Street Names of Santa Barbara

Book excerpt: In 1851 the Town Council of Santa Barbara appointed a committee to apply names to the fifty-two new streets being created from ¿¿the front of the Mission Gardens to the sea and from hill to hill on each side¿¿ as a result of the survey of Salisbury Haley. Unlike other towns whose streets bore the unimaginative A - Z, numbers, trees or names of presidents, they gave names to our streets that portrayed the geography and botany of our town, honored the Chumash, early settlers, governors, and showed a distinct sense of humor and in some cases, delightful sarcasm. Author and local historian Neal Graffy shares with us the stories behind these names.