Summerland
Population: 1,448
A quick drive over Ortega Hill Road from Montecito will land you in the picturesque seaside hamlet of Summerland. Terraced along a magnificent hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, many of Summerland’s homes enjoy breathtaking ocean and island views. You’ll find larger homes and ranches dotted among the rolling hills behind the town and an impressive collection of shops offering antiques, home furnishings, and garden accessories along its main avenue below. Quaint cafes, day spas, and bed and breakfast inns round out this idyllic setting.
South of Montecito and north of Carpinteria, Summerland is a classic California beach town with a touch of the eclectic. Filled with charming Victorian and Craftsman cottages that look out at the Pacific Ocean and the Channel Islands, Santa Barbara-area locals and tourists alike visit Lillie Avenue for boutique-style wine tasting or lunch in this picturesque retreat. This beachside region has epic views of the ocean from the bluffs at Lookout Park or nearly all ends of town – not a spot to pass up if you are near the Santa Barbara area.
Summerland History
Summerland was founded as a Spiritualist colony in 1889. At that time, terraced streets lined with small lots sold for $25 apiece. The Spiritualist newcomers also built a temple where they held séances in an attempt to contact spirits of departed friends and relatives.
The peaceful little enclave’s serenity was doomed, however, when oil was discovered in 1894. Within a few years, a forest of the world’s first offshore oil wells rose on piers jutting out into the Santa Barbara Channel. To the dismay of the original settlers, oil drillers and workers streamed into town. The oil that could be reached by the primitive wells eventually dwindled, however, and by the 1920’s the boom was over.
In 1951, Highway 101 was expanded into a freeway, wiping out the original business district on Wallace Ave and cutting off the town’s access to the beach in the process. In the 1960’s the freeway was elevated, allowing an underpass at Evans Ave to reconnect the town. Around this time, an influx of surfers, artists, and hippies joined the older residents, drawn by the inexpensive housing and the casual lifestyle. New housing construction was, for many years, curtailed by a lack of water, but when Lake Cachuma was built, additional water was available, and a building boom began. Summerland real estate – which includes a handful of undeveloped lots and ocean-view homes – is in high demand.
Today, the oil wells on the beach are gone. Now the area provides recreation for swimmers, sunbathers, horseback riders, and dogs. On weekends the streets bustle with visitors and antique hunters, but it’s said that in certain houses, strange and unexplained sounds can be heard in the still of the night.