[Noozhawk’s note: Fifth in a series. Click here for the first article, click here for the second, click here for the third, and click here for the fourth.]
In our last installment of our Child Estate series, the Santa Barbara Jaycees were readying to launch the Child’s Estate — a park for children with a petting zoo of small animals to enjoy.
The expectation was the estate would open with some bunnies, a lamb, maybe a baby goat … and more animals would be added as the park developed.
Then Child Estate Development Committee co-chairman Art Locker was introduced to Peter Batten, and the program took an exciting shift.
Peter Batten
In 1962, the British-born Batten was a Shell Oil engineer who moved to Santa Barbara from Borneo with his wife, infant son … and 170 rare birds and animals collected from jungles all over the world.
The Battens personally captured the creatures, which included lions; three Malayan sun bears; mountain cats; a mother orangutan with her baby, Brigg; spider monkeys; a white llama named Stanley; a pair of gibbon apes; palm civets; lemurs; tiny shrews; and a huge lizard and other reptiles.
Also in the menagerie were exotic birds like a rhinoceros hornbill (< yep, that’s a bird); 6-foot-tall, stilt-legged cassowaries (< yep, that’s one heckuva bird); an egret named Eager; an ostrich; and penguins.
Oh, and a 15 -foot python described as “potentially dangerous” when it was discovered missing from its heated glass enclosure. (It later was determined that someone stole the snake … hmmm.)
This seemed to be a fortuitous match. Batten was looking for somewhere to place some of his animals — and offered the small ones to the Jaycees. This would provide a key attraction.
In turn, the Jaycees leadership liked Batten’s energy, enthusiasm and engineering ability. The decision was made to use his animals and for Batten to serve as zookeeper to oversee it all.
The Jaycees raised and paid $50,000 to set up and create housing for the animals. It seemed like a tremendous coup, and everything was in place.
Batten was hired full time along with a crew of two men, and worked to create a simulated natural backdrop for the “Garden of Animals” attraction, over a 1½-acre parcel.
When the Child Estate opened in the summer of 1963, there was great excitement with the little ones especially enjoying all the critters.
But in less than six months it was clear that Batten and the Jaycees were not seeing eye to eye.
In February 1964, Batten officially removed animals, birds and reptiles by truck — eventually relocating them to Santa Cruz.
“I do like animals more than people,” he confessed to a reporter, “and nothing that has happened (in Santa Barbara) has done much to change my mind!”
It seemed it was a mutual understanding and no-contest divorce between the Jaycees and Batten.
But the Child’s Estate no longer had animal attractions. Now what?
It Takes a Village to Raise a Zoo
What is a zoo without animals? Not to worry, it seems our community — amazingly enough — could and would supply those as well.
Sam Mosher, the owner of Dos Pueblos Orchid Ranch west of Goleta, maintained his own private zoo there, which included deer, raccoons, badgers, coyotes and golden pheasant. (What’s with Santa Barbara people maintaining all these private zoos?!)
Early on, Mosher stepped forward to donate his critters.
Equally inspired, Santa Barbara County ranchers provided lambs, rabbits, turkeys and ducks for a petting zoo area, “The Ranchers Pet Park.”
Then Santa Barbara just poured out love with favorite animals to stock the zoo.
For instance, Hal Thorington donated a Shetland mare and colt. Florence and Milton Schmerzler donated a Shetland pony.
Anne and Vernon Johnson donated two beautiful hyacinth macaws. Ralph Baker offered a parrot, and John Whittamore provided seven peacocks.
Charley, the popular scarlet macaw at Finley’s Pet Shop on Milpas Street, was moved to the zoo where he could be enjoyed by even more people.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Montecito donated twin lambs, Esmerelda and Mary, and their mother, Granny.
Barbara Caplow with Richard and David Love gifted two black swans, Greta and Olaf. Ellen Anderson donated a small monkey and Jerry Williams donated a raccoon.
And then the Great Bend Zoo in Great Bend, Kansas, heard about Santa Barbara’s efforts and gifted two great horned owls.
Not done yet, residents made donations to purchase specific animals they were interested in.
Robert Jackson’s company, Jackson-Mitchell Pharmaceuticals, donated money to purchase a rare dwarf goat. A local doctor donated $450 to purchase a dwarf chimpanzee. The Kiwanis donated a baby llama.
Other contributions enabled the Jaycees to buy a ring-tailed spider monkey, iguanas, and other birds and reptiles.
Unbelievably, within just three months time, the zoo was stocked with twice as many animals as it had with the Batten collection.
To replace Batten, the Child’s Estate Foundation then tapped the talent of contractor and community volunteer-turned-Jaycee member Ted McToldridge to now serve as park superintendent.
McToldridge not only developed and maintained the property but he often cared for the animals as well. The beloved zoo director would remain with the organization for more than 30 years before retiring in 1997. He died last year at age 92.
When the Jaycees were ready to revamp the zoo and complete the gardens, the members with various expertise stepped forward to chair the varied tasks, often contributing additional manpower from their companies:
Sol Aparicio (garden landscaping), Bob Kallman and Dick Riffero (zoo landscaping and planting), Chauncy Sovine (plumbing), Ray Martin (grading), Paul Price (drainage), John Stassino (electrical), Frank Villa and Nick Orsua (trucking and construction), Vince Pownall (concrete installation) and Ralph McNall (heavy equipment).
A work day was scheduled and well over 60 volunteers from the community showed up, including about 30 members of the Construction and General Laborer’s Union Local 591.
Equipment was also supplied by Hillyer Construction. The Haskell company scraped and rolled down the main road and paved it.
Agustín Esparza was one of many who helped with concrete work. Cement plasterer Antonio León, Edo Tonello, Chano Labastida and others from throughout the community pitched in.
Plumbers and Fitters from Local 114, including Sovine, Chet Arthur, John Zabzdyr, George Wilkins, Leo Engesser, Joe Woolfolk, Pat Rogers and Dino Segale donated their services over the weekend, laying ground pipe for hose connections along the garden path to complete a new irrigation system.
Neal Rasmussen of the Neal Feay company made, inscribed and donated metal plaques identifying donors to the development of the Child’s Estate.
Finally, the City of Santa Barbara was needed to supply water lines to the property for irrigation and animals.
Art Henzell approached the city to express that the group was looking to the city to bear the cost of extending the water main line — a 1,860-foot extension — to the Child Estate property line.
In the end, after some haggling, the city agreed to pay half the cost.
Harrumph!
This did seem a bit skimpy considering the line was already part of the water system’s master plan and would eventually be used by the city in general … AND that all the work and expense to clear and develop the Child’s Estate — which actually was city property — had been handled by the Jaycees!
More than 100 fraternity members (the return of the frat boys!) participated in their annual “Greek Week” coordinated by the UC Santa Barbara Inter Fraternity Council.
The council sent out members to help with fencing, weeding, painting and planting as part of their public service project.
To further enhance the community work party experience, the Helping Hands Club under the guidance of Mrs. Ike Hoover served a free chicken pot pie lunch for all the workers.
A bit of a scare happened at one land-clearing work project when volunteers uncovered skeletal bones — part of a rib cage.
With grave concern (no pun intended … I think), the workers wondered: A hobo resident? A local Chumash from an earlier century?
The mystery was cleared up when the story emerged that the Deltas — yep, those happy frat boys who had inhabited the house for a few years — had at one point held a pig roast on the property …
The Amazing Account of the Aviaries
Beautiful bird aviaries were built by birds of a feather — journeymen carpenters donating their time. And therein lies a story.
The 70-year-old Carl Carpenter was a professional carpenter. Early in his career, he was a chief carpenter’s mate in the Transport Service during World War I.
Returning home, he worked at the “pre-Hollywood” Flying A Studios at State and West Mission streets. There he was in charge of the carpenter shop, and built some of the first movie sets ever filmed.
After the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake, Carpenter oversaw the rebuilding of the Holiday Hardware store on State Street.
Carpenter had retired in the early 1950s, but the Child’s Estate park project now rekindled his interest and energy. He brought his power saw to the park and set up shop, working with journeyman carpenters like Ralph Harris and others contributing their skills.
The aptly named Carpenter donated more than 1,000 hours of his own time over the course of 1½ years to work on the aviaries.
When Delta Phi Upsilon fraternity donated money for a seventh aviary, Carpenter worked his magic to make two for the price of one.
So now there were eight aviaries that Carpenter and his team had finished.
Golden Key Club
An impressive number of local families donated a significant amount of their time, which further established the Santa Barbara Zoo as a community vision and treasure.
The Golden Key “Founding Families” were those who either donated time or cash to help launch the zoo.
As founding members, they received the Golden Key.
This lifetime membership medallion was designed by the local Jostens company, and showed “a boy and girl gazing wistfully at the Bird Refuge.”
The keys attached to the medallion were not just membership pass keys, but actually operated the lights, speakers and other devices that were coin-operated for nonmembers.
More than 700 Santa Barbarans also signed up as Key Charter Members, paying a one-time membership fee for either five-year ($5), 10-year ($10) or lifetime family ($25) Gold Key memberships.
And hundreds more families received medallions for their donations of time, labor and in-kind contributions.
Our Celebrated Sealarium
Jaycee member George Castagnola assumed chairmanship of the fundraising committee to raise $9,500 to add a Sealarium — a display for the California seals for which Santa Barbara was famous.
Richard Headley, a sea captain who was also a sea lion collector, provided a pair of sea lions for the exhibit, which was designed as a natural and healthy environment.
This was a new and important trend in zoos, and the new Child’s Estate was at the forefront of this movement.
It provided a more comfortable surrounding for the animals, and was a more complete educational experience for visitors to see animals in their native surroundings.
In fact, when the Sealarium opened in1966 it was one of the first natural habitats in California.
Boxed cages were now a thing of the past.
And Who Laid the Rails?
The answer to the age-old question was, again, the Jaycees.
The Jaycees design envisioned a cool railroad train ride around the park.
Nobody, of course, had ever built a railroad before — but that didn’t stop the Jaycees from dreaming big, planning and budgeting, and making it happen.
In 1968, Bill Brace was the member appointed to take charge of building a miniature railroad train to travel around the hilltop. He located professionals from the Santa Maria Valley Railroad in the North County who came down every weekend to direct and work with a crew of volunteers.
The train tracks required lumber — a lot of lumber. Once again, Santa Barbarans stepped up to make it happen.
Dwight Hout and his son, Richard, of AA Plywood, donated lumber to build the train tracks.
Next up, Adam Ortega drove two dozen Jaycees to San Bernardino and Riverside to pick up railroad ties.
The Jaycees and volunteers measured and cut and sawed and drilled and dug and hammered, and (exhaustedly but enthusiastically) built the tracks for the train.
On one weekend, more than 900 feet of track was laid for the miniature train in one day, with Gene Roland, Tom Moller and other volunteers.
The popular ride was then expanded in 1983 to encircle the entire zoo.
Some of the Jaycees in those years who you might remember toiling to create and lay the rails included Rory Rye, Brian Robertson, Mike Simmons, John Poucher, Joe Dobbs, Bill Wright, Dave Yossem, Robert Manning, Roger Knox, Don Welch, Agris Petersons, Ben Litchfield, Dan Litchfield, Bob Bryant, Keith Berry and Dexter Goodell.
It was back-breaking work, but every single man (and some sons included) was immensely proud of their achievement.
This remains one of those legendary efforts that the old Jaycees (the “Retired Roosters”) still talk about. Likewise, even today, community kids will brag, “My grandfather (father, uncle, etc.) built the railroad at the zoo!”
Epilogue
The Jaycees leadership was a stunning accomplishment on every level.
Theirs was a magnificent job of organization, planning and strategy, and of absolutely inspiring the involvement of the entire community.
The Child’s Estate was quite literally built entirely by and for the Santa Barbara community itself.
The site was endowed with a breathtakingly beautiful location perhaps unequaled by any other zoo in the world. It had been the home to both fabulous wealth, royalty and dignitaries … and humble hobos. (Did I forget to include our Delta Sigma Delta fraternity boys?)
It would seem only appropriate that a property with this lineage would extend a welcome to children and then critters and creatures. Today it is host to more than a half-million visitors every year.
The Child’s Estate grew to 30 acres from 18, and in 1982, the name was changed to the Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens to reflect what the facility showcases — wonderful animals and a wonderland of exotic and tropical botanical plantings.
It continues today as a beloved local institution and favored park at 500 Niños Drive overlooking the Santa Barbara waterfront.
It has remained a nonprofit zoo without any tax-based support. The zoo is run almost entirely from admissions and special event fees, with an outstanding staff under the truly superb direction of president and CEO Rich Block.
Furthermore, the zoo’s dedication to support research and conservation of — and education about — animal species and their environments has earned the Santa Barbara Zoo accreditation by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, which it has maintained since 1982.
It is recognized as one of America’s finest zoos, and it all came together as a true community-wide effort.
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