Some 118 years ago, Teddy Roosevelt was president and Santa Barbara’s East Anapamu Street was an earthen boulevard for horse-drawn carriages and early automobiles.
Two friends, immigrant Francesco Franceschi and Confederate army veteran Boyd Doremus, planted Italian stone pine trees along several blocks of the street at Doremus’ home.
The trees flourished, even as infrastructure like sporadic sidewalks, sewers, homes and street paving filled in around them.
The trees, nicknamed “umbrella pines” for their mature canopy shape, ultimately created an allée that stretched from our historic El Pueblo Viejo Landmark District to the Depression-era Santa Barbara Bowl.
It became a favorite of residents and visitors, alike. The City Council designated the six blocks of the canopy an official landmark in 1997.
Unfortunately, infrastructure encroachment stressed the trees and their age took its toll. Their crowns became thinner and were severely pruned away from high voltage overhead wiring.
Their numbers declined from 79 trees at landmarking to 57 by August 2023.
In January 2025, the City Council granted an appeal that prevented them from being replaced by another tree species and required planting of new stone pines (Pinus pinea).
On March 10, the latest phase in that curative process took place as 40 juvenile stone pines were planted to fill gaps on the historic street.
In preparation, some street curbs and sidewalks had been modified, the location for each new tree had been cleared of prior growth and amended with healthy soil, special root barriers were installed to curtail disruptive growth that had buckled sidewalks and necessitated severe trimming.
It was a good day for the trees and for Santa Barbara.
The process is ongoing. Oversight of the beloved canopy is a joint responsibility of the city Parks & Recreation Department and the Historic Landmarks Commission.
The blocks will need special signage to acknowledge their landmark status and inform the public of their important history.
Absence of prior signage may have contributed to their treatment as individual “street trees,” rather than parts of a consolidated cultural landmark.
The process began as a project of independent citizens, unaffiliated with any group and without official standing.
One is a botanist with an interest in preservation, the second is a prolific author on local history topics, and the third a retired clinical pharmacist.
None of us knowingly followed a later discovered quote from cultural anthropologist, Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
