Memories of Mountain Drive

136 East de la Guerra,Santa Barbara CA 93101

27 April, 2023

Description

In the early 1940s, author and Utopian Bobby Hyde bought 50 acres of wildfire scarred land in the foothills above Montecito. He sold one-acre lots to like-minded souls for $50 down and $50 a month. In the years following World War II, a bohemian community of free thinkers built their homes of adobe, raised their families, threw countless parties, and became legend in Santa Barbara. Join author Lee Chiacos and archivist Chris Ervin for the inside story and rediscovery of Santa Barbara’s most well-known counterculture and alternative lifestyle community – Mountain Drive. The museum's current exhibition about the Mountain Drive Community is open through June 25, 2023. About the Speakers Author and journalist Elias (Lee) Chiacos collected the stories and wrote the definitive local history book, Mountain Drive: Santa Barbara’s Pioneering Bohemian Community. Chris Ervin is Head Archivist for the Gledhill Library at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. As the old adage proclaims, “All history is local.” Preserving local history is Lee Chiacos’s passion. He is driven by curiosity and a love of place. Lee feels that listening to and hearing local stories, visiting the places, seeing artifacts, combined with historic photos, provides context to our lives in the present. In this talk, Lee will describe the process of uncovering and exploring local history when writing his book.