To spot the Arlington Hotel, look ahead for an elegant, three-story building set back from the street, with a long wraparound veranda, a lot of windows, and a tall observation tower rising up at one end-surrounded by lush gardens and big old trees.
Alright, imagine standing here in the late 1800s-horses clip-clopping down State Street, palm trees swaying, and ahead of you: the grandest hotel on this whole stretch of the West Coast. The Arlington Hotel is the kind of place where carriages would arrive with important guests-presidents, royalty, and maybe even someone who invented a new kind of chair. Built in 1875, this enormous palace took up five whole acres! It was a three-story marvel, gleaming with gas lights at night, warmed by dozens of fireplaces, and with “pure mountain stream water” (the first Santa Barbara spa water, if you will).
Back then, the Arlington wasn’t just a place to sleep-it was the center of Santa Barbara’s social universe. There was a reading room where you’d catch gentlemen pretending to read the paper while sneaking glances at the latest arrivals, a billiard room with the muffled sound of balls clinking, and even a speaking tube so you could, quite literally, pipe up your room service order directly to the kitchen. Talk about high tech for the 1870s!
Over the years, the Arlington became so popular, especially after the railroad finally arrived in 1887, that they had to build an annex to house the flood of new guests. Presidents Harrison, McKinley, and Roosevelt slept here, maybe dreaming up national policy or, more likely, wondering if the breakfast came with unlimited toast. Even Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s daughter, checked in, probably marveling that she made it all the way to California with her royal luggage intact.
But the Arlington’s luck was as up and down as a see-saw. Late one summer evening in 1909, a fire broke out and turned this majestic hotel into a heap of smoldering ruin by morning. The guests, mostly out for dinner, escaped-but all that was left were the lonely brick chimneys. Undaunted, Santa Barbara brought in a fancy Los Angeles architect to build a new, fireproof Arlington for $1.5 million-this time with Spanish-Mission style towers, brick, and steel.
The new Arlington Hotel reigned supreme until June 29, 1925, when the ground trembled, the sky filled with dust, and the city shook in a massive 6.3 earthquake. If you were here, you’d hear timbers snapping, beams crashing down, and the thunderous roar of a water tank in the bell tower falling- placed there to fight fire, ironically, but instead ending two lives that morning.
The earthquake changed Santa Barbara, clearing the way for new city planning standards and, here on this spot, allowed the Arlington Theatre to rise from the dust. So next time you come for a movie, give a little nod to the grand old hotel whose spirit just might still haunt the popcorn stand!
