dried fruit, four pounds of black pepper, and one dozen nutmegs.^ The change in tenor of the lists shows chat as far as the basics were concerned, the settlers were providing for themselves or purchasing within the province. In fact, as lace as the 1830s, Alfred Robinson, who had come to California as part of the hide and tallow trade, remarked. "Most kinds

ing, With soldiers’ salaries remaining un paid. the presidios throughout California racked up quite a bill with the missions. In the end, they owed the missions over half a million pesos,^ Under Spanish rule it was illegal for Alta Californians to trade with foreign nations, consequently the people of Santa Barbara began to rely heavily on smugglers who landed their trading ships at retired Capican Jose Ortega’s rancho at Nucstra Sehora del Refugio.'^ Santa Barbara’s first grocer was in business again, Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. but internal conflicts kept the new nation in turmoil for years. The two most notable changes for California were that foreign ships could now legally trade in California ports and that the pro cess of secularization began with much of the vast mission grazing lands, which had been held in crust by the padres for the In dians. being granted to prominent Mexi can citizens.

On these ranchos, cattle thrived and, money being scarce, became the medium of exchange for trade with the foreigners.

The hide and tallow trade developed and continued into the beginnings of the American period of the 1850’s. Up until 1833, even the mission participated in this trade, using the cattle from its outlying ranches. The padres had a storehouse near Santa Barbara’s West Beach in which they kept the hides and callow in readiness for trade.With the hide and tallow trade,

of vegetables are raised in gardens and there

Santa Barbara experienced a growth of mercantile establishments.

is hardly a house in the country chat has not its small patch of ground devoted to chat purpose."^

By the early 1830s. the secularization process was well underway, stripping the rich rancho lands away from the missions.

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'The missions of Alta California were set up to be largely self-sufficient. Ike Santa Barbara AUssion eventually produced enoughfoodstuffs and othergoods to meet not only its(nvn needs, but a substantial portion of the needs of nearby communities.

When Richard Henry Dana visited Santa Barbara in 1836 he noted, "The mission is a large and deserted-looking place, the out buildings going to ruin, and everything giv ing one the impression of decaying gran deur.

Trees went unpruned, their Iruit unharvested. Many of the trees had been cut down, leaving only stumps behind.'^ No longer was the mission a major sup plier of food for the people of Santa Bar bara. Nor did it have the means by which to continue to engage in the hide and tal low trade.

dc la Guerra family obtained twelve land grants of vast acreage.

Dc la Guerra’s granddaughter. Francisca dc la Guerra Dibblcc recalled the large twostory storeroom behind the house in which

Into this breach stepped Jose Antonio dc la Guerra who commanded the Santa

supplies that were purchased from the ships were deposited. "The big store-room in which the supplies were kept was neces sary because in my grandfather’s day there were no scores, and the whole community depended on him. The comandantedid not sell much, if anything. He was very gener ous and open-handed, and gave freely away.

In his reminiscences, William Streeter

Barbara presidio from 1815 to 1842. He had

supports Francisca's claim. Pulled into ser

completed his casa grande (which still stands today just off State Street on Dc la Guerra Street opposite De la Guerra Plaza) in 1827 and he owned land to the cast known as the Dc la Guerra Wells and De la Guerra Gardens which abounded with

vice as a reluctant doctor during the Mexi can era despite his lack of training, Streeter paid calls on the sick at dc la Guerra’s urg ing. The latter always inquired of Streeter if the people had enough food or medicine or blankets. If not. Streeter was to go into the storeroom and take what they needed

fruit trees. Besides these pueblo lands, the

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Casa de la Querra was an importantfood depotfor Santa Barbara in the early 1800s. Note alcico in right backgrowid used as an ojfice and storehouse.

and CO say the items were a gift from a friend.''^ Frandsca also remembered the gardens: Thefruits andfresh vegetablesjor our table came from the De la Cfueira gardens... on the flat lands, stretching about jrom Laguna to Cota. Viey were entered by a little, narrow passage, and this had a little door at the end ofit TTierc were overhanging trees, green grass,fruit trees, vegetables and a pool which wasfed by a little stream and surrounded by willows. . . . Each morning the gardeners, tivo ofthem, would come to the De la Querra house, carrying on their shoulders a great Chinese basket laden with the most delicious grapes, the mellow figs and the luscious peaches, still with the coolness and dew upon them."^ The regime change did not impoverish the citizens of Santa Barbara, although the same could not be said oi the Chumash.

Tliey had been completely disinherited.

THE HEYDAY OF THE HIDE AND TALLOW STORES

The De la Guerra storeroom was not the only source of commodities in town.

With foreign trade now legal during the Mexican period, the hide and callow trad ing companies became floating mercantile scores and their arrival caused much excite ment in the towns. When the agent for Bryant and Sturgis and Company of Bos ton, Alfred Robinson, arrived in Califor nia aboard the Brookline in 1829, he de scribed the excicemeiic at San Pedro: Boats were plying to and fro—launches laden with the variety ofour cargo passing to the beach, and men, zvomen, and children crowding upon our decks, partaking in the general excitanent. On shore all was confu sion. Cattle and carts laden zvith hides and tallow, "gente de razon,”and Indians, busily emphyed in the delivery oftheir produce, and

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SANTA BARBARA GROCERS receiving in return its value in goods;groups ofindividuals seated around little bonfires upon theground,and luyrsemen racing overthe plain in every direction.'^’ Besides delivering the luxuries of the China trade and utilitarian items from Bos

Robinson's move uptown from the beach corresponded to an intensification of mercantile development in Santa Barbara due in large part to the hide and tallow trade, Robinson alternately tended the store in Santa Barbara and traveled along the

ton, the trading ships were consumers and distributors of produce and other grocery items up and down the coast.

Bryant and Sturgis, as well as many of the other trading companies, also estab lished stores on shore. Some of these stores

coast to bargain for the purchase of hides and tallow and trade goodsd^ The period of the 1830s and 1840s saw the establishment of a series of general merchandise stores which sold everything from textiles and spurs to oranges and chocolate. Many of these store owners, like Robinson, arrived by sea and like those who had come before them, married into the

were portable. Robinson had directed the disassembling of a plank store in San Pedro before setting up a more permanent base in Santa Barbara. There, in 1830. he pur chased a "spacious building” and found himself a "comerciantede Santa Barbara.”

7Ay house was a building ojone story, containing one large room some fifty feet square, andfour smaller ones. Ihe large one wasfilled to the roof with bales and boxes, leaving a narrow passage onlyfor communication with the other apartments, which were differently occupied. One of these ivas fitted up with shelves and a counter serving as a show-room.'^ The Bryant and Sturgis store that Robinson opened was more than a simple plank warehouse on the beach. It was in a substantial adobe next to the home Daniel

prominent local lamilics, thereby insuring themselves a secure place in the business world of Santa Barbara. Men like the Scot tish shipmaster and trader, Captain John Alfred Robinson, who married into the De la Cjuerrafamily,was one ofthefirst American mer chants in Santa Barbara.

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Hill had built in 1826 for his finance, Rafacia Ortega, and which still stands to day at 11 East Carrillo Street. Hill, a ship’s carpenter, left the service of the Rover in 1823 and originally set up a mercantile store in a warehouse near the mission using trade goods purchased from the captain of the Rover. Robinson was pleased with the Carrillo Street location."The house united with that of my friend, Daniel Hill, whose immediate vicinity 1 found of great conve nience for we took our meals together, and he was often of much assistance to me in matters of business."in

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8 Wilson, who married Ramona Carrillo, and his partner, James Scott, considered Santa Barbara their home. They were in volved in otter hunting and trade and Wil son was considered a merchant.

Benjamin Foxen,also a mariner in the hide and tallow trade, settled in Santa Barbara in 1828 and bought a tw^o-story adobe on the southeast corner of future Canon Perdido and State streets where he opened a general mer chandise store with one of the lew wooden floors in town in 1830.^° In 1842 Foxen was

NOTICIAS home was a two-story Monterey-style adobe. The bottom floor was used as a warehouse and the top floor was living quarters. The owner of three ships. Th ompson continued his trade in the Sand wich Islands, trading hide and tallow for silks, dry goods, and other merchandise which he sold through his stores in Santa Barbara.^' Later, his house on State Street, just above De la Guerra Street, became the

granted the Rancho Tinaquaic between Los Olivos and Sisquoc and most likely left the mercantile business.

San Carlos Hotel which was anglicized to the Saint Charles. At different points in time, its lower floor was rented out to gro cery businesses. This adobe at 813 State Street was razed in 1913.

Another mariner, Alpheus Thompson, came to Santa Barbara in 1830. In 1834 he

Alpheus Thompson purchased one of his stores from Francis Ziba Branch in

built a wooden store building and home on what is today lower State Street. Report edly, an adobe brick maker,feeling his live lihood threatened, burned it down the night of the house warming. Thompson’s next

1837^^ Branch was among a group of men who came to Santa Barbara, not from the sea, but overland as trappers and traders.

He,Lewis T Burton, and Isaac Sparks came to Santa Barbara to hunt otter and eventu-

'Ihc two-story adobe built Iry Alpheus Viompson served as a residence, store, and warehouse. Oil on canvas by Alexander F. Harmer.

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The adobe on Burton’s Mound,overlooking West Beach,ivas the site oja number ojgrocery establish ments in the mid-iSoos.'Thisp/iofograp/i Tt-'ci.s taken shortly bejore therazing ofthe adobe to make ivayjor the Potter Hotel.

ally found themselves in the mercantile business as well. Branch had been a trader

his wife, Mary Ayres, on Scare Street,just

and trapper on the Santa Fc Trail. He came to Santa Barbara about 1833 and invested

city’s third mayor.

The third mountain man of note was Lewis T Burton who came to Santa Bar bara in 1831 and who lent his name to the

his crapping bonds in a grocery store hcrc.^^ One source claims Branch went into part nership with Burton, who had arrived in Santa Barbara in 1831 to hunt otter under the license of William Henry Dana, the port officer for Santa Barbara. They sup posedly opened a general merchandise score and boarding house together soon alter 24 their respective arrivals.

Isaac Sparks came to Santa Barbara in the early 1830s and is also listed as being in partnership with Burton, whether for the purpose of otter hunting or mercantile pur suits is not clear. According to Santa Bar bara historian. Walker Tompkins, Sparks purchased an adobe located between mod ern-day Bath and Chapala streets on a 2S mound of land overlooking West Beach.

There he operated a mercantile store and post office. Sparks stayed on well into the American perkxi. He built a brick home for

north of Montecito Street, and became the

small hill overlooking West Beach. He purchased "Burton’s Mound" from Tho mas Robbins. Robbins, a mariner, had come CO Santa Barbara in 1830, and opened 26 a general store near the watertronc.

Robbins was remembered fondly by his customers as "... a hospitable, good natured old salt, whose score was a general rendez vous for seafaring men and traders, who "27 were always welcome at his cable.

By 1850 Burton had built a new resi dence and business closer to the center of town. This adobe was corn down in 1872 bccau.se it completely blocked State Street, just above Canon Perdido Street. By the time the Satita Barbara Qazette published Santa Barbara's first newspaper in May 185v"i. Burton was already ensconced in his new store and placed one of the first ads.

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"Lewis T Burton and Co. Wholesale Re tail Dealers in General Merchandise, State Street, Santa Barbara.” The only other store which advertised at this time was the Washington Store, the advertisement for which was entirely in Spanish. Tienda de Washington was owned by Geronimo Gauchcron and the Abadic Brothers. It was located "en el centra de Santa Barbara,calle 29

de Canon Perdido" in the CasaLarga.

It will be noted that the early storekeep ers were not strictly grocers; in fact, such specialization was not to be seen until later in the American period. With Santa Barbara’s small population, general mer chandise stores developed, selling every thing from pots and pans to strawberries and com to saddles and lace. In short, what ever the people needed and wanted and whatever the traders could get their hands on was sold. Groceries, especially exotic items like spices, candies, and dried fruits, were only a part of the inventory of these early stores.

The shipping trade certainly helped stock the Santa Barbara general merchan dise scores but to stock the produce sec tion. storekeepers needed to look closer to home. Perhaps because they had come to Santa Barbara well alter the heyday of the mission system, the new Yankees were not as impressed with Santa Barbara's agricul tural efforts as Duhaut-Cilly had been in 1827 Walter Murray, a U.S. soldier who came to Santa Barbara as part of the American occupation force in 1847, said regarding the economic health of the town, It ivoidd puxzh^ stranger to imagine by what means these Californians live;as busi ness,trade or agricidture are here almost unhnown. All manufactured articles, together with such articles as tea, cojjee, etc. are im ported and there are no exportssave hides and tallow.But the riddle issoon explained....Al most every Californian has hisrancho and his

herds ofcattle and horses. Beefis his princi palfood. His hoiLse is composed ofmaterial most ready to his hand and is built by the cheapest hdnd of labor—by the Indians who although not nominally slaves are infact. He grows afew vegetables andfndt, maize and wheat...From time to time he slaughters a numberofcattlefor their hides and talUnv and disposes ofthan to vessels which collect these 3° articles along the coast.

In the middle 1800s, it would appear large scale farming was unheard of due to the profitability of the cattle business.

THE SLOW ROAD TO AMERICANIZATION The hide and tallow trade was not des tined to last long into the American pe riod. When Richard Henry Dana returned to California by steamer in 1859 on a sen timental journey of reminiscences, he found, "The entire hide-business is of the past, and to the present inhabitants of Cali fornia a dim tradition."31 The Gold Rush, which had drawn off many of the men who gathered or cured hides, compensated for this loss of labor, at first, by creating a new market for cattle.

The tens of thousands of placer miners braving frostbite in the frigid streams flow ing from the Sierra Nevada Range needed beef. Best of all. they were willing to pay high prices for it. Santa Barbara rancheros drove their herds north. Instead of leaving the surplus beef behind for the coyotes and buzzards, the beef became a saleable com modity and cattle were going for one hun dred dollars a head. Unfortunately, the placer mining soon gave out and the argo nauts either went home or tried other en terprises in California. Of those who re mained, the law of profit had set in and superior beef cattle from the Midwest were driven to California. The price for Califor-

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SANTA BARBARA GROCERS nia cattle fell to three dollars a head; no body wanted the scrawny longhorns.

Despite the initial boom in the cattle business. Santa Barbara’s evolution from Mexican village to Yankee town took sev eral decades to accomplish. As previously mentioned, when the Santa Barbara Qabegan publication on May 28. 1855. only two local stores advertised. Later edi tions of the Qazettc. however, show F.J. Maguire advertising "Groceries, &c. &c. &c. Stock of groceries from San Francisco.”

In 1856, Morris Miner lists himself as the successor to Isaac Sparks as a "wholesale and retail dealer in dry gotxJs, groceries, hardware, and general merchandise. State Street.” Also in 1856, Peter Hammond an nounced. "The undersigned has opened a house on State Street where will be con stantly found a choice stock ol all kinds of table meat, fruit, butter, eggs, etc.” John Kays and Company on State Street sold "Good all-wool blankets, per pair - $2.25; Coffee - best quality- 6lbs. lor a $1.00; Sugar- per arroba - $2.25; and Spursi2 $2.00.

The latter part of the 1850's. therclore, saw a slow rise in the number of retail establishments.

The increase in mercantile activity in the 1850s did not impress Dana on his 1859 trip. He noted. "Santa Barbara has gained but little. I should not know, from anything I saw, that she was now a seaport of the United States, a part of the enterprising Yankee nation, and not still a lifeless Mexi can town. . . . The people of the region arc giving attention to sheep-raising; wine making. and the raising ol olives, just enough to keep the town from going back wards, "23 For better or worse. Santa Barbara in 1859 had yet to feel the full effect of "Yankee enterprise.”

Even by 1876, the evolution of Santa Barbara was just in its infant stages. On a two-year sojourn in California. Mary

Cone’s first impression was one of disbe lief chat the American Hag Hew over this very foreign-looking place. She described a city with "old adobe houses that. . . are destitute of chimneys and guiltless of win dows. . . . The Spaniards . . . seem to have eschewed geometrical figures and held in abhorrence all straight lines. Everywhere the streets are crooked." She does acknowl edge the infancy of Yankee enterprise when she notes that ". . . American energy has already accomplished much, and promises more. Everywhere there is evidence of the change—in the quickening ol all kinds of enterprise . . . in the increased accommo dations for visitors, as well as in their bet ter entertainment. ●M THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE The 1870’s did see, however, the be ginnings of farming enterprise, albeit, not always successfully. One of these enterpris ing new farmers was Abbie Smith Patrick Lincoln, who came to Santa Barbara in 1870 with her husband. Lyman, and two children. She, unlike Mary Cone, had an enthusiastic and favorable opinion of Santa Barbara. Although they eventually bought Rancho Tajiguas. upon first arriving they stayed at the St. Charles Hotel, formerly AlpheusTliompson’s house. Abbie, though not a master of punctuation, commented: 'There are good stores herefurniture, dry goods, toys, groceries everything....We get splendid bread, beef a lb for the very best, mutton i bit ten cents a lb. Sivcet po tatoes very nice. Irish potatoes splendid, other things are high because the people are too lazy to cultivate them but with some thrifty Jankcc farmers it would be a land ”33 teaming with good things.

Despite their high hopes and confidence, though, the Lincolns were not able to make

12 a success ot the Tajiguas ranch. They evencually moved back into town and established the Lincoln Hotel in 1872. Tliis business still ex ists today as the U Hotel located at 1De la Vina Street.

One of the rea sons that agricul ture was so slow to develop is because for the first twenty years of the American pe riod most people believed that the surrounding land was only adapted to raising stock. In the 1860’s sever; events occurred wh signaled the end o stranglehold that cai on land use. The winter of 1861-62 brought torrential rains which washed away adobe buildings and destroyed orchards and farms. Following these floods came a drought so severe that by 1864 only 5,000 of 300.000 Santa Bar bara County cattle had survived. In all of California, three million cattle died.

Finding their fortunes wiped out. the Californios were placed in the position of having to find a way to pay their taxes and their legal fees for having their lands 37 confirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

They started selling off portions of their ranchos. Some of the land went to men who made their fortunes raising sheep since the market for wool was booming due to the need for uniforms during the Civil War. William Welles Hollister and Albert and Thomas Dibblee were the most notable of these shepherd entrepreneurs.

Others, like the Lincolns, came to Santa

NOTICIAS Barbara County to farm and found that though land was becoming avail able. there were still other n fo blems. The sparse

ation of the county sed any large-scale rming operation to 'epend on markets farther away.

Roads were poor and distances great, so perish ables like fruit and vegetables were unlikely to be remunerative.

Wheat could be shipped by sea but here were no harves. and the y landings at 1 ships regularly ^ere at Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Los Alamos wheat farmers used Gaviota but there was no place to store the wheat and all freight had to pass through the surf at the owner’s risk.^'^ Obviously, large-scale farming would not be a viable industry until the population increased or shipment of produce was facilitated.

In 1868, the Chapala Street wharf opened which allowed ships to send smaller boats or lighters to discharge passengers and cargo. In 1872, John Stearns built an even longer wharf which enabled large ships to tie up to it. In 1873. Charles Nordhoff. author of a tourist guide for

ABOVE:Amasa and Abigail Lincoin tried thdr luind at ranching hejore(ypening the Lincoln Ha tel on Dc la Vina Street. 'Ihe Iwtel still operates today as the Upham Hotel. /Ibigail’s letters to family revealed ihe state ojSanta Barbara retail ing in the iSyos.

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS California, popularized Santa Barbara as a health resort. More people came.

Also in 1873, T Wallace More of La Patera ranch near Goleta completed a 900-foot wharf at his landing. By Sep tember 1874, steamers stopped at More's landing up to four times a week when tarm produce and other items lor San Francisco were waiting.^® In 1887, the railroad from Los Angeles readied Santa Barbara. In January 1901, the northern gap was bridged and the railroad con nected through to San Francisco. These advances in the transportation network allowed larmers to produce for both lo cal and ever more distant markets.

The next questions were what would grow here and what would be profitable.

In the 1870's a great period of experimen tation began. Tliroughouc the county farm ers set out orchards of apple, peach, pear, apricot, nectarine, quince, and plum trees, Ellwood Cooper made olive culture king for over thirty years. Lemon, orange, and lime groves began to dot the hillsides. Ex otics, like ligs, Japanese persimmons, gua¬

13 vas. loquats, pomegranates, white zapotas. and cherimoyas began to be seen in the lo cal markets, fresh from the trees. English walnuts, Italian chestnuts. Japanese chest nuts. black walnuts, butternut and pecan trees littered the autumnal ground with their dark pcxls.'’*’ Growers tried their hands at tobacco and pampas grass. Frank E. Kellogg established a dairy, the Goleta Creamery, in 1882 and delivered its prod ucts to Santa Barbara grocers like Austin and Trenwith. Staples like barley, wheat, potatoes, squash, beans, and corn contin 42 ued to be grown.

George M. Williams had a thriving larm on Modoc Road and another near Arroyo Burro. His produce was so popular that many Santa Barbara customers would ask their grocers, "Is this fruit from Mr. Williams ranch?" Many refused to pur chase if the answer were no. Newspaper articles ol the times described his pro duce in glowing terms. "Fairer more lus cious fruit was never before beheld in any section of the country." One reporter waxed poetic when he described peach

An amazing variety ojcrops could begrown on the South Coast, w'hich proved a Ixxm to local markets.

Here Joseph Sexton ojthe Qoleta Valley proudly stands infront ojone ofhis pampiis grass plants.

14

NOTICIAS

crccs "heavily laden with red-checked, downy fruit.” What Williams could not sell in Santa Barbara was shipped to San Francisco or dried to preserve it lor far ther markets. Unfortunately, the supply of deciduous fruit in California far ex

Maguire’s brother-in-law, John C. Kays, was a merchant in the early 1850's but then became a land owner. When he lost the land in 1868, he went back into the mer cantile business, this time in the lormer Abadic store building on the southwest

ceeded the demand and without refrig erated cars, cultivation was destined to decline. By the time it was possible to ship extreme perishables, citrus, walnuts, and avocados had become the predomi ■53 nant crops in Santa Barbara.

TRANSITIONS AND TREND SETTING Santa Barbara was without a newspa per from 1858 until 1868. Wlicn the Santa Barbara Post published its eighth edition on July 18,1868, several general merchan dise stores placed ads. While many were new entrants on the scene, a lew old tim ers remained. One of these was Francis J. Maquirc who had started business in 1853.

Maguire had come to Santa Barbara around 1850 and worked as a clerk for John C.

Victor Eugene August Janssens operated stores in a number of locations during the iSyos and i88os.

Kays in a long, low, adobe general mer chandise store which stood on the site of ●5.S

today's Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

Wlien Maquirc went into business for him self. he founded his store and residence for his fourteen-member family in a large adobe building which stood at the southwest cor ner of State and Dc la Guerra streets near the St. Charles. He remained there from about 1853 to 1870. Maguire was also the agent for the Wells Fargo Express Company and a steamship agent.

For the last fifteen years of his life Maguire served as a county judge. Two of his sons continued in the mercantile busi ness. Frank and Harry. They handled dry goods and started their business in the Dixie Thompson block on State Street between Ortega and Cota streets.

corner of Anacapa and Canon Perdido streets. The Abadie store had been consid ered a fine shop which kept "groceries, other supplies. linens and very good thick '46 silks, in great variety.

Another entrant onto the grocery scene was A. E. Janssens. Owner of a land grant in the Santa Ynez Valley, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1856.'’^ Shortly after 1865, he opened a store in an adobe at 27 East Carrillo Street. This adobe had been built in 1841 by Jose Antonio Aguirre. Janssens also maintained a post olfice in this store.

Sarah E. Higgins, who wrote a short his tory of the Aguirre adobe, recalled picking up her mail there in 1867^® The Aguirre adobe was torn down in 1884.

15

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS In 1872, the Santa Barham Post adver

Third, the restlessness of the American

tised Janssen's new store, at the northeast corner of State and De la Guerra streets.

mentality shows itself most clearly in the almost frantic movement from location to

Janssens stayed here only a short time; in 1874 he purchased an adobe from Bruno Orella and opened the White House Gro cery just below the southwest corner of State and Figueroa streets, where the large 49 Janssens family lived above the store.

Today, a portion of the original wall of this adobe forms part of Aldo's Restaurant at 1031 State Street. Janssens ran this store for many years and then sold it to a H.A. Rodgers who had been in the grocery busi ness at various locations farther down State

location of these stores. Janssens’ frequent moves are a perfect illustration.

Finally, partnerships constantly changed.

Tliis may be seen in the shifts of the follow ing business names; Hunt and Austin, Aus tin and Trenwith, Hunt and Metcalf, Hunt and Hosmer,Sweetser,Show and Co.,Show

Street.^ Although Janssens died in 1894 at age seventy-seven, the name reappeared connected with the grocery business in 1924. A.J. Janssens operated a grocery at 702 Anacapa Street until 1937 when the Janssens name disappears from the grocery lists altogether.'*’' Another well-known resident who en tered the field was Jose Lobero who adver tised in 1869 that he was opening a gro cery and provision score on the beach. He was CO become much better known for his saloon and opera house.

Between 1868 and 1873, four trends so lidified, three of which continue into modern times. First, there was a continued movement to specialize. As the decade of the 1870’s pro gressed. general merchandise scores started to disappear as their owners, in an increas ingly competitive environment catering to an increasing population, narrowed the cat egory of merchandise they sold.

Second, most businesses that listed themselves as general merchandise or gro cery stores lasted only a few years. A. Schiappa Pietra, for example, whose score and residence was located in the Thomp son adobe, moved his family to Ventura after only a few years. Ac that point the 52 building became the Sc. Charles Hotel.

and Hunt. Show and Smith. Partnership changes and business relocations were norms for Santa Barbara grocery businesses well into twentieth century.

Despite Mary Cone’s criticism, by Au gust 1875 Santa Barbara had six wholesale and retail grocery stores; ten fruit, candy, and vegetable stores; seven hotels; three restaurants; four barber shops; four whole sale sugar stores; one ice cream and oyster saloon; three grocery and liquor stores, and one candy factory.^^ That year, however, was not an auspicious one to start a busi ness. Just as Santa Barbara was starting to reinvent itself as an American town, the bank failure of 1875 called a halt to any rapid progress. Santa Barbara seemed to slumber along until the boom of 1887^ THE CHINESE By the 1870’s the Chinese accounted for ten percent of Santa Barbara’s population and had established themselves in Santa Barbara as the chief growers and distribu tors of fruits and vegetables.^*^ Dr. Samuel Brinkerhoff and his partners brought the first substantial population of Chinese to Santa Barbara when they hired sixty Chi nese CO build the Santa Ynez Turnpike.

The Chinese, however, had an even ear lier presence in Santa Barbara which dated to 1855 when several Chinese fishermen established abalone fishing camps on the Channel Islands. Between 1864 and 1913,

16

NOTICIAS

■

- V

V*

r * v; Chinese peddlers were important retailers offresh produce in Santa Barbara in the late nineteenth century.

these lishing enterprises would be con trolled by the Santa Barbara merchant/ la bor contractor companies of Sing Hop Co., Sun Lung Co., and Sing Chung Co. All oi these companies were located on Canon Perdido Street. Sing Hop Company, which was organized in 1877, would remain in business until 1947 by which time it had become a grocery store. Although the Chinese were often received with mixed feelings by the rest of the Santa Barbara community, they continued to thrive.

The 1894 custom’s inspector map ot the Santa Barbara Chinese community showed twenty-eight businesses. Among them were eleven general merchandise stores and four grocery stores, one of which had a restaurant attached. By 1901, five of the twenty-nine groceries, eighteen percent, listed in the city direc tory were owned by Chinese.

The Chinese vegetable growers and peddlers in Santa Barbara first carried their vegetables in baskets swung on poles on their shoulders, and later used horses and wagons. Edward Selden Spaulding, who came to Santa Barbara at age six, remem bers these vegetable peddlers at the turn of the century: Willing to work, hours every day of the week, i/ieir carrots and beans and peas and otherproduce on land that they rented cheaply Jrom local land oivners; and they peddled their cropsjrom door to door in wagons usually drawn by two horses. they pursued this usefid occupation, they suffered tnany indignities,]or they were held to be an alien group and, as such, werefair gamefor those boys and me who were not above tor menting them.T^any a time,Jor example,one or another of us boys thought nothing ofrun ning up to the rearojone ofthe vegetablewag-

17

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS ons, as it moved slowly along the dirt street and, reaching over the tailgate, oj taking a carrot or two or a turnip from the piles on the bed oj the wagon, hi such episodes, the Chinaman on the seat oj the wagon, ij and when he was amscious ojourattacks,tookthe 5«

petty thejis ivith philosophical stoicism.

While chc peddlers may have been stoic, chc same could not be said ot their beasts of burden.

Tliejiery mettlesome horses driven by our Chinese vegetable venders are continually contributing their share toivard k<teping up the excitement ofu’hat might othenvise be a ratherquiet season.A certain one ofthese,that had not run azvay for nearly tioo months, seaned tojeel that he ivas neglecting his op portunities, and yesterday while his master was bickering over a trade at a Bath Street residence, thisjoxy steed seized the opportu nity and struck a two-minute gait down the street. Ile scattered good vegetables along the way with a prodigality that took his as tounded master’s breath away. On reaching the boulevard, he wisely stopped, little the worse for his morning s exercise, but with a somewhat lighter load.^‘^ In 1896 Santa Barbara boasted twcncy60 two grocery scores buc not all groceries or other merchandise was sold through scores. The 1890’s seemed to be chc hey day of street peddlers who rang chc door bells at all times of chc day, much like telemarketers who interrupt our dinners and tic up our phone lines today. The PAoming Press published a "succinct sum mary of the local citizen’s attitude toward peddlers" in 1892: Street peddling has gained proportion as a great nuisance in this city, and IwiLsekeepers especially complain,ivith reason, that no ejfort is made to abate it. Vegetable,jish and jruit vendots, the country man with a had oj ivood,the grocer, milkman and bakers are not complained oj, being patiently accepted as

iLscJid accciisories to the domestic regime.But the booh^ seivmg machine,piano and "eastern jloiverjinn”agents, the washing machine, salve, silver polish, photo enlarging, trinkets, tiostnims, d]-y goods and cheapjewelry pro cession that keeps up a daily walkeiroundjwm luyiLse to hmLse luith doorbell accompaniment constitute a daily and unbearable burden.^' THE FULL SERVICE SYSTEM Shopping in chc nineteenth and early cwcncicch centuries did not resemble in chc least shopping today. For one thing, chc con cept of self-service wasn’t even invented un til 1916 when Clarence Saunders of Mem phis, Tennessee,opened his Hrsc Piggly Wig gly score, secured chc sell-service format and eventually issued iranchiscs to hundreds of grocery retailers. Back in the lace 1800’s, chc customer selected items and the sales clerk leeched them, one by one. II chc order was large, it would be delivered rather chan going home in chc arms ot chc buyer who ofeen had quite a ways to walk. Alccrnaccly, chc grocery clerk rang chc householder's door bell, wrote down chc order, and then had ic delivered later in chc day.

In 1880 the Press admonished its read ers, "The citizens of Santa Barbara ought CO appreciate lully chc urbanity and kind ness ol our merchants, butchers, and ocher dealers who go'round and cake orders, then deliver chc goods to their patrons, no macccr how small the packages.” Nor were chc prices marked. Each customer was ex pected CO haggle over chc price of the items and the clerks were instructed to quote a higher price chan necessary so chat ic could drop to make chc customer feel chat he’d received a bargain.^^ Not everyone enjoyed chc bargaining, however, and some grocers started advertising "one price” scores indi cating chat everyone would pay chc same 6.^ —no haggling.

18

NOTiCIAS

Although wc can purchase our gro ceries with a credit card today, the gro cery store does not directly give credit.

This was not always so. The ladies who braved the surf and shopped aboard the trading ships did not pay for their pur chases, Their husbands and lathers settled their accounts with the requisite number of hides and tallow later. Such a system persisted into the 1920s. Grocers and other shopkeepers kept a tab ol a person’s purchases and then presented the bill at the end of each month. By midcentury, however, heads of the house were expected to pay in U.S. dollars, not California dollars,®^ The perils of this system led many grocers to advertise themselves as "cash" groceries; hence, no tabs.^^ Unfortunately, it took a long time for a "cash” system to catch on. In fact,

non-payment of bills was one major fac tor that led to the demise of Santa Barbara's premier grocery store, Diehl’s, in 1935.

TECHNOLOGY. TRADEMARKS, AND PACKAGING Before the Civil War. most of the items sold in grocery stores were sold in bulk.

Crackers were sold from a barrel. Peanut butter was sold from huge crocks. The gro cer would scoop it out and put it in a jar brought by the customer or he had paper tubs for an extra fee. Bacon came in slabs and the grocer or butcher cut slices to or der. Flour came in bins and the grocer filled a paper sack for his customers. Peas and beans were sold dry from large boxes and pickles came in large barrels and were sold

Interior ojShow and I hint, 8ii State Street, ca. igo^.

19

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS one at a time,66 Before 1860. canned goods did not line the shelves of the America's

chiccccural landscape. Adobes and falsefronted wooden stores on State Street were

grocery stores.

The Gold Rush and the Civil War cre

giving way to monumental brick and stone structures whose elaborate facades bore the

ated a huge demand for food chat could be preserved for long periods of time and which could travel great distances. Tech nical advances just before the Civil War

stamp of the age.

During this period Santa Barbara also began to reap the benefits of the industrial age in the forms of improved communica tion and transportation and improved tech nology. In 1870 the first telegraph line was brought to Santa Barbara from San Fran cisco. In 1872 gas light made its appear ance followed by the telephone in 1886.

Electricity arrived in 1887 That year also saw the arrival of the Southern Pacific Rail

sped up the production of the canning pro cess and lowered the price. Soon, canned goods were not just the purview of intrepid explorers, soldiers, and migrating Eastern ers. Grocery stores started stacking the cans on their shelves and city dwellers could eat peaches out of season.

Consumer desire for reliable quality is revealed in chat shopper’s question."Is this fruit from Mr. Williams'farm?” Canning allowed producers to distribute their prod ucts to distant markets as did ocher forms of packaging. These cans and packages bore the mark of their makers. The era of trademarks was upon the nation. Crackers were boxed under the Uneeda Biscuit trade mark. Dr. Kellogg and C.W Post put their cereal in boxes. Henry Crowell poured his mashed oats into the Quaker Brand.

Borden's Eagle Brand put condensed milk in cans in 1866. Campbell followed in 1869 with soup, and Ivory packaged its ”99.9 percent pure” soap in 1879. The develop ment of trademarks led to the development of national advertising and the advertising business. As the advertising industry de veloped, so did the arc of merchandising.

These new techniques and guidelines were to have a profound effect on Santa Bar bara grocers of the latter part of the 1800s, Between 1870 and 1900 Santa Barbara evolved into a typical American small town. The excesses of the Victorian age were to be seen in the many gingerbread houses whose steeply peaked roofs, intri cately scrolled barge boards, and orna mented turrets started to dominate the ar-

road from the south although its extension to San Francisco would not be completed until 1901. In 1895 oil was discovered in Summerland and completion of Cold Springs Tunnel increased sparse water sup plies. In 1905 a powerhouse was con structed and the city was completely elec trified. These advances allowed the popu lation of Santa Barbara to increase with a commensurate increase in businesses.

A SMALL TOWN IN MINNESOTA Over the years, Santa Barbara's small population was, of course, a key factor in the number of grocery scores the town could support. In 1840 Santa Barbara was already fifty-eight years old, but the popu lation stood at only nine hundred. Santa Barbara’s population in 1870 was 2,970 and it was during the 1870s chat many of the notable grocers made their starts as the population began to grow by leaps and bounds. By 1910 the town boasted a popu lation of 11,659, One of the first to enter the grocery arena in the 1870s was Colonel Charles C. Hunt who brought a Minnesota connec tion to Santa Barbara when he bought George Edwards Childs’ old stand on State

20

NOTICIAS

Street in April 1871. Childs had opened his grocery store with Santa Barbara’s first de livery service in 1869. Hunt used the fVfom-

partnerships, was steadfast in his family concerns. In addition to his wife, son

ing Press to advertise, tapping into the style ol the day with an eye-catching, impera tive slogan, "Go with the Crowd!" The SantaBarhara limes said of Hunt's. "Here

Charles A., and daughter Jennie F, all of whom arrived in Santa Barbara a year af ter he did, he encouraged his lour brothers and his sister to reside in Santa Barbara.^-'*

the epicure will find sufficient dainty vari eties in the eatable line to satisfy his fas ”68 tidious palate.

Hunt, a Civil War veteran, had fol

His nephew. Walter Leroy Hunt, who had also started in mercantile life in Austin, came to Santa Barbara in 1872 and worked

lowed mercantile pursuits in Austin, Min nesota. before coming to Santa Barbara.

Not too many years would pass before a virtual exodus of Austinians followed. By 1874. C.C. Hunt had teamed up with Nathaniel Porter Austin to form Hunt and Austin in the 500 block of State Street.

N.P. Austin, though born in Vermont, eventually moved to the town named for his family in Minnesota and built up a large business. Failing health caused him to come to the salubrious climate of Santa Barbara in 1872.^0 Another future Santa Barbara mer chant, George Farmer Trenwith, first trav eled as far west as Austin. Minnesota, due to his own failing health. Tliere he met N.P. Austin. Minnesota did not improve his health, so in 1874 he followed Austin to the health resort so touted by Nordhoff.^' At first he clerked for Austin, who by 1884 was on his own. By 1888 Trenwith was a partner in the firm which was located at 721-723 State Street.

Hunt, meanwhile, had partnered up with O.D. Metcalf, a son-in-law of B. T Dinsmorc of Montedto.^^ Their business was located on the corner of State and Ortega streets. In 1888 Metcalf was oper ating his own business at 700 State Street.

Hunt tried one more partnership, this time with William Bradbury Hosmer, Metcalf’s nephew, to form Hunt. Hosmer and Co. on the corrn.1 of State and Ortega by 1889.

Hunt, although somewhat lickle in his

for Hunt and Austin at first. Later, Walter Hunt was to lorm a partnership with Walter Show until he lormed his own Hunt Mercantile Company.

TIic April 10, 1890 Trades Carnival was a bcnelit lor Cottage Hospital and a boon for advertising Santa Barbara’s retail busi ness community. Local merchants robed lair maidens in costumes bedecked with the products of their stores. Among the gro cers represented were Austin and Trenwith, Sweetscr and Son, Ycrby Brothers. WC. 74 Show,and Hunt. Hosmer and Company.

Miss Jennie Hunt. C.C. Hunt’s daughter, representing Hunt, Hosmer and Co., was decked out as a sort ol living gingerbread house. Tlie newspaper at the time enthused, "Oh. but she was lovely . . . The dress was white cheese cloth made in Grecian style and decorated with fancy crackers, maca roni. etc. Coffee, teas, spices, raisins and beans were strung around arms and neck, with a girdle of limes, walnuts and al monds, sugar, crackers, eggs, dried fruit, ’7.6 etc., decorating other parts of the dress.

She and her ornamented compatriots were quite a sight. Such a display might be con sidered corny today, but at the time was merely a rel lection of the extravagance of the Victorian Age. The Colonel retired from mercantile concerns around 1900 and became one of the leading real estate men in the city and owned considerable property in Santa Bar bara at the time of his deatli on June 29.

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS 1922. His gracious former home, built in 1879 and designed by Peter J. Barber in the kalianace style, was moved three times and 76 stands today at 821 Coronel Street.

Nathaniel Porter Austin died in 1891.

In 1892, a local grocer, Walter Crockett Show, purchased the grocery department ol Austin and Trenwich and moved to 811813 State Street. Show had come to Santa Barbara at age ten and helped farm his father’s property at the west end ol Michelcorena Street. In 1882 he started in the grocery business with William Smith in the Odd Fellows Building at the corner of State and Haley streets.

In 1886 he pur chased the grocery of department Addison Garland and Son and went out on his own as WC.Show,located at 513 State Street.

Show relied on newspaper advertis ing CO win custom ers, Ads said he car ried a "full stock of staple and fancy groceries, as well as hay. grain, and feed of all kinds.” His ads

Charles C. Hunt, a Union Army veteran, opened hisfirst store in Santa Barbara in iS/i. His advertising sloganwas "QoWith the Crowd!"

21 tended CO stress the variety to be found in the score, for instance, "seventy-five dif ferent kinds of crackers.” He also carried specialty foods like chueneys. caviar, and truffles. He published a weekly bulletin in the newspaper extolling the virtues and sights of Santa Barbara, always managing CO include a pitch for his score.

Show also used elaborate displays to attract customers. A gallery was eventu ally built in one corner where he created an "artistic pyramid ot canned goods ot ev-

22

NOTICIAS

cry description." The doorway was deco 77 rated with hanging boxes of strawberries, we.Show also participated in the annual decoration of buildings during certain holi days. Long swags ot garlands, flags, and artistic displays of his products adorned his storclront.

these pictures into an annual calendar. He later had Wedgwood of England produce a group of collector’s plates with Harmer’s drawings of California missions on them.

One patriotic collector sent a set to Presi dent Herbert Hoover in 1929. Hoover was said to have liked them so much that he

By 1901 Show had formed a partner ship with Walter L. Hunt, Colonel Hunt’s nephew, to become Show and Hunt, still located at 811-813 State Street. Hunt had

regularly used them for breakfast in the Wliitc House.

In 1909 Show retired and sold his inter

married Ella J. Show, his partner's sister in 1883,"'* and after she died in 1900, he mar ried Martha Lowsley. He developed a popu lar form of advertising - a colorful annual calendar. In 1895, Hunt contacted artist Alexander Harmer. Harmer had married Fclicidad Abadie of Santa Barbara in 1893, and she convinced him to paint scenes of old Mexican California. Hunt commis sioned Harmer to create several paintings to hang in their store. He then incorporated

est to Hunt who reorganized as Hunt Mer cantile Company which continued at the same location until at least 1924. He con tinued to sell groceries and crockery, pro duce. grain and feed. A bakery was con nected to the business but was in a sepa rate building as was a coffee roasting plant.Walter L. Hunt died on Dec. 25, 1923. By 1928 Hunt Mercantile had moved to 1025 Chapala Street. It even tually evolved into a crockery business and moved to 12 East Carrillo Street as

Vie Ai. P. Austin store in the yoo blackojState Streetsold not only groceries, but clothing and other dry goods. For a numberojyears Austin partnered with Qeorge Trenwith.

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS

23

IV. C.Shawwasjiistcmcojthe grocers who tookpart in the Trades Carnival ofiSgo,amajorJund raiser jor the construction oj Cottage Ilospital. j\ote merchandise displayed on the women’s dresses.

81

Hunc’s China Shop in 1948. closed its doors in {987.^^^

This store

THE AMERICAN DREAM The grocery business provided an op portunity for enterprising young immi grants who hoped to find the American dream, as illustrated by the story of Giovanni Batista Parma. Born in the tiny village of Tolccto, Italy, on April 5.

1849. Parma lost both parents by the time he was fifteen. Forced to live with his sister-in-law who "vigorously pun ished me anytime I have done [sic] any thing wrong," he was sent out each day to supervise the laborers on their farm and to do his share of the work.

Giovanni, however, admitted, "...many times I deserted from the field of work and gone [sic] to school so that I could be able to write my name, but at night

in place oi going to bed I was compelled to sleep in the barn for punishment.”

Parma was determined to get an educa tion, so when his oldest brother returned Irom the gold Helds of California with a "pretty sum of money” he begged for a loan for passage to New York. His brother finally acquiesced. In 1867, Giovanni ar rived in New York with five francs in his pocket. He said, "I did not lose any time in looking for work and in which I had the good luck to find a job after the third day in arriving in New York, and on the same day I started to go to school working in the day and going to school at night.”

Parma eventually joined his other brother in California, arriving in January 1868. He worked as a dishwasher, pnxlucc farm laborer, and a clerk in a grocery store.

He went prospecting in the Baja Califor nia gold mines, but went broke. He peddled fruits and vegetables by shipping them to

24

NOTICIAS

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Slioivand Hunt aymmissioned d?ti5f Alexander Manner to execute a number ofpaintings of Old Calijomia. Ihese were used in a calendar as an advertLsmg tool.

San Francisco buc "the distance was so far that by the time the goods reached their destination everything was dried and it was impossible for me to realize the cost price so I had to give it up,” He came to Santa Barbara in 1872 and got a job in a Iruit store. Alter sixteen months, he balanced up his "account and debts and had the small balance of five dollars but established a good reputation and I started a fruit store ot my own with an indebtedness of one thousand dollars tor which amount I simply gave my note and in one year’s time I paid back the amount, continuing in the business ever since."

On Nov. 24, 1881. Giovanni married eighteen-year-old Catarina J. Pendola whose family were also Italian immigrants and had grocery connections. Like so many other owners ol small groceries, the couple lived in the rear of their store at 72S^^ State

Street, but eventually moved to a house at 912 Chapala Street, which has since been razed. In 1888 G.B. Parma listed himself as a dealer in fruits, groceries, and liquor at 725 State Street. By 1893, he had moved his store to 709 State Street, remaining there until about 1919.

In 1905 Parma formed a company with John Lagomarsino ol Ventura. Together they operated Parma Grocery Co. at 709 State Street and a liquor and tobacco store at 725 State Street. When Parma died in 1912. his sons John A. (Jack) and Leopold A, Parma took over the grocery store business. The Lagomarsino-Parma Company lasted until 1920 at which time John and Leopold formed a com pany with their mother, Catarina, the Parma Company, Inc. The business ad dress changed to 721-23 State Street, Eventually Leopold took over from John

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25

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS and dealt exclusively in li quors until he died in 1947 and the firm closed.

Giovanni’s determina tion to get an education, be lief in family, and commit ment to hard work was , passed down to his seven children. In addition to the

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business successes of John joH and Leopold, second daughter Rosamond earned a law degree as did her youngest brother. Harold Arthur Parma. Edward B. Parma became a banker after put ting in a stint at the store.

John’s son, Lawrence M. (Bud) also became a lawyer as did John's son-in-law,Dee M. Westmoreland, married

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to John’s daughter, Arlctte.

In the 1890s Giovanni i had purchased ranch land j: J which sons John and Harold : gave to the city in 1973 to create Parma Park, located in the foothills behind the

*

Riviera. Remnants of the lamily’s olive orchard still dot the hillsides. Giovanni Parma had truly attained the American Dream.

ELEGANCE AND ADVERTISING On January 5, 1891, a newcomer to the grocery scene on State Street was about to steal the thunder of locals, kalians, and Minnesotans alike. John Frederick Diehl opened an unassuming neighborhood gro cery store with "frame and clapboard walls ”86 at 723 State and cramped floor space.

Street. Diehl himself was hardly unassum ing, Described as a "large, heavy florid man with a reasonably closely-trimmed mus-

cache and a waistline chat required the long est belt to encircle,” he became universally 87

liked and respected by the community.

His store evolved into an elegant food emporium which moved first into the pres tigious new Howard-Canficld Building at 827 State Street in 1905. In 1923, two years after his death, the score moved into a build ing he owned next door at 823-25 State Street. Diehl had come to Santa Barbara in 1881 at age eighteen and garnered his gro-

ABOVF.: Qiovanni Parma ivcdded Catarina Pendola in Santa Barbara in i88i.

Thii Parma family was involved in local re tailingfor seven decades.

26

NOTICIAS

Ihe Parma Companyformed in igzo;this market was located at yzi State Street.

eery experience by working as a clerk and stock boy in the Garland Grocery Com pany. Later he became the manager of Austin and Trenwith’s grocery department.

When Diehl opened his first store he brought his two brothers, William and Edward, into the business as clerks and later, after the move to the HowardCanfield Building, as managers.

Diehl cultivated a wealthy clientele through the exotic products he offered and the amenities of his store. The rich and fa mous of the Gilded Age who vacationed in Santa Barbara in their elegant Montecito estates demanded only the best and Diehl was happy to provide it for them.

Diehl was an expert at advertising his products in a way that titillated the imagi nation and needs of his wealthy clients.

Relying on the romance of foreign places and plenty of purple prose, he imported from France "boneless sardines, mush rooms grown in abandoned stone quarries

near Bordeaux, and Bark Due currants where every single seed has been removed by hand without mutilating the berry."

China sent curls of ginger and potted meats. Russia supplied Diehl with caviar and Holland sent wheels of red-painted Edam and bon bons laced with liqueurs.

Indeed, there was something Dickenesque about the store and his descriptions.

Diehl also had a mail order business in gourmet foods which made him world famous. From baked goods to fresh produce, everything at Diehl’s was first class. Diehl insisted on quality control.

He sent to the La Patera Ranch for green asparagus, and ordered other vegetables from the Sexton. Doty, and Chamber lain ranches in the Goleta Valley.

Peaches, of course, came from George Williams’ farm on Modoc Road.*^® Diehl also .spared no expense in furnish ing his new store as the Independent’s su perlative-laden prose indicates, "...few

27

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS

r * .

. ●« i

m l:

r^A

'● / >

Jo/m Diehl’s first grocery, at 723 Sicife Sfreet. The Diehl name later became synonym<ms with elegance.

3

28

NOTICIAS

Interior of Diehl’s timxl store, <823-82.5 State St. 'Ihe store was a popular gathering place,as this photograph attests.A successfulmarketing toolwas the store catalog. One edition featured recipes that might seem strange to the modem paUite. Anymieforan anchovy and banana sandivich^

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS people who inspected the premises today ...were not amazed at the extent of the store, the vaseness and variety of the stock, the surpassing excellence of the fittings, lurnishings and appliances and practically the perfecting of every material feature.”

The new Diehl’s of 1905 had "enormous and magnificent place glass show win dows,” a floor of "polished hard maple and counters and fittings of solid quarter-sawed oak . . . a great array of French place allglass show cases,” and a soda fountain with two immense place glass mirrors forming its background. Besides the soda fountain department, Diehl’s had a delicatessen which "would make any epicure's mouth water” a tea and coffee section, produce section, and a confectionery. The base ment contained the bakery where over two thousand loaves of bread could be made in ten hours.^ Wlien Diehl Grocery Company moved into the new site at 823-25 State Street in 1923, it quadrupled its space and was con sidered "by many who inspected it. one of the finest of the kind in the country— if not the finest.” The Morning Press of July 29 said of the formal opening that the score was "a gleaming, spacious Aladdin's pal "91 ace of epicurean delight.

While Diehl may have lured his clien tele with elaborate displays, variety of de partments, exotic foods, and top quality produce, he kept them because of the per sonable and extraordinary service. Eighty percent of business was conducted by tele phone. Free deliveries were made in shiny wagons painted green and gold and bear ing the Diehl logo. These wagons deliv ered goods twice a day above Canon Perdido Street and once a day below it. The Riviera received twice-a-day service and the score's wagons began their Montecito 92 rounds precisely at 11:00 a.m. daily.

Diehl’s went to great lengths in servic-

29 ing the customcrii. Those who chose to shop by car sometimes received parking tickets. They could take the ticket to Diehl’s where it would be taken care ol and the fine was placed on their monthly bills, Diehl’s staff had a reputation tor service and friendliness and clients al ways found the "spirit of courtesy and service...creating genuine home spirit, "93 highly pleasurable.

Diehl knew how to market his store and his products. He was famous for his dis plays of fine iruit. his pyramids of polished apples and exotic canned goods. For many years Diehl also published a monthly maga zine. 'lablc lopics. which gave household hints and recipe contributions, all products available through Diehl's. His mail order catalog drew orders from customers a con tinent away.

Diehl also advertised in the local papers at a time when few merchants did. Tho mas More Storkc. long-time owner and edi tor of the Santa Barbara News-Press ob served. "At the turn of the century Santa Barbara had only a tew merchants who un derstood the value of newspaper advertis ing. They were John F. Diehl, George Trenwith, C. H. Frink and Adam Ott."04 Diehl employed the news advertising techniques ol his age. No longer confined to single columns as John Kay and F.j.

Maguire had been as late as the 1870s, Diehl used the elaborately bordered ad technique of the handbills popularized by P.T Barnum who had developed the style when he was a patent medicine salesman. An overstuffed, highly elaborated look of Vic torian design turned up in advertisements of this period. Diehl changed the concent of his ads daily and went beyond the simple listing of his goods and prices. Instead, his ads were flowery persuasions of the de lights and comforts of shopping at Diehl’s.

As the Victorian period waned, Diehl re-

30

NOTICIAS

spondcd by simplifying the appearance of his ads, but kept the score’s trademark bor der well into the 1930s.

A VISIT TO DIEHL’S Wlien the Howard-Canfield Building was completed in 1905. Diehl's became a favorite hangout for a young Edward Selden Spaulding. Spaulding recalled: '[he entrance to Diehl’s Qrocery Store was an impressive one, especially to visitors and touristsfrom the Bast. In addition to the at tractively arranged displays in the two,large windows, a long table on either side oj the doorway supported baskets, bowls, and dishes ofdelicious fruits. It ivas a commonly heard joke among us that Archie Hamilton, the clerk in charge of this particular display, used shoe polish to obtain the shine and bril liance ofthe apples and otherfindts on these two tables.

Within the store and . . .far to the left, against the wall was the s(xiafountain,[his important department was presided over by a young man whose real name ivas Julius Fredericks. I mention the name only because he was known to ils as "Peanuts"though why this should have been so I now have not, nor have I ever had, thefaintest inkling. Jet Pea nuts was an important person in my young life,for the concoctions that he dispensed in glasses and compotes were pure ambrosia to my palate. To the rear of all this delectable sweetness ivere the groceries, in which I had no interest whatever.

Torusgirb and boys,andfor many of our elders as well, Diehl's'was a sort ofclub to which we repaired wheneverwe had a coin or two of small change in our purses or pockets....One ... afternoon ... Ifound myself ivith a silverfour bit piece in my trouser pocket. 'Ihis was so unusual an event that it called for a celebration of some sort. I rode down State Street to Diehl's’ on my bicycle

and, sitting on a stool at the marble-topped counter, I ordered a chocolate sundae with a base ofchocolate ice cream. 77ie cost ofthis gourmet’s delight wasfifteen cents,and a de y5 light it certainly was.

Spaulding went on co order vanilla then strawberry sundaes and finished off his two bits with a nickel glass ol root beer—a memorable event for a young boy, John Frederick Diehl died in 1921 and his brothers continued the business. Overextensions at the bank and lack of pay ment by the wealthy clientele caused the bank co take over the business in 1926, Still, Diehl Brothers. Inc., co-operated by Edward and William, carried on at 823257 and 1119 State Street. The onset of the Depression increased the firm’s finan cial difficulties and the score at 823-25 State Street closed in 1935. The broth ers continued at 1119 State for a time and even opened a score at 1001 State Street, but eventually went out of busi ness altogether in 1942.^ THE ERA OF THE STATE STREET GROCERS Another grocer who began business in 1891 was James S. Morton who opened a grocery at 721 State Street. Fol lowing Santa Barbara tradition. Morton changed business names and locations over the years: 1893Brooks and Morton at ^ Silf 615 State Street; 1896— J. S. Morton at 629 State Street; 1913 1930 through Morton and Company at 803 State Street.®^ In 1910 Morton in vited the public co help him celebrate fourteen years in the same location. The Wiorning Press reported chat an clabo-

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS rate window display of tropical fruit led customers indoors through "arches and gateways of various commoditics, Inside, customers were entertained by merrily spinning windmills whose "wings were formed of Princess crackers with Aero soap powder elec tricity furnishing the power." Other features on display included an air plane fashioned of Bis-Bis, a house fashioned of prunes, a flag of red and white apples, and a replica of the Santa Barbara Mission made of coffee cans.98 In 1912 Morton announced "A Revo lution in the Grocery Business," The tra dition of credit buying was a burden to Santa Barbara " rctai

31 all the time—if you don’t you know how much you haven’t got when the bill comes.”

Just to hedge his bees, Morton continued to offer delivery service for a small fee.^ The cash and carry concept did not really catch on until the 1930s when,in the midst of the Depression, shoppers would over look the social amenities and focused on the lowest price.

Despite the mixed response to the cash and carry concept, Morton’s suc cess led him to seek larger quarters in 1913- In his new store, features such as a lady’s resting room "complete with comfortable chairs, tables, writing ma terials, telephones and other conveniences”'°° reveal that his establishment y was top drawer. These amenities also A reveal how different life was in 1913.

L Today’s multi-tasking grocery shop\ per. often with cell phone attached ’\ to the ear while feeding crackers to a toddler in the cart as she checks

ers. Usually ^—’ if bills were paid at all they were not paid in a timely fashion. While tradition and the public still demanded a credit system, Morton’s Package Grocery attempted to convince Santa Barbarans that it was in their best interest to pay cash. "We arc going to adopt the new system of selling groceries. Cash only and no delivery system will result in lower prices." Such a system would save Morton’s fifty percent, and the savings would be passed along to their clientele.

"No delivery wagons, no auto deliver ies, no delivery clerks, no horses, no book keeper, no collectors, and no bad debt ac counts will allow us to sell the highest qual ity goods the cheapest.’’ To further impress their customers with the wisdom of pay ing cash. Morton’s added,” If you pay cash you know what money you have is yours

her list and pulls items from the shelves is very far removed from the age of la dies resting rooms.

1891 seems to have been an auspicious year for opening a grocery store in Santa Barbara. In that year a Scot. Thomas Cornwall, arrived in Santa Barbara and his business was to become the training ground for one of Santa Barbara’s most successful local grocery families, the Jordanos, In poor health, Cornwall moved his family to Santa Barbara, by now firmly established as a health resort. Here, he hoped to restore the health of his daughter and himself.

Thomas formed a partnership with his son. Francis, and opened Tliomas Cornwall and Son at 929 State Street. The gro cery business at the turn of the century was incredibly time-consuming. Cornwall’s stayed open on Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. to accomm(xlate the farm families who loaded up on supplies once a

32 week. Cornwall's also had a bakery so the ovens had to be fired up at dawn. Since prepackaged foods were just coining into vogue, and most dry goods like flour and beans came in large barrels or sacks, the Cornwalls. like other grocers, had to re package these products into smaller units.

In 1898, ten-year-old Peter Jordano,son

NOTICIAS son,James T Cornwall, who owned a con struction company.

Thomas Cornwall died in 1917 and his son. Francis, died the same year. His two other sons. Thomas Jr. and Robert, even tually took over the business at the State

Street location until 1931 when they re sponded to the increase in car ownership with oi Italian immigrants, started working for revolutionary new concept, Cornwall’s Drive-In Service Market. This store FREE DELIVERY $2.00 OR MORE served its mobile cus tomers at 800 Chapala Street from 1931-1934.

QBOCBBV'.STOBES 1221 State St.

615 State St. Phone 2674

Phone 334

Thomas, jr. died sud denly in 1932 from an infection following a tooth extraction. That left Robert who had been one year old when g the family arrived in * California in 1889. 10.^ One more location was

Cornwall’s. Thus began the training that would eventually lead his brothers and him to form the largest locally-owned chain of grocery stores in Santa Barbara. In 1906,

tried lor Cornwall’s. 11 East Anapamu Street, before the Cornwall family closed their doors for good in 1940.

after he had graduated from high school, Peter became Cornwall’s bookkeeper. The Cornwalls were obviously impressed by young Peter and their large hearts must have gone out to this motherless boy. They allowed him to sleep upstairs in the store or in their home at 322 West Anapamu Street on those nights when the eight-mile journey home was too much for him. They also hired Peter’s brother,fourtecn-year-old John, in 1908. John worked as a delivery boy. and he would hitch up a marc named Rose to the delivery buggy and guide her up the tortuous hilly paths of the Riviera.

Eventually, all four brothers. Peter, John, Dominic, and Frank, would train at the

DISPERSION

centrated on State Street. By 1928 the city's population had grown to 27,945 from its 1875 figure of 2,660 and the number ol grocery establishments had multiplied commensuratcly. Many of the stores opening in the 1910s and 1920s set up shop in the expanding residential areas away from State Street. A large number ol these were small neighbor hood stores. They offered full service and

Cornwall store. John also worked for a time building roads for another Cornwall

oiten the owners of these small grocer ies lived on the property. Many ol the

Other than the Chinese grocery stores on Canon Perdido Street. Santa Barbara's groceries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were con

33

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS "Mom and Pop" stores in Santa Barbara today had their genesis during this time period. By 1937, of the lOi grocery stores in the city, only ten were located on State Street.

In the period 1875-1940, the ratio of grocery stores to population Iluctuated from one store to every 156 to 378 people. In contrast, in 1999, with a popu lation of a little over 92,000, Santa Bar bara had forty-two groceries, one store for every 2,198 people.

SELF-SERVE The

sell -service

t or m at

w'a s

founded in 1916 by Clarence Saunders in Memphis, Tennessee. The pace ol life was accelerating in the early 1900s. Innovations like the telephone and radio were revolutionizing com munications while improvements in automobile and airplane travel were transportation. transforming Saunders’ response to this modern age

CHART OF GROCERY STORES

Dace

1875 1888 1896 1901 1913 1919 1924 1928 1933 1937 1999

No. ot Grocery Scores’

17 14 22 25 37 66 95 114 117 101 42

No. on State Sc.

17 14 12 19 16 19 22 18 17 10 3

Total on State St.

100% 100% 54% 76% 43% 28% 23% 15% 14% 10% 7%

** S.B, Pop.

Grocery Scores

rtr Capita

2,660 5,383 6,299 7,094 13,993 18,993 25.109 27. 945 33,359 34.192 92,325

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

per 156 per 385 per 286 per 283 per 378 per 283 per 265 per 245 per 289 per 338 per 2,198

’Earlier scores include general merchandise scores which sold groceries as well as plows and shirts, and, before 1901. Chinese businesses, although they existed were not listed in the City Directories. ** These population figures are estiinaccs based on census results and average rate ot growth.

34

NOTICIAS

was the abandonment of full service in favor of the time-saving self-serve system.

Customers entered his revolutionary new store through turnstiles and walked through a narrow maze of shelves piled high with products. They selected their goods as they continued through the maze to a cashier. Brand recognition became even more important than it had before - a boon to the advertising industry.

Piggly Wiggly became the first gro cery store to price mark

r

i

all the items in the store and to use refrig erated cases to keep produce fresh longer.

Saunders issued franchises to hundreds of grocery retailers; by the 1930’s there were over 2,600 stores nationwide. When he was asked why he named his stores Piggly Wiggly, the answer was. "So that people ICM will ask that very question.

Santa Barbara's first Piggly Wiggly opened at 920 State Street in 1923. The city directory lists A.M. Cobb as the manager and gives the logo "All Over the World." By 1924 another store had opened at 1029 State Street.

A Morning Press ad of the time expressed the Piggly Wiggly philosophy, "The small expense of operating the Piggly Wiggly System is reflected in its lower retail prices. Thirteen deliveries daily.’’ The delivery system seems to defeat the premise behind Piggly Wig gly, but perhaps Santa Barbarans weren’t yet ready for complete self-service.

By 1928 there were four stores in the chain, at 525 and 1029 State Street, 1501 San Andres Street, and 435 Milpas Street.

The store at 1501 San Andres Street is ttxlay known as Foodland. By 1940, only one store, at 605 Milpas Street, remained and the franchise disappeared from Santa Barbara after that.

The 1923 Piggly Wiggly was not the first sell service store in Santa Barbara.

That honor belongs to Edmund J. Houghton who came to Santa Barbara in 1913. Houghton had extensive experience in the grocery business and in Santa Bar bara he worked lirst as a buyer for Hunt Mercantile where ? he was in charge of the I crockery business. He ' opened his own cash gro cery in 1916 at 615 State Street and took on a part ner for a while to become Forrester and Houghton.

By 1922, a full year before Piggly Wiggly moved into town, Houghton ad vertised that his stores were self-service.

Houghton’s "enterprising and progres sive’’ methods made him successful. He

WALTER L. HUNT, PRESIDENT AND MANAOSR

811-813 STATE STREET TELEPHONE 5

was able to offer low prices to his cus tomers because "He buys his goods in car load lots, thus saving materially in first cost, and then carries large and complete lines of such goods as arc demanded by local trade. 105 He started a small chain of "basketerias," so named because the cus-

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS comer used score-provided shopping bas kets, when he opened a second score at 1200 State Street. He also opened stores in Santa Maria. San Luis Obispo, and Ventura.

Houghton retired from the grocery busi ness in 1929just as the self-serve, cash and carry concept was about to claim the ap proval of the general population. He be came a rancher in Simi Valley and lived 106 there until his death in 1950.

35 carry scores during die early 1900’s. The new concept was successful lor the vener able A& P, which showed they could adjust CO the needs of the times. They had to prove this again in the 1930s with the advene of the supermarket. A&P re sponded by changing format again; they spent a dizzy few years closing an aver age of six economy scores to open each tos larger supermarket.

This national chain did not arrive in

CHAIN STORES

Santa Barbara until 1931. In chat year, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company

The chain store concept was founded in Manhattan by George Huntington Hartlord and George Gilman in 1859 with the Great Atlantic and Pacilic Tea Corn-

opened two cash and carry economy stores, one at 1930 De la Vina Street and the ocher at 803 State Street. In 1932,the State Street score moved CO 1217 State and the two

107

pany. Spice, tea. and coffee merchants. they wanted to lower the price of tea to the consumer,from $1.00 per pound to $.30 per pound, without cutting their profit. To do this, they cut out the middleman and bought directly from the ships.

Their first store was made immediately noticeable to the buying public by its flam ing red facade. Ocher efforts to attract cus tomers included an elaborate interior and marketing efforts which included handing out free lithographs, advertising in re nowned publications, and displaying the score’s name on a red wagon drawn by eight dapple-gray horses. By the lace 1800s they had added grocery items to their scores.

They also found it profitable to manulaccure their own products under their own label, a practice that is still popular today.

Their stores, at first, were all full ser vice. but by 1912, Hartford’s son. John, convinced his father and brother to cry a new cash and carry economy store format as opposed to allowing charge accounts and providing deliveries. The cash and carry concept was just steps away from sell-servicc and many Santa Barbara grocers were advertising themselves as cash and

stores prospered until 1939. When the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company started consolidating its 1500 small stores into supermarkets, the scores in Santa Bar bara changed their names to A & P Super markets. In 1940, these two original scores closed and a new, larger score opened at 1401 Chapala Street. In 1960, this score also closed and A&P moved to 3309 State Street before closing for good in 1968-69. Today.

Gelson’s Market occupies the sice of this last A&P. As Santa Barbara continued to grow, more and more chain scores moved into the area, most moving into areas beyond downtown. These scores were built on or just off upper State Street and on into Goleca. Merger mania of the 1980s and 1990s has left the United States with a mere twenty companies accounting for sixty percent of grocery sales.

The buying power of such large conglomerates makes it difficult lor local grocery store owners CO compete.

The first local company to lorm a chain of scores in Santa Barbara was Jordano Brothers which eventually established eigh teen scores in Santa Barbara. Ventura, and

36

NOTICIAS

San Luis Obispo."° Like the Parmas be fore them, che family emigrated from Italy.

The four Jordano brothers prepared them selves by learning every aspect of the gro cery business through their jobs with Tho mas Cornwall and Son Grocery.

All four graduated from Santa Barbara Business College and they developed a plan that they hoped would lead to the establishment of their own store.

While Peter, Dominic, and Frank con tinued to work and save. John was sent to Los Angeles to learn the most up-to-date methods of the grocery business. He went to Redondo Beach and worked for

On March 1, 1915, with a loan of five hundred dollars from their uncles, Peter, John, and James Pomatto, the brothc rs opened their first store at 706 State Street complete with a horse and buggy for deliverv service,112 The brothers laced plenty of competition. Santa Bar bara in 1915 boasted thirty-seven gro cery stores, seventeen of them on State Street. The Lagomarsino-Parma Com pany was well established in the 700 block as was A.J. Orella at 738 State.

Venerable names like Hunt Mercantile.

Diehl's, the TisdcII Brothers of the Ar lington Grocery. Morton’s. Santa Bar

Sheppard and Smith, returning after only a week. Later, he returned to Los Angeles and worked lor one year for Albert Cohen returning to Santa Barbara to work for

bara Grocery Company, and the Jordanos’ mentors, Cornwall and Sons,

Cornwall Construction Company.

C.A. Place and Son. A. F. Osuna,

held eight to a large share of the busi ness. Other relative newcomers included

Antonia 'hrras holds baby Beatrice in the store the family rented at no Bast Montecito Street, 1922.

'Ihefamily later opened the Red and White Marfet at 202 East Montecito Street. Courtesy ofBeatrice 'lerras Nunez Bpsales.

37

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS Lawrence Orella, J.F. Moullct. C.Fl. Gardner, Dardi-Farioli Company, F.L. Birabent, and L.E, Bcckom,''-^ One factor in the favor of the Jordanos’ success was that the population of Santa Barbara had doubled in the previous fifteen years. Consequently, although there were thirty-seven grocery stores, the per capita ratio of grocery store to population was very high, one store per 378 people. The Jordanos were actually quite safe in adding one more store. The brothers were both shrewd and cautious at first. For their ini tial inventory they only stocked items that they knew had sold quickly or had been in often requested at Cornwall’s.

Santa Barbara had been wired for sound

vival. which was to be predominant in the restoration of State Street after the 1925 earthquake. With the coming of sclf-service and large chain stores looming on the horizon, the Jordanos had made the pre emptive decision to move off State Street thereby cutting costs and allowing them to buy in large lots and store their mer chandise in the huge basement warehouse at the new location. Shelf prices were cut and business increased ten percent. They still received telephone orders and made deliveries, however, for it was not until

in 1886, so eventually grocers no longer visited each household to take orders. Now

the Depression that the majority of shop pers w’ould fully accept the cash and llo carry concept.

Over the years the Jordanos continu ally adapted to changing times. Eventuallv,(,)ne son of each of the founding broth-

the telephone rang, the order was taken, packaged by the packing department, and sent out with the next delivery buggy or wagon. So it was for the Jordanos. In 1919. the brothers bought and modified a Model T Ford and entered the modern age of de livery systems. The year before they had realized that their business was boom

ers joined the business. Today, though they are no longer in the retail grocery business, the company is still going strong after eighty-eight years. Jordanos is now a suc cessful distributing conglomerate including food and beverages, run by Peter Jordano. son of Frank Jordano, one of the founding four brothers.

ing and they needed a larger store. Like Morton and others before them, they re alized that credit buying was a danger ous game for them, so in 1918 they closed the original store, and they opened one full-service store at 729 State Street and a cash and carry store at 1029 State.

Despite an information campaign on the value and virtues of shopping using the cash and carry concept, the upper State Street store was not a success.

In 1923. the Jordanos closed both State Street stores and moved to 35 West Canon I’erdido Street into the building once owned by their cousins, the Bossos. Tliey used the frame of the old wood and clapboard build ing to create a modern market in the latest architectural style, Spanish-Colonial Re¬

NEIGHBORHOOD STORES The early 1900’s saw a proliferation of small neighborhood stores. Although Santa Barbara had seen its first car in 1901. the days of the two-car family were still far away and many people used the electric street cars to travel up and down State Street. Others still relied on horses or their own feet. The population, however, had reached 19.441 by 1920 with houses spreading ever farther out from State Street.

Diehl’s, which catered to the elite, was not the store of choice for working class families. As the neighborhoods expanded, small grcKcrics grew up to serve them.

NOTICIAS

38 Many of these grocery scores were family owned and operated. Tlx front ot the house was a score and the family lived in the rear.

Many were owned by recently-arrived im migrants. Such was the case of the family ot Beatrice Terras Nunez Rosales.

Beatrice’s father, Geronimo Terras, and his family left Spain in 1911. They settled first in Hawaii, but moved to Santa Bar bara in 1914. Her mother’s family, also from Spain, arrived in Santa Barbara in 1916. Terras and Antonia Vargas met and married in 1920. Geronimo worked for a time at the Potter Hotel, until it burned down in 1921.

He then rented a grocery score belong ing to Maria Celia at 210 East Moncedco Street. Maria's husband. Antonio, had started the business in 1906. Geronimo also purchased property at 202 East Moncedco Street. This lot had formerly belonged to well-known Santa Barbara attorney, Charles Huse, whose daughter, Alice, had married grocer Walter Show. Together with his brother, Diego (Jimmy), Terras built a score with a small attached house on the sice, Tliey named the score the Red and White Market.

Beatrice grew up in this house and re members well the pace of their lives. The score was full service, rather chan self service and her father would open the score at 6:00 a.m. and close at 10:00 p.m, seven days a week. Occasionally her father would take a half a day off on Sundays. His wife would spell him at the counter so he could have his meals.

The entire family worked. The score became a gathering place for the neighbor hood. The Terras family knew all the neighbors and there was a warmth between the family and the score’s customers. There was always time for a chat. During World War II, a bracero facility opened nearby and these men. coo, became customers.

This modest working class ncighborhood became a shining example of the American Dream. Beatrice attended Santa Barbara State College which had joined the University of California system by the time she graduated in 1945. She recalls pop ping into the score to remind her father chat the semester’s tuition was due. He would reach into the cash register and hand her the $35.00. Beatrice, now retired, became a well-rcspecccd science teacher at Santa Barbara High School. In the two blocks of Moncecito Street just outside her door, the neighborhood could count six holders of Ph.D.’s. Beatrice’s own M.A. degree, a medical doctor, and a former professional football player.

The store remained in the Terras fam ily until 1987 By chat time it had acquired a wooden western-style facade and was called Lucky’s #1 Market. Tlx widening of Highway 101 and removal of its scop lights caused the score and Beatrice’s former home CO be corn down.“^ In 1985, Santa Barbara lost another of its venerable neighborhood grocery stores when Koury’s Market at 1014 Santa Bar bara Street closed. Again, something spe cial was lost. "People loved this store be cause it cook them back to their childhood.

It’s so warm, so friendly, so homey. Not like supermarkets today where you go in and the first thing they say is $50, please," said Olga Koury Reeves who ran the store after her mother, Mrs. Katherine Koury, died in 1977 Pictures of customers, memorabilia, and postcards adorned the score. "During World War II, service men would come in here, and if she found out they didn’t have a place to stay. Mama would put them up here overnight,’’ related Olga Reeves, With constant small courtesies like sending a lost pipe back to its owner in New York, it is no wonder chat the owners of Koury’s re-

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS ceived a "Hats Off Award” for "being a friend in need co everyone” by the Adver tising and Merchandising Club, Despite Katherine’s kindness, she was not immune co crime. In 1950, two armed men entered the store. One youth shot at her brother and nicked his leg, Katherine looked right down the barrel of the ocher youth’s gun and reached out and pulled down his mask. Both boys ran out. In 1967. she was not so lucky. The robber, not in timidated by her spunk, dragged her into the back room and beat her so badly that she was not expected co live. The feisty little woman, however, defied her doctors’ dire predictions, Katherine Koury had bought the score and neighboring house and opened for business in 1919, A native of Lebanon.

39 she had come co Santa Barbara in 1915 with her two small children alter the death of her husband. Like so many of these early grocers she put in long hours.

She ran the store seven days a week from 6;30 a,m, co 11:00 p.m. By the fortysixth anniversary of the score in 1965, she had worked continuously for more than 16,800 days. "The vacation habit is something I’ve never had, and I'm not going co get it now,” she said. Her daugh ter and son-in-law, Charlie Reeves, cook over the score in 1977, In 1985 Mrs, Reeves sold the store co a developer who razed it to make room for an office build ing, 'Tin a little bit weary,” said Olga Koury Reeves at the time. "I chink it’s the right thing co do, and Mama would ■'117 approve.

Kmiry’s Alarl^ct, lol^ Santa Barbara Street. 'IkeJamily operated a store at this locationfor over sixty years until Koury’s closed for good in 1985. Etching by ?4ichele Cooney. Courtesy oj Kathleen Brewster.

..x:

40

NOTICIAS SURVIVORS

There arc two buildings in Santa Bar bara which have housed grocery scores con tinually since 1917 One site is 235 West Micheltorena Street, today the home of La Bamba Market. This building was con structed in 1916 by Thomas H. Morrison,''*^ who had opened a grocery store at 923 State Street in 1887, Morrison and Boies. Born in Canada, Morrison

moved to Ojai in 1878 where he managed Galley Cottage Resort for a time and then had a grocery score in Ventura for several 119 years before moving to Santa Barbara.

Morrison owned the grocery on State Street and resided at 1428 Bach Street in a two-story Victorian which still stands to day. He left the grocery business and in 1901 started a livery stable at 225 West Michcleorena Street, just around the cor ner from his Bath Street home.

A grocery store has opcrated at 235 West y\'licheltorena StreetJor almost ninety years. It is currently the home ofLa BambaMarhet.Photograph by author.

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS It seems a strange choice ol location on Morrison's part for next door was Frank Cardoza’s Livery and Feed. It also was not a particularly auspicious year to begin a liv ery business as the lirst car had made its appearance on State Street. In 1916, Morrison tore down the stable and started to develop the site with craftsman bunga lows and a corner grocery store with a twostoried. clapboard falsc-lront.

C,H, Place and Son ran a grocery in this building from 1917-1920. Anumberof gro cers have operated here through the de cades. Wagner's Grocery was here in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Fresno Market in the 1970s. Craig Sperry bought the busi ness in 1982 and named the store. La Bamba. He sold it in 2003.^^*’ The second contender for longevity is 601 West Dc la Guerra Street, presently home of the Guadalajara Market. Although the building was constructed a year earlier than Morrison’s store, 121 TL. Reed, the first owner, is not listed as a grocer in the city directory until 1917 As was the case with many ol these small stores. Reed lived behind the store and the property today contains six other units. Originally, the building was shingled but was modified and stuccoed in the 1950s. when it was known as Zell’s Friendly Mar ket. Today the building belongs to the sis ter-in-law of Leonardo Gutierrez who has owned the business for the past twentythree years.

When Leonardo took over the store twenty-three years ago, he added windows and outdoor seating for the brisk lunch busi ness which he enlarged, almost by accident.

Before he took over, the deli had always sold ham, salami or roast beef and cheese sandwiches. Tiring of eating this deli fare everyday, he started bringing his own food, beans and rice, which he cooked for him self. His customers urged him to start sell-

41 ing these items so he added chicken, pork, and steak ranchcro burritos with vegetables and chili and onion as well as tortas and taquitos to the menu,'^^ The store also stocks a selection of Mexican items such as Queso Fresco, specialty spices, and pre packaged desserts like Cubitos(Jello squares in whipped cream) and Han, For most small business owners, crime is still sometimes a problem. In Leonardo’s neighborhood, the people worked tor six to seven years to rid the area of gangs. The store suffered periodic vandalism and break-ins. Removal of the public telephone at the store helped reduce loitering, but many of the store's customers missed the 123 convenience of having a telephone there.

Another survivor is the Riviera Mar ket at 416 East Michcltorena Street. The steeply pitched wood shingle roof atop the white stucco cottage fits in with its neigh bors of single-story clapboard and stucco houses built in the 1920s and 1930s, Herbert T Ireland and his son, Vernon, started the store in 1920, The latter had trained for the trade as a clerk at Diehl’s in 1919, The family, including mother Christina, lived behind the store. Thomas L. Selkirk took over the store in 1923, and lived on the property with his wile, Alma, This store also went through several owners and name changes and is currently owned by Mark and Sam Dakil, Sam Dakil, a native of Syria, says.

"People shop here because it’s close and con venient and there are no lines. Since park ing is a problem in this neighborhood and many residents park on the street, they do not wane to risk losing their space to drive to a larger grocery. They can walk to the Riviera Market.●’124 John Bond, former owner of the mar ket. gives another reason why small neigh borhood stores are able to survive in the modern marketplace ”Wc were not in

42 compccfcion with chc supermarkets. Few people bought more than two or three items.” Indeed, his prices were often twenty-five to lorty percent higher than chose in the supermarkets, because he could not buy in volume. "Most people understood that and were willing to pay a fair price, but didn’t want to feel ripped off. They expected to pay more for chc convenience. 125 For the past seventy-eight years, gro ceries have been sold from 410 South Sali nas Street, Starting out as a wood frame house and grocery operated by Harry and Helen Motto, the score was enlarged with a side addition with wood cladding in 1948 when it was known as the Salinas Market and at some later point was stuccoed.

In 1984, Lamberco "Beto” G. Aquirre, fulHllcd his lifelong dream, bought the busi ness, and renamed it Bcco’s. Born in

NOTICIAS Mexico, he came to Santa Barbara with his family when he was twelve years old.

It was May. he recalls, and much too lace in chc year to go to school so he cried to get a job. Since both his father and grand father had been in chc grocery business in Mexico, it was natural chat he should look there lirsc. He approached the Villarreals of chc Villareal Market on Haley Street, but at first they refused to hire him saying they did not really need anyone and he was coo young to work. There were child labor laws to consider, they said.

Aquirre was not to be put off; he grabbed a broom and started sweeping their sidewalk and cleaning the gutter.

The Villarreals relented. He worked for them all through chc summer until he en rolled in school at Our Lady of Guadalupe in September. Even then, af ter school, he would work at the market

'Ihe Old English styling ofthe E;iviera Market at ^l6 EastMichdtorena Street makes it distinctive in the neighborhood. Photograph by author.

43

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS a few hours a day. He was determined CO learn everything about the business, from grinding the corn to stocking shelves to dealing with customers.

When the score was sold, he at first stayed to help the new owners who were novices in the grocery business. Things did not work out and, now sixteen, he went to work at the Piggly Wiggly on the Villarreals’ recommendation. He became a fixture of the staff as the score went through several incarnations, finally end ing up as manager of the Chapala Market.

Tlie atmosphere of Beto’s is homey and friendly. In many cases he has known mul tiple generations of his customers’families.

The score is a family operation with his wife, oldest daughter, and a granddaugh ter all pitching in. As with many of the other small scores, the delicatessen is an im 126

portant aspect of the business.

Today Santa Barbara retains about twenty-seven independently-owned small grocery stores. Through changing times and changing names, they have persevered to serve the Santa Barbara neighborhoods.

The oldest of these small scores include Guadalajara Market,since 1917; LaBamba.

1917; Riviera Market, 1920; Brownies Market, 1922; Fernando's Market, 1923; Wescsidc Market, 1923; Davis Market, 1925; Beto’s Market, 1925; Pennywise, 1925; Foodland, 1926; Victoria Market, 1928; Italian Grocery 1928 on Olive Street, moved in 1980’s; Little Corner Score, 1929; Villarreal Market, 1951; Presidio Market, I960; Santa Cruz Market, 1960’s. Some of the small groceries today occupy buildmgs that were used for other mercantile pursuits before becoming grocery stores.

These include Italian and Greek Delicatessen. building since 1886; Mini Mart, site since 1871, new store since 1930; Whale Tail Market and Deli, 1922; and the Fairwav Market. 1951.

CONCLUSION From shipboard shopping to elegant emporiums,from Chinese peddlers to selfservice chain stores, from pickle barrels to prepackaged pasta salads, the shopping habits of Santa Barbarans have changed tremendously and reflect the social and eco nomic changes the community has under gone.

During the Spanish period, mercantile activity was minima! due in large part to a government ban on trade with foreigners.

Santa Barbara depended on official supply ships and the local economy was based upon the mission system and Chumash neophyte labor. As Alta California passed under Mexican rule, commerce quickened with the rise of the hide and tallow trade. while the mission system began to decline under the impact of secularization.

A sea change began to occur with the arrival ofU.S. rule in 1850. The Santa Bar bara economy became more diversified as the older economy based upon the cattle rancho was largely swept away by the cli matic disasters during the first half of the 1860s. Transportation improvements made Santa Barbara more accessible and brought the city into a growing commercial net work, The volume and variety of goods available for purchase increased dramati cally due to growth in trade and agricul ture. the rise of tourism, and the expecta tions of a new culture.

Technology had an impact in the pres ervation and packaging of foods and in the rise of the telephone and the automobile.

The economic hardships of the Depression of the 1930s hastened the acceptance of self service and cash and carry grocery stores.

Local population growth pushed grocery stores out away from the downtown core as expansion of the national economy pro moted the rise of chain stores. Yet despite

44

NOTICIAS

the accelerated pace of modern life and growth of economic scale there was still a place for the small, family-owned neigh borhood grocery, based upon service, con venience, and ambience.

J^CACHIS

nomic circumstances, and technology the grocery industry responded and thereby has mirrored over two hundred years of Santa Barbara history.

PlNEAPPI^

NOTES

' Giorgio Pcrissinocc, cd. Doaimenting Fveryday Life in Early Spanish California: lyyg1810(Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation,1998). 18-22.

^ Ihid.

Maynard Geiger, O.F.M.,yMission5unta Buriam;i782-2965(Santa Barbara: Franciscan Fathers ot California, 1965). 96.

■' Geiger. 79.

Geiger, 75.

'■ Perissinott, 349. ' Alfred Robinson, Lifein Califomia{Ncw York; Da Capo Press, 1969), 57 ^ Geiger, 85. ® Walker A. Tompkins. California’s Wonderful Comer (Santa Barbara: McNally & Loftin, 1962), 25-28.

10 Geiger, 58.

Richard Henry Dana. Iwo Years Before the Mast {hiew York: Airmont Publishing Com pany, Inc., 1965), 105.

12 Geiger,124.

13

Francisca dc la Guerra Dibblcc, "Fifty Years and More in Santa Barbara." as told to Michael J. Phillips. Santa Barbara Daily News.

18 January 1922.

H William A. Streeter. "Recollections of Historical Events in California; 1843-1878.”

California Historical Quarterly 18 (1939): 6869.

1,'i Dibblee.

16 Robinson. 38.

17 Robinson, 86-89.

18

To each change in societal needs, eco

Ibid.

10

Hubert Howe Bancrolt. Ihe Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of California,

(San Francisco: The History Company. Pub lishers, 1886). hi 137.146,179.258. 374; iv 116; V 590-1, 619-20.

20

Walker A. Tompkins, Ihe Yankee Barbarehos. unpublished manuscript, 1965, 85.

Yda Addis Storke, AMemorialandBiographical I listory of the Counties ofSanta Bar bara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company.

1891). 301.

22 Storke, 421.

2.?

Storke, 421; Bancroft, iii 387. 405.

Tompkins. Vie Yinkee Barbarehos. 85.

Walker A. Tompkins. Santa Barbara History Makers (Santa Barbara: McNally and Lofton, 1983), 65-68.

26

Tompkins, Santa Barbara I listory Makers, 53-56. There is some confusion over cxactly who owned "Burton’s Mound" and when they owned it.

Hubert Howe Bancroft. Register ofPio neer Inhabitants of California 2542 to 18^8 (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop. 1964). 697 28 Dibblcc; Map of the City of Santa Barbara as laid out by Salisbury 1 Jaley and draivn by V. Wackenreuder, Apr. i, i8‘^t„No.l, Gledhill Li brary. Santa Barbara Historical Society.

29 Santa Barbara Qazette, 28 May. 23 August 1855.

30 '

'Diary Gives New Facts on Old City’ SantaBarbaraNews-Press. 31 August 1947 Dana, 288.

32

Selected advertisements, Stmiz. Barbara

Qazette. 28 May 1855 — August 1856.

Dana. 288-291.

3-1

Mary Cone, livo Yars in Califomia{Chi-

45

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS cago; S.C- Griggs and Co.. 1876). 91.

Anna Blake Lincoln. "The Lincoln Let ters," AJoticias 10(Autumn 1964). ●’^J.B. Shaw, M.D., "The Insurmountable Difficulties of Farming in the Early Days. ” Vie Weekly Press. 9 April 1881.

Andrew F. Rollc. Calijomia: A History (New York: Thomas Y, Crowell Company, Inc., 1969), 307 38 Shaw.

39

Stella Haverland Rouse, "The Way It Was." Santa Barbara AJeivs-Press. 9 October 1988.

40

Tom Klcveland. "Sixty-Year-Old Report Divulges County's Horticultural Past," Santa Barbara News-Press, 27 December 1954.

■*' Stella Haverland Rouse, "Olden Days: Potential lor area crops is studied." SantaBarbara News-Press, 31 August 1975. ^“Stella Haverland Rouse, "When land cost $25 an acre," Santa Barbara News-Press. 31 January 1982.

43

Stella Haverland Rouse. "The Way it Was," SantaBarbaraNewS'Press. 5June 1988.

44 Newcomers in the late 1860s and early 1870s included Snow and Dcchman, Levy and Cook, Frost and Kimberly. U. Yndart, Lcland and Adams. R. Cohen and M. Kahn, Stevens and Perry. Ealand's, and Simon Abraham.

Frank]. Maguire, ”50 Years and More in Santa Barbara," as told to Michael j. Phillips.

Santa Barbara Daily News. 25 January 1922.

Dibblce.

Tompkins, Santa Barbara I listory jMakers. 89.

48

Thomas M. Scorkc. Calijoniia F.ditnr, (Los Angeles; Wcsccrnlorc Press, 1958), 44-45.

56 Richard Picdmoiuc, "The Chinese Presidio Community," Santa Barbara Presidio Area: 1840 to Present.

Barbara: University of California. Santa Barbara Public His tory Studies and Santa liarbara Trust for His toric Preservation, Presidio Research Center Publication. 1993), 119.

57 Linda Bentz, "From Canton to Canon Perdido; Chinese Fishermen of Santa Barbara," Noticias 44(Autumn 1998).

58 Edward Selden Spaulding. Santa Barbara iSg8-igi^:cLsseenbyaboy.PnvdLic\y published, n.d.. 52. ●’Stella Haverland Rouse, "Olden Days in Santa Barbara," Santa Barbara News-Press. 8 September 1962.

60

Cif)' Directory oj Santa Barbara i8gy-6.

(Bynon and Co.).

61 Stella Haverland Rouse, "Olden Days in Santa Barbara," Santa Barbara News-Press. 8 September 1968.

62 Rouse, "Olden Days; Progress in Mer chandising is Seen," scrapbook files. Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Society.

63 Selected advertisements, Santa Barbara Post and Santa Barham Index.

64 " California dollars” was the term used to refer to cattle hides, the principal medium of exchange during the days of the hide and tal low trade.

6.5

Selected advcrti.scments. Sanfei Barbara Post and Santa Barbara Index.

66 Charles A. Goodrum and Helen

S. E. A. Higgins. "The Story of La Casa dc Aguirre," undated clipping in HLC scrap book. Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Histori cal Society.

40 SantaBarbara Index. 29 January 1874.

50 Daily Press (Santa Barbara). 16 May 1884. Tlic article placed Rodgers in the County Bank building. He was selling out to WH. Meyers. ’’ Santa Barbara city directories.

Dibblee.

Dalyrymple, Advertising in America: Ihe First zoo Jears{New York; Harry N. Abrams, Inc..

1990). www.cancentral.com/history.htm Stella Haverland Rouse, "The first gro cery delivered the goods." SantaBarbaraNewsPress, 25 April 1971.

69 License book. 1874, Office of the City Clerk, City of Santa Barbara.

70 Santa Barbara Independent. 7 December 1891.

I land-book and Directory oJ San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kem, San Ber nardino, Los Angeles, and San Diego Counties (San Francisco; L.L. Paulson. 1875). .54 Storkc. 49.

Alonu'ng Press (Santa Barbara), 29 Oc tober 1913.

72

David F Myrick, Montecito and Santa Barbara, I 'ol. 1, From I duns to Estates (Glendale ; Trans-Anglo Books, 1987). 57-62.

46

NOTICIAS

Morning Press(Sanca Barbara). 30 June 1922, 74

Trades Carnival photograph file. Gledhill Library, Sanca Barbara Historical Society.

75 Stella Haverland Rouse. "The first gro cery delivered the goods." SantaBarbaraNewsPress. 25 April 1971.

76 Virginia D Alfonso, ed., Surfifors(Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Historical Society, 1979), 30-31.

Treatment of Show's use of advertising from Stella Haverland Rouse, "Groceries: Best the Market Altords.” Santa Barbara NcivsPress, 26 July 1970.

78 Morning Press(Santa Barbara), 26, August 1900.

79 Lynn Carlisle, "Alexander Harmer,” Santa Barbara Magazine, Nov/Dec. 1989, 42.

80 Ellis A. Davis,ed., Commercial Encyclo pedia ofthe Pacific Southwest. (Oakland: Ellis A. Davis, 1915). 354.

81 Rouse. "Tlie first grocery delivered the goods.”

82 Mark Van de Kamp, "Live Long and Prosper,” Santa Barbara News-Press. 29 June 1997 Information on Giovanni Parma is drawn from an autobiographical letter written by him in 1872. Parma name tile. Gledhill Library, Sanca Barbara Historical Society.

84 City directories contradict the 709 ad dress given by John A. Parma’s conclusion to his lather’s short autobiography.

8.5 Judy Pearce,"The hidden secrets of Parma Park,” Montecito Journal,4 July 2002.

86 Stella Havcrland Rouse, "Olden Days; Diehl Grocery Company carried 'rare viands’.”

Santa Barbara News-Press. 16june 1974.

87 Spaulding. 66.

88 Walker A. Tompkins. "Santa Barbara Yesterdays: Grocery Store Famed lor Exotic Offerings.” SantaBarbaraNews-Press, Bjanuary 1961.

89 Tompkins, Sa^itaBai-bara IlistoryMakers. 214.

90 Stella Havcrland Rouse, "Diehl’s Score was a show place.” Local History files, Sanca Barbara Public Library.

91 Stella Havcrland Rouse. "Olden Days," SantaBarbaraNews-Press, 16junc 1974 92 Rouse. "When everybody seemed to

meet everyone at Diehl’s,” Santa Barbara TVews'Press,6 March 1983.

Stella Havcrland Rouse, Santa Barbara News-Press, 16 June 1974.

94 Storke, California Editor. 123.

Spaulding, 68-69. % Walker A. Tompkins, "Sanca Barbara Yesterdays.” SantaBarbaraNews-Press,1 De cember 1968; selected Santa Barbara city di rectories.

97

Santa Barbara city directories; Stella Haverland Rouse."Morton Grocery famous for flamboyant style,” SantaBarbaraNeivs-Press.

8 December 1984.

98

yNommg Press (Sanca Barbara), 27 De cember 1912.

99 Ibid.

Rouse. "Morton Grocery.”

Michael J. Phillips. 1iLstory ofSa7itaBar bara County California,From Its Earliest Settle ment to the Present Time, Volume II(Chicago; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. 1927). 271.

102 Erin Graffy, "The Jordano Story,” Noticias,43(Winter 1997), 77-78.

103 Phillips, 271.

104 www.pigglywiggly.com/cgi-bin/ and customize ?aboucus 101

www.geography.about.com/library/wcckly/ aall2398 105

JMorning Press (Sanca Barbara), 22 March 1922.

106

Santa Barbara News-Press, 18 Dccember 1950.

107

www.groccceria.net/about/hiscory www.scripophily.net/grcacatandpal 109 www.rcapinc.org/Prolilc%20Groccry 111) Graffy, 95.

111 www.jordanos.com/Hiscory.hcm Ibid.

108

11,3

Sajita Barbara City Directory ipiyiS (Santa Barbara; Sanca Barbara Directory Com pany. 1915).

114 Graffy. 80.

11,5 Graffy. 84-90.

116 Much ol the information concerning the Terras family came from the author’s interview with Beatrice Rosales. October 2002.

Marilyn McMahon, "In the market lor memories; Koury’s becomes history.”

SantaBarbaraNews-Press. 2October 1985; Scrapbook 64A, page 36 at Gledhill Library,

47

SANTA BARBARA GROCERS Santa Barbara Historical Socicty.

IIH Thc Santa Barbara County assessor Hrst taxed this property in 1916; other sources, in cluding city directories, indicate the building was first occupied in 1917 110 Phillips, vol.2, 21.

120 Craig Sperry, interview with author, 20 February 2003; selected Santa Barbara city directories, Sanborn fire insurance maps, building survey files, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Society, 121 Santa Barbara County Assessor; Santa

Coffee MILK

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B«n Huf.^is 01 ro|., 2 Ibi, ISc 7>c M. J. B„ 2 lb«

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123

Ibid.

124

Sam Dakil, interview with author, 23

January 2003. ]25

John Bond, interview with author, 5

February 2003.

126

Lamberto G. Aquirre, interview with author, 1 May 2003. Much ot the inlormation about this store came from this interview..

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Barbara city directories, 122 Leonardo Gutierrez, interview with au

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SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2004 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Leslie L. Hovey Lawrence T Hammett Jo Beth Van Gcldcren

President ● 1st Vice President 2nd Vice President

Gen. F. Michael Rogers, USAF(rct.). Treasurer Secretary Jean Smith Goodrich Dr. Glen W Adams Leslie S. Bernstein

Betsy Lewis Thad C. MacMillan

Jon S. Bull

Jane Rich Mueller

Elizabeth H. Edwards

Edgar L. Sands Robin Schutte

Frank T Stevens Stclani Taliaferro James Vitanza Diane Waterhouse

George M. Andcrjack, Executive Director David S. Bisol, Curator

MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS-2003 COLLECTORS SERIES The Santa Barbara Historical Society wishes to thank and to acknowledge with pride the following members and institutions for their most generous

PATRONS ($1,000 and up) Philip & Leslie Bernstein Stewart & Louisa MaeDougall Chapin & Cynthia Nolen Raintrec Foundation Kenneth & Mary Louise Riley Robin & Scefani Taliaferro Elizabeth S. Youkcr BENEFACTORS ($500 and up) Charles H. Bentz Associates, Inc. John & Patricia Broome Marjorie Chaney Robert A. Chick Cecelia Dalsemcr Gordon & Constance Fish Jean Smith Goodrich Harry & Leslie Hovey Richard E. Hughes Jt)Siah bi Karen Jenkins Frances D. Larkin Tliomas & Eileen Mielko Donn L. Miller Jane Rich Mueller David F Myrick Donald & Jane Patterson Richard ik Robin Schutte Bruce & Barbara Scollin Ruth B. Scollin Hugh & Mary Tlior.son

Eleanor Van Cott Donald & Jo Beth Van Geldcrcn Ivano Paolo Vic Ralph & Diane Wacerhou.se Zaca Mesa Winery SPONSORS ($300 and up) Glen & Eleanor Adams Victor K. Atkins, Jr. Jerry & Helene Beaver Dora B. Bradley Ernest & Gloria Bryant Catherine Butts David & Melissa Dvorak Nelson & Elizabeth Howard John & Josephine Hunter Barbara D. Ingram Colleen Kirst Michael & Joann Rodrigue F. Michael Rogers Barbara Spaulding Frank & Kay Stevens Tiffany & Co. L. David & Patricia Tisdale Carol Valentine Christy Walters Marie Wangeman C. K. & Mary Williams Shirley A. Wilson David & Lisa Wolf

SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2003 Major Contributors Tlic Santa Barbara Historical Society wishes to thank ; and to acknowledge with pride the following individuals and institutions for their generous contributions in 2003; GRAND PATRONS

BENEFACTORS

Oswald & Kathleen Da Ros

($2.1.000 and above) Philip Si Leslie Bernstein Lawrence & Astrid Hammett Smith-Walker Foundation

($500 CO $999) Stephen Acronico Robert & Sally Arthur Kathleen Brewster

James M. De Loreto JtK & Carol Dobbs David Si Melissa Dvorak

Donald & Jo Beth Van Gclderen Wallis Foundation

John & Patricia Broome Catherine Butts

PRESIDENTS CIRCLE

R. Wc.sley & Doris Carter Marjorie Chancy Cecelia Dalscmcr

($10,000 to $24,999) Roy Si Elizabeth Edwards Janeway Foundation Montccito Bank 6,; Trust Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation Wood-Claeyssens Foundation MAJOR BENEFACTORS ($5,000 to $9,999) Victor K. Atkins, Jr. Benjamin Si Ruth Hammett Jane Rich Mueller Gary & Anna Nett Nett & Champion Insurance Services Tlie Towbes Foundation Alice L. Willtong PATRONS ($1,000 to $ 4,999) Glen (S; Eleanor Adams Charles H. Bentz As.sociates, Inc. Loui.se Duque Brant Robert A. Chick Charles Patricia deck Janet Milligan Crary Roy E. Crummer Foundation Gordon Si Constance Fish Priscilla K. Gicsen Douglas & Mary Hampson Harry & Leslie Hovey Derk Si Frederika Hunter Tlic Ann Jackson Family Foundation Stewart Si Louisa MacDougall Robert & Valerie Montgomery Chapin & Cynthia Nolen Raintrec Foundation Lord & Lady Ridlcy-Tree Kenneth Si Mary Louise Riley F. Michael Rogers Hie Rord Foundation Frank Schipper Construction Richard & Robin Schutte Starbuck, Tisdale & Associates Robin & Stefani Taliaferro Vos Family Foundation Elizabeth S. Youker

George tk Janet Eaglcton Richard & Kay Glenn Richard & Katherine Godfrey Jean Smith Goodrich Richard E. Hughes Eric P. Hvolboll Josiah & Karen Jenkins Colleen Kirsc Frances D. Larkin Michael & Betsy Lewis Tliad & Laurie MacMillan Carrie Bell McFie Roland Dolores Messori Thomas & Eileen Miclko Donn L. Miller

James & Laura Ebright Edwards'Pitman Architects Frank & Elizabeth Lee Ferrv Donald & Susan Fuhrer Golcta National Bank William & Carol Gordon Frank & Patricia Goss Mrs. Richard A. Grant Margaret M, Griffin Rodney & Betty Guilfoil E. A. Harclcld Phyllis A. Haskell Kent & Tanny Hcxlgetts Nelson & Elizabeth Howard John & Josephine Hunter Barbara D. Ingram J. Blake & Ann KiKpfli Jean T Leonard Mary Jane Leone Henry & Joan Levy Katherine Mallin

John & Kathleen Mosclev David F. Myrick Donald & Jane Patterson Bruce & Barbara Scollin Ruth B. Scollin Teresa W Sicbert

Joanna Newton Dan Olson Color Expansions, Inc. Jack Perrin John & Harriet Pitman

Frank & Kay Stevens Hugh & Mary Thorson Eleanor Van Cote Ivano Paolo Vic

Michael & Joann Rodrigue Arent Si Jean Schuyler Barbara Spaulding Bernard St. Croix

Ralph (i Diane Waterhouse Stuart Wading William & Barbara Wocxls

Joseph & Jean Stevens Tiffany & Co. L. David & Patricia Tisdale William & Barbara Tomicki William Albert Edward Tuttle Carol L. Valentine

Joseph & Patricia Yzurdiaga SPONSORS ($250 to $499) Beverly Barry Jerry Si Helene Beaver Keith C. Berry Dora B. Bradley Ernest Si Gloria Bryant Jon Si Martha Bull Robert & Marie Carty Center for Studies of the Future City of Santa Barbara / Government Access Timothy & Lani Collins Michael Cowan

Keith J. Maucino Lee McGrath

Christy Walters Marie M. Wangeman Albert Si Cicely Wheelon C. K. Si Mary Williams Shirley A. Wilson David Si Lisa Wolf

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NOTICIAS Quarterly Magazine of the Santa Barbara Historical Society 136 E. Dc la Guerra Street Santa Barbara, California 93101

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