Santa Barbara and Montecito, past and present . Santa Barbaras First Court House in 1871, with PresentCourt House in Background. to which of these would have its terminus atSanta Barbara, but nothing came of it. Then a proposal was advanced for a roadfrom Ventura through Santa Barbara to SanLuis Obispo, and an effort made to have the Leg-islature authorize an election which had for itsobject the issue of bonds to finance the project,but without success. 134 AND MONTECITO Finally, the disappointed railroad advocatesproposed to build a road from Santa Barbara toconnect with the Southern Pacific
Santa Barbara and Montecito, past and present . Santa Barbaras First Court House in 1871, with PresentCourt House in Background. to which of these would have its terminus atSanta Barbara, but nothing came of it. Then a proposal was advanced for a roadfrom Ventura through Santa Barbara to SanLuis Obispo, and an effort made to have the Leg-islature authorize an election which had for itsobject the issue of bonds to finance the project,but without success. 134 AND MONTECITO Finally, the disappointed railroad advocatesproposed to build a road from Santa Barbara toconnect with the Southern Pacific at Newhall,and while this was the most reasonable proposi-tion yet advanced, it never got beyond the talk-ing stage until the Southern Pacific Companyitself constructed the road in 1887 and connectedSanta Barbara with the rest of the world by Birds Lye View of Santa Barbara, 1687. The Boom Days of W^ and 1887Projects for railroad building were not theonly excitement in Santa Barbara during theseventies; a real estate boom, probably the firstof its kind on the Pacific Coast, developed in theearly years of that decade, and for a time exor-bitant prices were paid for land. The immediate causes of this were the publi-cation of several books on the beauties of Cali- 135 SANTA BARBARA fornia and an advertising campaign carried onby the Rev. J. A. Johnson, owner of the Tress,who not only filled his paper with informationas to the climate and resources of Santa Barbaraand sent copies to all parts of America, but alsodelivered illustrated lectures in the cities of theeast on the same subject. Also, the prospect of being the terminus of atrans-continental railway made Santa Barbarareal estate look very attractive to those w^ithmoney for speculation, and soon a great influx ofpeople took place, every steamer from San Fran-cisco being
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