Browse Items (21 total)
- Collection: Fiesta! A Santa Barbara Tradition: Images from the Pearl Chase Collection, 1924 - 1930
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Fiesta performers at the Santa Barbara Courthouse
Just as today, several downtown locations acted as hubs of Fiesta activities. From Casa de la Guerra to the Santa Barbara Courthouse, residents and visitors alike donned Spanish costumes of the finest fabrics.
Mariachi players
A June 17, 1919 edition of the Daily News proclaimed that "Spanish colors, hospitality, and traditions will predominate at Santa Barbara's summer fiesta.” Here, one of many traveling mariachi bands fill the downtown area with joyous music and…
Woman reading a palm
A palm-reader wearing a traditional silk shawl engages audiences in Fiesta activities.
Preparations for the Children’s Parade
The fashions of Old Spanish and the 1920's intermingle as children prepare for the parade down State Street.
Preparing for the Children's Parade
Children prepare for the parade as they play in and around one of the featured carts.
State Street Children's Parade
Children look out at the State Street crowds at the Carillo intersection and welcome them to the festivities. In the background, the original County National Bank, today the Montecito Bank and Trust, can be seen.
Dwight Murphy and his Palominos
Palomino horses, now a main feature in the Old Spanish Days Fiesta parade, are not native to Santa Barbara, but are the result of tireless work by Fiesta's first El Presidente, Dwight Murphy (above left). Golden Palomino horses, once known as…
Palomino
The palomino horse was coined as "the living symbol of Old Spanish Days fiesta" in an August 3, 1941 News-Press article. These fair-maned horses were garbed in silver and paraded down State Street in the earliest Fiestas, and visitors still enjoy…
Fiesta performers in El Paseo
El Paseo was not only central to Fiesta, but to Santa Barbara's Spanish style as a whole. El Paseo opened in 1923 and, along with Casa de la Guerra, became the inspiration for reconstruction after the 1925 earthquake devastated the Santa Barbara…
Fiesta participants in “The Street in Spain”
Bernard and Irene Hoffman, the benefactors who hired James Osborne Craig to design El Paseo, hoped that the Street of Spain plan would be just "the beginning of a wonderful evolution which will take in all of the old Spanish town." Here, Fiesta…
Fiesta Mercado
One of many traditions that have carried on from the original Fiesta, the mercado is still a local favorite. The original mercado featured vendors selling luscious fruit and vegetables.
Women with gourd baskets
With large gourds resting on their heads, these women travel around the mercado with flowers, vegetables, and fruit.