Private Railcar Spurs
Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, California
Marker Inscription
Private Railcar Spurs - 1905 Constructed with the Southern Pacific Depot in 1905, these two railroad spurs are the sole reminder of the turn-of-the century days when wealthy travelers arrived in Santa Barbara in their private Pullman railcars to spend the winter. These private cars were shunted from the main track to the spurs, where electric and water hook-ups kept them in service. Escaping the harsh weather of the east and midwest, travelers would often winter at the grand five-story Potter Hotel, which faced the ocean along West Beach. Its vast landscaped grounds, which spread over six city blocks, were connected to the depot by a lighted pathway lined with brilliantly-colored flowers that spilled into the diagonal path that still bisects Depot Park. Guests could walk the short distance from the depot to the hotel. The loss of the Potter Hotel to fire in 1921, coupled with the imposition of the income tax, the proliferation of the automobile, and the Great Depression, contributed to the decline of private Pullman car travel in Santa Barbara. Today, portions of the spurs are covered over by an automobile parking lot, a reflection of a change in use by the train traveler a century later. City of Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency California Department of Transportation October 1999
Erected by City of Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency and California Department of Transportation
The Story
Built alongside Santa Barbara's Southern Pacific Depot in 1905, these two rail spurs are the last trace of an era when the wealthy arrived for the winter in their own private Pullman railcars. Shunted off the main line and hooked up to electricity and water, the cars kept their owners in comfort near the grand five-story Potter Hotel that once faced West Beach. The 1921 fire that destroyed the hotel, the new income tax, the rise of the automobile, and the Great Depression together ended this gilded age of leisure travel.
Why it matters
The spurs capture the vanished world of private-railcar luxury tourism that made Santa Barbara a Gilded-Age winter resort.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA
This cannon in Santa Barbara is a replica of a six-pound bronze gun once carried aboard the U.S. revenue cutter Lawrence. Under Captain Ottinger, the Lawrence patrolled the California coast from 1843 to 1851, enforcing federal customs law during the tumultuous years when the region passed from Mexican to American rule. The revenue cutters were forerunners of today's Coast Guard.
Old Santa Susana Stage Road
Los Angeles, CA
The Old Santa Susana Stage Road carried Butterfield-era stagecoaches and travelers over the rugged pass between the San Fernando and Simi valleys from 1859 to 1890. Its steep grade was one of the most difficult segments on the route north from Los Angeles, worn into the sandstone by decades of wheels and hooves. In 1939 the Native Daughters of the Golden West placed this marker to preserve the memory of that overland era.
The Cascades
Los Angeles, CA
On November 5, 1913, a crowd of some 40,000 people gathered at The Cascades to watch water tumble down the final stretch of the Los Angeles Aqueduct after its 233-mile journey from the Owens Valley. This was the terminus of an audacious engineering feat that made the growth of modern Los Angeles possible, and the site of chief engineer William Mulholland's famously terse dedication remark, "There it is. Take it." The moment marked both a triumph of Progressive-era public works and the beginning of bitter water conflicts with the Owens Valley.
Pacific Coast Railway
Arroyo Grande, CA
This plaque marks the right-of-way of the Pacific Coast Railway, established on October 12, 1881. The narrow-gauge line served California's Central Coast, hauling farm produce, freight, and passengers between inland towns and coastal ports in an age when rail was the lifeblood of rural commerce. Its route through the Arroyo Grande area helped knit isolated agricultural communities into the wider economy.