On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
It’s not a mission from Bill, but it is mission-adjacent! Love the sun in the final photos, and the courthouse against the backdrop of blue skies with white clouds and green grass is picture perfect. ~WaterGirl
?BillinGlendaleCA
After some of the comments on my piece on the Mission Santa Barbara, I thought one of the other sites in Santa Barbara would make for a nice follow up post. The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is about a mile from the mission and incorporates mission architecture. It was built in 1925 and is shaped like a “L” with the open side as a park. There is a tall clock tower right by the main entrance which includes an observation deck that affords a magnificent view of the City of Santa Barbara and even the islands off shore.
This is the main entrance to the courthouse with the clock tower to the right. The entrance goes straight though the building exiting into the park on the other side. Leading from the entrance are stairways and corridors that provide access to the court’s offices and courtrooms.
This was a local photography group shoot and the leader of the group(Hami) had just had one of his cameras converted to shoot infrared so he was really excited to shoot a building with some nice plant life around it.
This is the ceremonial courtroom(Mural Room) just off the main entrance, it’s pretty elaborate.
This stairwell off the entrance is the way to access the observation deck at the top of the clock tower(there is also an elevator).
The view from the observation deck looking northwest, you can see the twin towers of the mission just to the right of center.
Looking southwest beyond the city you can see the Pacific and Santa Cruz Island in the distance on the left.
In the southeasterly direction you can see the ocean and the coast as it bends from the left of the frame to the center. The distant mountains in the center are the Santa Monica Mountains near Oxnard. From the center to the right there are little dots that are oil rigs off the coast. Again, we see Santa Cruz Island, this time on the right(Annacapa Island is behind the tree just right of center).
The courthouse park has a broad lawn with palm and pine trees.
Sloane Ranger
Love the infrared picture of the courthouse.
Didn’t it feature in the opening credits of Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law starring Arthur Hill and pre Six Million Dollars Man Lee Majors?
Amir Khalid
Ooh, lovely. Thanks for putting up these pictures.
JPL
Santa Barbara is such a beautiful city. It’s been decades since I’ve visited CA and I’d like to do so again.
satby
Very beautiful!
laura
Lovely as always. Thank you BillinGlendale.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sloane Ranger: Ah, someone likes my IR shots! Thanks.
@Amir Khalid: Thanks, glad you like them.
@JPL: Santa Barbara is pretty, I think they have some pretty strict design constraints on buildings in downtown, but a lot of the construction downtown is pre-war with a mission style.
@satby: Thanks.
@laura: Thanks, and you’re welcome.
SkyBluePink
Always a treat to see photos from BillinGlendaleCA!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SkyBluePink: Thanks, I actually made it out last Friday(real OTR) and have some real nice shots. They’ll be featured in a few weeks.
hotshoe
Last time I was at the SB Courthouse was for geocaching.
Usually geocaching involves looking for tupperware in the woods — but the geocache at the Courthouse is a Virtual cache, meaning there is no container to find: instead it’s a visual tour which begins at coordinates in front of the building, then asks the searcher to look at and answer questions from inside the Mural Room, observation deck, clock exhibit, outside plaques, etc. So I had a great hour exploring this lovely building and history, and I remember it fondly.
Thanks for the photos of some of the lovely things humans have created!
Jess
I lived in SB for over a decade. My good friend was married in that courthouse ceremonial room. It’s nice to see it again via these lovely pictures. I loved the beauty of the place and the lovely weather, but the people sucked. I don’t really miss it all that much. I was just there for grad school at UCSB.
Jess
@Jess: And another good friend was married at the Mission, as were my step-grandparents.
J R in WV
Late to the game, but wanted to say, excellent job, as usual~!!~
That mural courtroom is ornate enough to be a mission church, really… Wish I could see the fine details you mention in your discussion, oil rigs? Really?
Maybe that kind of crap will stop soon?!?!!!