There was a charming article recently on the old Potter Hotel along Santa Barbara’s West Beach. Here are some excerpts:
I got a call from my friend Jerry Jacobs, the proprietor of the Lost Horizon Bookstore, to “c’mon down and check out a few things I just got in.” Jerry usually has a good selection of Santa Barbara books and ephemera and I’ve been a frequent visitor to his shop for nearly a quarter of a century. A personal request for a shop visit usually means he’s come across another great item for my research.
Fifteen minutes later I was holding a 1904 “Guide to the Rides and Trails of Santa Barbara.” For twenty-five cents the 52-page guide gave the reader over sixty things to do and places to go in and around Santa Barbara. It contained a map of the city as well as a fold out map covering the coast and mountain ridgeline from Rincon Point to Naples. The publisher, W. W. Osborne, was a relative newcomer to Santa Barbara and had opened his bookstore a few years earlier at 931 State. Osborne’s Bookstore would remain a State Street landmark until closing its doors just a few years short of its 90th anniversary.
A few days later I picked up a stack of photos and postcards from a tourist’s visit to Santa Barbara, yep, in 1904.
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