Santa Barbara Historical Museum

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is one of the city's oldest cultural institutions and one of its best free stops, tucked into the El Pueblo Viejo district at 136 East De la Guerra Street a block from the Presidio. It exists to tell the whole story of the place, and it does so in an intimate, well-chosen way. The signature exhibition, The Story of Santa Barbara, traces the region from the Chumash era through the Spanish mission and presidio period, Mexican California and the American town, up to the mid-twentieth century, using paintings, maps, furniture, decorative arts, textiles and costumes drawn from collections spanning more than five hundred years. Rotating exhibitions add depth, such as recent shows of new gifts to the collection, and the museum's courtyard holds two historic adobes, dating to 1817 and 1836, that are among the oldest surviving structures in the city. Admission is free. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5pm, with Thursdays running to 7pm and First Thursdays to 8pm during the downtown art walk; it is closed Mondays, Tuesdays and holidays. Allow an hour. It is a calm counterpoint to the busier sights, ideal on a warm afternoon, and it rewards anyone who has just walked past the adobes and arcades of downtown and wants to know who built them and why. Pair it with El Presidio across the street and the Red Tile Walking Tour, of which it is a stop.

The museum's value is in connecting the dots. Visitors to Santa Barbara see the mission, the courthouse and the Presidio as separate landmarks; here they become chapters of one story, with the families whose names are on the streets (De la Guerra, Carrillo, Ortega) represented by their portraits and possessions, and the transitions between Spanish, Mexican and American rule shown through objects people actually used. The Chumash material provides the essential beginning, and the later galleries show how the town reinvented itself as a resort and then as the Spanish Revival city you see today.

Visiting well: come in the early afternoon on Wednesday to Sunday, start with The Story of Santa Barbara to get the chronology, then see the current temporary exhibition and step into the courtyard to see the adobes. A donation is welcome if you enjoyed the visit. On First Thursdays the museum stays open to 8pm, which makes it a good start to an evening of free gallery-hopping on State Street. The museum shop has good local history books.

Fitting it into a trip: it is a natural stop on the Red Tile Walking Tour and pairs with El Presidio de Santa Barbara directly across Cañon Perdido and De la Guerra streets. History lovers can build a full downtown day: courthouse tower, Historical Museum, Presidio and Casa de la Guerra, lunch in the Presidio neighborhood, then the Old Mission in the late afternoon.