Santa Barbara’s Spanish roots are hard to miss, especially downtown, where four city blocks of prime real estate are dedicated to the El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park. 

Yet, few visible vestiges remain of two vibrant Asian communities that coexisted literally atop the fortress’ foundation and in adjacent blocks for more than 70 years. 

Santa Barbara’s historic Chinese and Japanese communities will be celebrated and explored at the annual Asian American Neighborhood Festival, planned for Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in front of the Presidio Chapel. 

Presented by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, the free event will feature artisan vendors, educational booths, cultural crafts, activities for all ages, food trucks and a pop-up neighborhood history exhibit.

Other highlights will include the nearly nonstop music and dance performances by cultural groups selected by the Trust for Historic Preservation’s volunteer Asian American Affinity Group, which also programs the Asian American Film Series each July.

A guided walking tour exploring the neighborhood will depart at 12:45 p.m., during a break in the performances. 

Walking Tour Features a Historic Corner 

The organization’s associate director for public engagement, Kevin McGarry, and director of programs, Tucker Foltz, recently provided a walking tour preview.

“The tour covers four to five blocks, depending on what people want,” McGarry said as he walked from Presidio Chapel to Anacapa Street, stopping at the corner parking lot.

Looking down Canon Perdido past the Lobero Theatre, visitors can visualize where Santa Barbara’s “Old” Chinatown emerged in the 1850s. Turning around to view the parking lot, they can imagine a hotel that became a hub of the Japanese Nihonmachi (town) beginning in the early 1900s. 

“Asian American communities were in this neighborhood longer than the Mexican and Spanish eras,” McGarry said. “They came together to build a community that thrived and helped transform Santa Barbara into a modern city. Their stories are important to tell.”

The two communities coexisted, frequented each other’s businesses, and often set aside conflicts between their home countries. 

“They had the dual identity of being Chinese or Japanese, and also American,” he added. 

Old Chinatown Ends After Historic Earthquake

Chinese immigrants began to settle in Santa Barbara in the 1860s. Most were male workers who built city roads and the stagecoach route (which became Highway 154), fishermen and abalone divers, and domestic workers. Between 1900 and 1920, Chinese residents numbered about 500. 

Old Chinatown resembled a Western town with wood-paneled one- and two-story buildings where merchants lived behind their shops. Businesses included grocery stores, laundry facilities, herbal shops, barber shops and import-export operations. A Chinese Buddhist temple stood beside what is now El Paseo.

While Old Chinatown escaped physical damage in the 1925 earthquake that devastated downtown, the disaster led to the neighborhood’s demise. 

“City leaders wanted to rebuild in a unified Spanish Revival architectural style and to attract tourists,” McGarry said. “The Chinese were victims of circumstance with the earthquake and new construction. They just got pushed out.” 

Foltz noted that the Buddhist temple’s elaborate shrine was saved from demolition. 

“It is now on view at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. So, there’s a little of Old Chinatown still here,” he said. 

Japanese Nihonmachi ‘Ceased to Exist’ by 1960s

Japanese immigration started in the 1890s, when men began arriving in the area looking for work. 

In the early 1900s, the Asakura Hotel became an anchor of Santa Barbara’s early Japanese American community, or Nihonmachi (“Japan Street”). It initially was a boarding house for single male laborers. As families arrived, the area expanded to include Japanese-owned grocery stores, restaurants, barbershops and a traditional bathhouse. 

An informational sign and neighborhood map show that the Nihonmachi was built directly on top of the original Presidio’s foundations. At the community’s population peak in the 1920s and 1930s, more than 500 Japanese immigrants lived and worked in the district.

“Two churches stood exactly where the Presidio Chapel is now,” McGarry said.

During World War II, the Asakura family and other local Japanese residents were forcibly relocated to the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona. During that time, non-Asian renters moved into the vacated rental homes and businesses. 

“When the war was over, essentially there was no Japantown to come back to,” Foltz said. “It had had an almost complete turnover. Japantown ceased to exist by the 1960s when the Trust came together to save El Cuartel and start excavations in the area.”

The hotel and surrounding buildings were demolished in 1962, and the churches moved to new locations. 

‘New’ Chinatown Develops in 1940s

Foltz revealed that Elmer Whittaker, the construction contractor who saved the Old Chinatown historic shrine, was also instrumental in the creation of a “New Chinatown” on the 100 block of Canon Perdido Street for displaced businesses. 

Whittaker convinced Jimmy Chung to move his successful Oriental Gardens restaurant from West Cabrillo Street to the new district. Designed by Roy Cheesman and adorned with Asian architectural motifs, it was completed in 1947. The distinctive building still stands just steps from Whittaker’s multi-story commercial building on the corner of Canon Perdido and Santa Barbara streets. 

Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens operated for nearly six decades, serving not only food and legendary cocktails, but also as the social and cultural heart of the city’s Chinese community. Jimmy’s son, Tommy, took over after his father died in 1970. Over time, it became the neighborhood’s last Chinese business, closing in December 2006 when the son retired and sold it to the Trust.

After interior renovation, the restaurant reopened in 2011 under a lease agreement with Three Pickles Subs & Sandwiches. In 2013, the lounge opened as the Pickle Room after a retro makeover that revived its 1940s aesthetic. The building’s ownership was officially transferred to California State Parks in 2014. 

Jimmy’s was added to the National Register of Historic Places in February of this year, and McGarry believes it could become Santa Barbara’s fifth National Historic Landmark, joining the revered Old Mission, the courthouse, Casa del Herrero and Gonzalez House. 

“I ask school groups to look around the park and find what remains of the Asian community that was here. They point to Jimmy’s. The children understand that if that building wasn’t there, it would be hard to remember that Chinatown was here,” Foltz said. 

“Nothing remains in the Japanese style. We only have oral histories and photos. That’s the impact of preserving a building in Santa Barbara.”

Foltz said that every day he meets visitors who are surprised to hear about the area’s rich Japanese and Chinese heritage. 

He also acknowledged the native people who lived in the region for thousands of years. At the time of arrival by the Spanish, the thriving village of Syuxtun was the largest and most populous Chumash community along the California coast. 

“The Presidio was built within Chumash Chief Yanonali’s territory after an agreement was reached with the Spanish in 1782,” he said. “This same area, now known as the Presidio Neighborhood, is where the Chinese and Japanese would later settle and call home just 100 years later.

“It’s a privilege to take these stories to the streets and to engage with people who aren’t even on the tour.”

Music, Dance Performances Planned for Festival

The annual Asian American Neighborhood Festival will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday in front of the Presidio Chapel, 123 E. Canon Perdido St. in Santa Barbara.  

Showcase acts include a colorful Chinese lion dance by Camarillo Kung Fu and Lion Dance Association, and Japanese taiko drumming by Togen Kaiko, which will also accompany a Bon Odori dancer.

Other acts will represent Pacific Island and other Asian regions, including Indonesian Gamelan ensemble Sinar Surya, Hawaiian dance by Hula Anyone and Filipino Benguet folk dance with Lorraine Donato Twomey. 

New to the lineup will be South Indian dancer Deepa Dawson and students from the Santa Barbara branch of her Naadabhoomi Dance Academy. 

Two dance teams from UC Santa Barbara, the K-pop SS805 and breakdancers UCSBreakin’ also will perform.