Earthquake-damaged Hotel Californian, Santa Barbara, 1926

Item Overview

Title

Earthquake-damaged Hotel Californian, Santa Barbara, 1926

Date Created

June 29, 1925

Date

1925-06-29

Publisher

Los Angeles Times

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

Notes

Description

View of the Hotel Californian, located at the south corner of State and Mason, after the earthquake struck. Five men and three women are on the sidewalk and street looking at the hotel, which lost huge expanses of its exterior walls during the earthquake. The hotel had opened just 8 days before. The view is from about 20 State St. The hotel was restored after the earthquake. In 2012 the hotel was demolished due to seismic safety concerns. The facade and 2 side walls were kept intact, however.
On June 29, 1925 at 6:42 am a major earthquake hit the area of Santa Barbara. It was 19 seconds in duration and registered 6.8 on the Richter magnitude scale. The downtown of Santa Barbara was destroyed, the Sheffield Dam collapsed, and thirteen people died. The facade of the Mission Santa Barbara was severely damaged and lost its statues. Three persons thought to shut off the town electricity and gas, thereby preventing catastrophic fire. The city was rebuilt in a unified Spanish Colonial Revival style in 1925-1929.

Caption

Text from negative sleeve: Earthquakes, Santa Barbara

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

cellulose nitrate film
news photographs

Names

Californian Hotel (Santa Barbara, Calif.)

Location

Santa Barbara (Calif.)

Longitude

34.412704

Latitude

-119.689857

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Earthquakes--California--Santa Barbara
Hotels--California--Santa Barbara