tMo
It’s still there. Right where it’s been since 1929, when oil rich executives decided to build a showpiece filling station to celebrate the wild success of their Ellwood oil field and to do it in a style that would please Pearl Chase.
They spared no expense and hired an exclusive architecture firm to build a exquisite building in the Spanish colonial revival style.
It won several awards and was a successful business for decades, until the rerouting of the highway isolated it from traffic. By the early 1950’s, the station was closed to the general public.
So there it sat, unused and abandoned, but not unnoticed.
Throughout the years, generations of folks enjoyed the beauty of the little building and wondered what the future would hold for it.
In January of 2015, Goleta History started a petition to preserve the Barnsdall gas station. The response was overwhelming. This building means a lot of things to a lot of different people, and they were very passionate about it. Nearly 3,000 signatures were quickly collected, hundreds of citizens offered to help with the restoration and people came out of the woodwork with ideas and plans they had for the building. If you take the time to read some of the comments on the petition, it’s a lot of fun. The petition got a lot of media attention, from local papers to NPR. In February, 2015, we presented the petition to the Goleta city council and several citizens spoke eloquently on behalf of the structure.
On June 11th, 2015, that same city council called a media press conference to proudly announce that they had worked out a deal to save the historic gas station for future generations.
Beanie billionaire Ty Warner, owner of the Sandpiper Golf Course and the gas station, had generously agreed to donate the building and one acre of land to the city of Goleta. He was thanked and praised and everyone celebrated a great victory. Unfortunately that didn’t work out due to some fine print in the title to the property. Learn more about that HERE.
The years flew by and we continued to wait and wonder when Ty Warner and the city of Goleta will find a way to save this iconic structure.
Well, it appears the time has come to try again! Mr. Warner would like to remodel the whole Sandpiper golf course and saving the Barnsdall station is included in his plan.
The new plan completely restores the original building inside and out, bringing it up to modern codes for earthquake, etc., while using as much of the original material as possible. Inside the building will be a historic exhibit with photos and the story of the building and the surrounding area. ( We all know there is plenty of history there.) Additionally, they want to build a small coffee shop next-door with a large garage type door that will be open to the public. A new parking lot will be built to the east of the station and a large covered public seating area will be to the west of the station.
The folks at Sandpiper recognized that their current snack bar is very popular with bicyclists, so they’ve decided to make this new café very bike friendly to encourage that. There will be multiple bike racks all around and where the old gas pumps used to be there will now be electric bike charging stations.
Further improvements include building a sidewalk along Hollister, putting all the existing powerlines underground and building a new crosswalk to allow easy access to the neighborhood across the street. All in all, a very generous offer made by Ty Warner to save this historic structure.
The best part of this offer is Mr. Warner is offering to pay for 100% of it. We all know that if the city had accepted his donation years ago, they would still be struggling to find the funding to restore it. This avoids that whole problem.
This plan will be presented to the city of Goleta Historic Preservation Committee for review this Monday, April 15, 2024, at 5:30 P.M., City Hall, Council Chambers, 130 Cremona Drive, Suite B.
If you care about finally saving this historic structure, come to the meeting or send an email to dlopez@cityofgoleta.org
Let’s save this important piece of Goleta history once and for all.
“The only thing more destructive to historical landmarks than a bulldozer is procrastination on the part of preservationists.” – Walker A. Tompkins
Thanks to Ben Burkhalter and Patti Gutshall for images.
If the development is smaller, preserves the gas station, and is focused on being a bicycle stop then I think it’s a great idea.
@ Anon- Perhaps you should contact Ty Warner and give tell him your requirements… LMAO… I’m guessing you could be handed a sack of gold coins, but would reject it as they weren’t delievered in a velvet sack…
What’s so funny about a potential customer voicing an opinion? Man, you righties are in love with billionaires, aren’t you?
Well Sac-we should all appreciate the as the rich as they do fund the liberal utopia paying the vast majority of our taxes. Locally, without big profits there could be no non- profits and the non profit trough is well stocked with six figure salaries ,open bars and four course meals.
garfish, how many non-profits have you worked for?! I spent most of my working life at three in SB, one was a branch of a national health care non-profit. None of what you say is true.
Ha-I figured as much
Anyone who spends as much time on here as you or Sac must either work for a non profit, the University or has a father /grandfather who ran a very profitable company.
And oh, which part is not true cuz I have been to some epic NP galas in this town
I’m retired. There are quite a few “anonymous” posters; they’re not all the same person. Spend as much time here as I do? How would you know?
You’re still way off base re: non-profits. You’re not familiar with the donations that are behind the scenes in order to make fundraisers work. Ever seen the list of acknowledgments for such events? Ever been on a non-profit board? Seems you just like to badmouth them. What about the SB Foodbank? Neighborhood Clinics? ASAP cat shelter? Unity Shoppe? Oh, that’s a good one, Unity Shoppe holds quite a gala!
GAR – well, that’s not really true. We ALL pay taxes and those dollars go to your “liberal utopia” just as much as the rich’s taxes do. Why shouldn’t they pay more than lower or middle class tax payers?
Well, according to the LA Times last week, the top 20% of wage earners pay 91% of California taxes, so we do owe them an extra thanks to go along with the endless scorn the kidults pile on them.
We’re not talking about wage earners here, in case you haven’t noticed.
A link would be great.
Also, yeah….. billionaires should pay more taxes. Why not? We all pay a certain percentage of our income and homeowners all pay a certain percentage of their property value, so…… if you’re making 10 million a year and living in a 50 million dollar house, you can pay your share just as easily as we all pay ours. Sorry not sorry.
What would you propose? Equal tax rate for all?
Always interesting to see GOP voters in favor of tax breaks for the rich and wealthy that causes themselves to pay more in taxes to make up for it. The fallacy of trickle-down economics
Wow, totally!!!
Right, Basic? Totally.
I don’t think he realized who he replied to 😉
No, it was sarcasm.
Uh…. how so?
ANON – lol probably not!
Obvious ly not!
Tom – Thanks for the heads up on the presentation date. I was curious as to what it looks like currently, so went here and found a few dated Feb. 2024, showing the blue on the top of the dome is still pretty vibrant.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Barnsdall+Rio+Grande+Service+Station/@34.4297782,-119.9014674,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipNRsnc8myBLgIm1Ffm5fseMFdSQ9x6yXJvXq3yg!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNRsnc8myBLgIm1Ffm5fseMFdSQ9x6yXJvXq3yg%3Dw203-h152-k-no!7i4000!8i3000!4m9!3m8!1s0x80e9474106ea35f1:0x7b8f4a791dda21f5!8m2!3d34.4296114!4d-119.9015196!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgAQ!16s%2Fg%2F11bxd76h60?entry=ttu
maybe it’s just the angle?
Thank Gawd there are generous Billionaires like Ty Warner who give back to their communities… This Gas Station is a gem indeed and will be embraced as a local operating historic icon…Thanks again Mr. Warner.
Makes up a little for his tax dodging, but why is he suddenly feeling slightly philanthropic.
We shouldn’t have to rely on the infrequent “generosity” of billionaires to save historical buildings.
Interesting that Tom says it was closed to the general public in the early fifties. I guess I was the non general public cuz I was poor and driving my 1953 Willy’s Overland P/U. I would stop by there in 1966 and get oil there from the glass oil filled recyclable bottles. I still have one of the bottles and a galvanized inner tube repair tank from when it completely closed.
I believe it was used in the 1981 remake of “The Postman Always Rings Twice”. The one with Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson
Yes, I just learned that from noozhawk’s article.
Win win situation I guess. He gets more money and we get to keep a piece of our history. Thanks?
I would rather you just said “thank you” and went on your way,
Sorry, Mike920, but I’m not a billionaire fanboy. Hey don’t be too sad, though. When you become an adult, you don’t always get what you want. You’ll get used to it.
I hope this moves along quicker than the fire station across the street…
One of the few times that I actually like a developer’s plan
This is very exciting to me! I have dreamed of putting a pub in here for decades. I actually did (fictionally) in my recent sci-fi novel, Amorphous: Breaking the Mold. I have a loving description of my idea of a redesign 45 years from now. Unfortunately, during the soft opening, something (is it a meteor? Is it a spacecraft?) takes out about 45 yards of the golf course and smashes into the back of the newly redesigned restaurant as the alien substance starts chewing its way across the golf course and a couple of folks unlucky enough to be in the way. Most of the last 1/3 of the book takes place right there. It was so much fun to write!
Ha
The truth hurts huh Sac
TNKY – the truth about what? You realize that’s not me, right? Truth is you seem lost and bored, like always.
Stephen King did it first.