You know that a home has a lot going for it if someone chooses to live there for more than 40 years! Diana Cuttrell is the happy owner of this award-winning home at 1129 Las Olas Avenue. While it was still under construction, it earned a prize in the Better Homes in America competition in 1926.
A National Competition
The Better Homes in America movement was founded in 1922 during the Roaring ’20s when the economy was going strong and many families began to transition from being renters to owning their own home. “The idea of the movement is to put knowledge of high standards in house building, home-furnishing and equipment, and home life within the reach of all citizens; to encourage the building of sound, attractive, economical single-family houses” (Santa Barbara Morning Press, April 7, 1926).
I could not find any definitive evidence of the architect who designed this Spanish Colonial Revival gem, but that’s not surprising. In architecture, most attention and money focuses on large projects such as commercial buildings and estates. However, some folks say that this home was designed by Joseph J. Plunkett. William Edwards and Plunkett were famous for their designs of the Arlington Theatre and the first Santa Barbara airport terminal. I looked around at buildings in Santa Barbara designed by Plunkett and noticed some similarities between this home and the building at 701 Anacapa Street that Plunkett designed.
The Mesa Evolves
Today, the home at 1129 Las Olas Avenue is nestled among the charming streets between Cliff Drive and Shoreline Drive, but the neighborhood was quite different when this home was built in 1926. Aerial maps from the 1920s show that there was an 80-acre field just to the west that belonged to descendants of Captain Charles Porter Low, a retired clipper ship captain. This was a large open area in the 1920s, and a group of local pilots hoped to turn it into an airfield. An “air meet” was scheduled to take place on the field in July 1925, but the big earthquake in June that year caused the event to be canceled.
Then, after the earthquake, there was a plan to build a Biltmore Hotel on the coastline about where Shoreline Park is today. “Santa Barbara will have one of the most picturesque hotels along the Pacific coast…. The total cost of the project will reach $3,800,000…. The main structure will be six stories…. A total of 332 rooms, 96 of which will be in cottages, will be provided…. Spanish and Italian renaissance style of architecture will be combined, making it conform to the prevailing type in Santa Barbara” (Santa Barbara Morning Press, October 25, 1925).
But that didn’t happen either. By the end of 1926, plans for the hotel’s location were changed to Channel Drive in Montecito, and the hotel finally opened there in December 1927.
I found a 1930s news item in the local paper about a pony housed at the 1129 La Olas Avenue property. So perhaps it was still possible in those years to ride a pony around the Mesa, and maybe down to the beach. Eventually, this area of the Mesa began to be built up after World War II.
Please do not disturb the residents of this home.
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.
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