#192 F.&A.M.
Table Lodge Dinner. 5:30pm Building tour, 6:00pm Lodge open on 1°, 6:15pm dinner. Celebrating Santa Barbara Lodge’s 140th anniversary.
Santa Barbara Masonic Lodge
16 East Carrillo Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 966-4502
John Stearns was quite a resourceful businessman. Unhappy with Santa Barbara's lack of a deepwater pier, Stearns secured the financial backing to build his own wharf. He borrowed $40,000 from W. W. Hollister, the town’s richest man. He had then met the challenge thrown down by the owners of the shorter Chapala Street Pier and eventually drove them out of business. It was then the longest deep water pier between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Stearns could hardly have imagined that more than 100 years later it would be the most visited landmark in town. Stearns served as Worshipful Master in 1873.
When the railroad finally reached Santa Barbara in 1877, Stearns added an additional spur to the wharf, and later in 1923 that was abandoned as it was no longer of use. A railroad logging car on the spur commemorates the wharf's history. Passengers and commerce soon crowded the pier and Stearns replenished his lumberyard with wood taken directly from ships rather than floating the wood ashore on the tide. A boom in visitors to Santa Barbara began. Wealthy health seekers, boaters and sunbathers flocked to the beach. West Beach became the destination of choice as tourists followed the footsteps of Indians and settlers. Bath Street was named as such because it led to the public bathing beach.
Santa Barbara began a future in tourism in the 1880s as new money and wealthy settlers were attracted to the beauty and tranquility of Santa Barbara. Elsewhere, pioneers traveled to a new country to make their fortune, but in Southern California many came with their fortunes already made, and were motivated chiefly by a desire for a better place to live during their balance of life.