Italianate Homes of Santa Barbara

“Decorated Cubes” Hold History

Upham Hotel | Credit: Betsy J. Green

“Victorian architecture” refers to the age of a house, and not its style. In Santa Barbara, we have a range of home styles built during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). These styles include Queen Anne, Gothic Revival, Eastlake, and Second Empire, as well as Italianate.

1209 De La Vina Street | Credit: Betsy J. Green

The designs of some of these homes came from pattern books — books that contained sketches and plans that a builder could use to construct a home. Often, local lumber companies sold these pattern books in the hope that builders would buy their materials from those companies. Other homes were custom-designed by an architect.

The best-known architect of Victorian homes in Santa Barbara was Peter J. Barber. He designed the 1871 Upham Hotel at 1404 De la Vina Street in the Italianate style. There are about a dozen Italianate homes in Santa Barbara that are on the Structures of Merit list. They were built from 1870 to 1888. The completion of Stearns Wharf in 1872 made it easier to deliver lumber and other home-building materials to our area.

Distinctive Elements

Italianate homes here tend to be covered with horizontal wood siding. They are often square or rectangular with very little curves or fancy trim. A number of these homes have a hipped roof — basically shaped like a pyramid — often with a flat space on top. This flat area often held a small cupola, or porch. Italianate homes were sometimes described as “a cube and a cupola.”

1021 De La Vina Street | Credit: Betsy J. Green

Sometimes the flat area was enclosed with a decorative iron railing. Unfortunately, many of these railings were removed and donated to metal scrap drives during World War II.

“The Italianate style (c. 1835–1885) … spread rapidly across the continent as settlers pushed west. This adaptable style, with its versatile form and historic detail, was designed in many versions as it moved westward … labeled Italianate because of innumerable 15th and 16th century Italian details applied to a vertical form … became a decorated cube,” according to “The Santa Barbara of Peter J. Barber” by Herbert W. Andrée, Noticias, fall 1975.

About the only curves on an Italianate building are the distinctive brackets under the roofline. These are sometimes paired. Italianate homes were often painted tan or taupe.

The Upham Hotel still has a cupola on top — one of the few that are still here. It’s said that in the past, the Chinese chef at the Upham would go up to the cupola when a passenger ship arrived at the wharf, and someone at the wharf would signal the number of guests to be expected at dinner. There used to be an Italianate house on the Mesa belonging to a retired clipper ship captain. He liked to sit in his cupola and watch the ships pass by in the Channel.

Personal Favorites

Historian Kathi Brewster told me that one of her favorite Italianate homes here is at 1407 Chapala, designed by Barber. She said it was painted gold because it was the home of Mortimer Cook, the founder of Santa Barbara’s first Gold Bank. Architect Brian Hofer said his favorite is the Upham Hotel. Architect Jennifer Lewis told me that her favorite Italianate is the Montecito mansion at 2845 Sycamore Canyon Road known as La Toscana (or Sotto il Monte).

Please do not disturb the residents of these homes.

Betsy J. Green is a Santa Barbara historian, and author of Discovering the History of Your House and Your Neighborhood, Santa Monica Press, 2002. Her website is betsyjgreen.com.