With all-new photographs of traditionally styled houses, from 1838 to today, in this extraordinary paradise on earth, this book celebrates a tradition in architecture and in living whose appeal has proven irresistible and with good reason. With its perfect climate and abundant California sunshine, Santa Barbara represents an enduring ideal and one that s happily real, and at hand. At its heart is the historic downtown, which features pristine white-washed Mediterranean-style stucco buildings with red tile roofs that harken back to the city s Spanish colonial heritage and the iconic Santa Barbara Mission of 1787, whose austere beauty set the tone for all that would later surround it. Known world-wide as the Santa Barbara style, the town epitomizes a type of building at once elegant and suffused with poetry, here kept in an extraordinary state of preservation. From its earliest days, the influence of this special place has been felt and has since radiated across the sunbelt; it remains to this day a model of emulation and inspiration. But it is the houses and the dream of living in Santa Barbara and its sister communities of Ojai, Carpenteria, Summerland, Goleta, and Montecito, that casts the most profound spell. Featuring a wide range of these houses, estates, and gardens, many previously unpublished and unphotographed, the book is a celebration of this wonderous eden. From the landmarked Rancho Santa Clara del Norte of 1838, with its beautiful classical gardens and evocative mountain views, to the traditionally styled contemporary treasure Villa Corbeau of 2006, the reader is at once surprised, delighted, and invited in. The work of noted architects, including the legendary George Washington Smith and Lutah Maria Riggs, is featured beside that of charming anonymous builders. From historic treasures reinterpreted for today to contemporary interpretations of tradition, the book is, like Santa Barbara, a treasure to behold and a magical place within which one finds enchantment.