Touring the 1925
Santa Barbara Earthquake Aftermath
A Look at What Remained, and
Who Was Gone, When the Shaking Stopped
By Neal Graffy | June 12, 2025
Read more of our Earthquake Centennial Cover Story.
Though Santa Barbara had not been aware if the earthquake was isolated or part of a bigger California wallop, the rest of the state had a pretty good idea what had happened.
The southbound Pickwick stage bus left the depot at 514 State Street and was just turning left onto Haley when the earthquake hit. Behind them on the opposite corner, the walls of the Central Hotel blew out and dropped on a man standing next to it. A quick-thinking passenger grabbed his camera and shot the stonework of the Lomas Drug Store tumbling down to the street below.
When the bus pulled into Ventura nearly an hour later, the excited passengers quickly spread the news. Upon reaching Los Angeles, the media gobbled up their stories, and the passenger’s photos were scooped up by one of the newspapers.
Other motorists passed the news to the outlying communities all of whom had felt the shake. From Oceano to Porterville, Bakersfield to Anaheim, Long Beach to Ventura, dishes, windows, and nerves had been rattled. Sunday morning’s headlines had reported, “Large Earthquake Rocks Four States.”
That quake, centered in southwestern Montana, had struck Saturday evening and was felt over 500,000 square miles. Wild speculation was the Montana event had “loosened things up” and triggered the faults in California.
Telephone and telegraph stations were immediately aware of downed lines “somewhere” and were quickly able to pinpoint Santa Barbara as the troubled area.
Around 10 a.m., the first airplanes started buzzing over the city. The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers had reporters and cameramen aboard to record the scene. The Los Angeles Elks sent a plane with $5,000 to be “distributed as needed,” and Los Angeles mayor George E. Cryer commissioned a pilot to personally deliver a message to Herbert Nunn, the city manager, offering “every aid and assistance within our power.”
The reply back was, “Due to the light number of deaths and injuries, medical personnel are not needed. If you can, send bread and milk in the morning. It will be appreciated. Also, cooked foods. The reason for our desire for cooked foods is that all gas has been turned off and no fires will be lighted at present. We have no electricity.”
One of the fallen buildings was the Central Hotel, known to most today as the former site of the Santa Barbara Brewing Co. at 501 State St. and current home of The Cruisery. It had opened in 1871 as the Shaw House and was Santa Barbara’s oldest hotel.
As the building shook to its death, it rained its brick skin onto 43-year-old Merced Leon, who died instantly. Across the street, the three-story Lomas Drug Store lost the front of its first and third floors, killing Geraldo Chavez and Cecile Gomez, who were standing on the sidewalk below. This corner is now Hibachi and Nick the Greek, or as many old timers recall, the old Salvation Army Thrift Store.
Perhaps the quake’s biggest victim was the four-story San Marcos Building. As the earthquake literally rolled through with “the ground undulating like waves on the ocean,” the State Street and Anapamu corner sections tore into each other like two hip-slamming roller derby queens and then collapsed. Taking the ride down from the third floor was orthodontist Dr. James Angle. In the basement was Sigismundo Mosteiro, the building’s maintenance engineer. They did not survive.
The Arlington Hotel opened in 1911 and boasted of being “entirely fireproof” as its predecessor, the first Arlington Hotel, had burned down in 1909. Unfortunately, they forgot about the earthquake potential.
The big hole in the right side of the main building was the former location of a beautiful mission tower filled with deluxe suites and topped by a 25,000-gallon water tank. The earth shook, the water sloshed, the two corner edges attempted to rotate the tower between them, and down it went, taking with it 22-year-old Bertram Hancock (son of Captain Allan Hancock of Hancock College fame) and Edith Forbes Perkins, an 83-year-old seasonal visitor at the hotel. They were the only fatalities among the 120 guests.
Though the hotel didn’t appear to be badly hurt, save for that one tower, it was demolished and replaced by the Arlington Theatre in 1931.
In spite of it all, Santa Barbara had been fortunate. The earthquake struck when most folks were at home. Deaths, though tragic, were light compared to what would have happened two hours later. Exhausted, Santa Barbarans tried to go to sleep in their yards that night, but it wasn’t easy. More shocks, and the engines of the machinery working on the San Marcos Building and Arlington Hotel could be heard along with the pulling and crunching of concrete, brick, and tile.
What would tomorrow bring?
Tours to Take
Neal Graffy is hosting a downtown walking tour featuring the above tales and many more on June 25, 5:30 p.m., starting with glass of wine at the S.B. Historical Museum.
The other EQ25 tours include:
Architectural Foundation of S.B. Walking Tour, every Sunday, 10 a.m., S.B. Public Library Courtyard,
$20 suggested donation
Centennial Evening Walking Tours, June 23-27, 6 p.m., S.B. Public Library Courtyard, $20 suggested donation
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