Santa Barbara Cemetery
The incorporation document for the Santa Barbara Cemetery, signed on July 10, 1867, formed a nonsectarian, nonprofit association, with lot ownership the only requirement for membership. When the association finally selected the land for the cemetery, it was a mile from town on the far side of the seasonal estero or lagoon, alongside the southern stage road, now just inside the city line of Montecito. The Town Common Council sold the property “for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar gold coin of the United States.” The chapel was designed by George Washington Smith who designed many of the prominent residences in Montecito and the new Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara that opened in 1924. The cemetery is sprinkled with crypts and mausoleums, the most notable of which is the Sahlberg Mausoleum built in 1903 as the last resting place of gold magnate Augustus Sahlberg.
Montecito, Santa Barbara County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt