Early History of FCCSB

The $9,000 building was free of debt thanks to the sacrifice of its members and the generosity of friends throughout the community.

The 1870’s marked a period of rapid growth and community service. The women sponsored the first New England dinner held in the newly built Arlington Hotel. They also organized a Ladies Aid and a Missionary Society, and introduced the first ice cream to Santa Barbara through an “open house” church social. For this event, ice had to be brought from San Francisco by ship.

In this period the membership of the congregation had grown to 152. Articles of incorporation were filed under the name of “The First Congregational Church of Santa Barbara” in October, 1887.

Sometime during 1871, the Western Board of Foreign Missions was started and the local church sponsored the Chinese Mission. Later in that same time frame, the church helped in organizing the Japanese Congregational Church.  The community’s first  public lending library was established in 1875 and conducted within the church.

Building 2 also featured some construction reported in the press as unique to the city:

“The largest door in Santa Barbara has been hauled from the planing mill on the Wharf to the new Congregational Church on Anacapa Street. It is of redwood, 15 by 18 feet in size and 3 inches thick … The largest bolts ever made in Santa Barbara are being used in the new Congregational Church. They are 2 inches in diameter and 60 feet long, the thread being cut with a set of dyes bought for the purpose and costing $65.”

After the church vacated building 1 on Santa Barbara and Ortega street, it was used as the Sloyd School from 1892-1893. University of California Santa Barbara historians trace this as the origin of the University of California Santa Barbara and credit our original church building as being the first local campus.  [Reference: Albert Pickerell, (1968) Centennial Publications Office, University of California, Berkeley in a letter to Reverend Walter Bond Davis, August 28.1869.]

In approximately 1895 the first social service work started in Santa Barbara. It was a startling innovation to provide for the young people of the community a recreation hall complete with bowling alley, billiard table, and athletic apparatus, and it was the only place provided for them for many years. By 1896 the church included, as a weekly feature of the midweek prayer meeting, the discussion of some social problem. Such questions as Socialism, Communism, Co-operation, Temperance Reform, and Women’s Suffrage were presented and discussed. This feature, it was said, attracted many people not in the habit of attending prayer meetings.

The annual report for the year 1900 indicated a membership of 220. With more resources available, the congregation began to plan for a larger edifice at the corner of State and Sola streets.  It took 15 years to become a reality. The third church building was dedicated on December 7, 1915.  Unfortunately, due to faulty wiring in the attic, this building burned to the ground on December 22, 1928.  Only the Sunday school wing was saved.

The loss by fire of the State and Sola property, together with the severe economic depression made this a challenging time. The records show that membership was down from a high of 265 in 1916 to just 146 in 1933. In spite of severe economic challenges, the property at the corner of State and Padre was purchased and a building project was started.  The ground-breaking ceremony took place December 1, 1935. Completion of our present faciity (minus the education wing) happened about 2 years later.