We recently lost another long time Goleta business. Orient Hand Laundry closed their doors in 2023. When we heard they were closing, I went over to talk to the owner, Kin Yu, who has been an Old Town acquaintance for decades. I found him and his wife cleaning up the […]
Sugar shakers, steam locomotives and vintage sports cars all come together under one roof in Old Town Goleta.
Goleta native and history aficionado, Judy Ensign, recently let me borrow this great photo of Goleta school kids from 1925. They are standing in front of the Goleta School, not to be confused with the Goleta Union School on Hollister Ave. This beautiful school was built in 1911 and located at […]
Kellogg Avenue is one of Goleta’s main roads. But who was Kellogg? Well, the Kelloggs were a successful family and they did a lot for the Goleta Valley and Santa Barbara. It all started with this guy. This sturdy young man is Florentine Erwin Kellogg and he was an American pioneer. […]
What the heck is a Goleta? Short answer: It’s a schooner. But why is our town named after a schooner? There are a few schools of thought on that question. One thing’s for sure, a lot of schooners were in and around the slough throughout the years. In Spanish times, […]
Ever wonder who this street in Old Town Goleta is named after? We did. And we found out about one of Goleta’s most motivated immigrants. Stephen Rutherford was a sharp real estate investor and he played a major role in the development of Goleta, but very little was written […]
In December of 2016, the Old Town Community Association held the first Christmas parade in the history of Goleta. Some folks thought it was the first parade ever in Old Town, but it was definitely not, just the first Christmas parade. This was most likely first ever parade in Goleta. Lifelong Goleta resident Marilyn […]
This distinguished looking building with its majestic Spanish architecture sits in the heart of Old Town Goleta. A front park with a gazebo, beautiful trees and a winding brick path give it the feel of a town square. Known today as the Goleta Community Center, every local knows this as the hub […]
Have you ever noticed there’s a street off Hollister Avenue in western Goleta called Ellwood Station Road? You may not have, because there’s not much on it and it goes pretty much nowhere. But in the late 1800’s this road led to a very important train station, and the end […]
To most Goleta folks, this is a picture of the now closed Sizzler restaurant. Big deal, right? But nestled in the clutches of this empty restaurant is a centuries old sycamore tree that has witnessed the change of Goleta from bean fields and dairy farms to concrete and traffic jams. […]
If you’re a local, this photo will trigger a flood of memories. This is the corner of Hollister and Fairview looking towards the airport in the late 1960’s. Gas at Bob’s Seaside service station was 27 cents a gallon, and recaps were $9.95.Swingers Golf Center was in full swing and the […]
World War II brought a lot of changes to our world, and Goleta was no exception. Our little airport served as the backdrop for a Marine air station that served as a training base for multiple squadrons that went on to support combat operations in the Pacific Theater. This sleepy little agriculture […]
Editor’s Note– “Around 1965, my mother took a carload of kids along with her to go grocery shopping at the only store in town, the 101 Ranch Market. After shopping, she loaded the kids back into the car and headed home. As she pulled into her driveway out in Ellwood, one […]
A funny thing happened. I got a phone call from Jay Allen saying he had an old photo of Goleta he wanted to give me. I was honored and said heck yes, I’d love to see it. The next day, I get an email from Rob Evans. He too had […]
August 13, 1978. A sunny Sunday afternoon in the Goleta Valley. Somewhere underneath the Santa Barbara Channel, the earth shifted abruptly, causing a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. The initial rupture started on an offshore fault, south of the city of Santa Barbara, at a depth of about 5.5 miles. The earthquake […]
When you’re driving out to Campus Point, you may not even notice this obscure little hill. But before World War II, this lump of dirt was a sizeable island and in ancient times it had a huge, thriving Chumash village on it. The purple line shows the area that was […]