Santa Barbara Courthouse: Simple Exterior, Vibrant Interior

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit a courthouse that expresses Spanish Andalusian style.

Constructed primarily with stucco walls and a terracotta roof, the courthouse is surrounded by a lush landscape. The 85-foot-tall clock tower with tall arched openings maintains its original clockworks and the clock has always kept good time. Surrounding the clock tower is a wrought-iron railing. The principal garden-side enhancement to the plain stucco walls is the carved sandstone façade surrounding the portal. Nagel Photography/Shutterstock

Taking up an entire block on more than four acres in downtown Santa Barbara, California, is the sprawling county courthouse, built in 1929.

The courthouse follows a modified-castle architectural plan designed by San Francisco-based firm William Moser Co., headed by father-and-son duo William Moser II and William Moser III. Having resided in Italy and Spain and studied at the famous Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, the younger Moser primarily informed the distinct architectural drawings of draftsman J. Wilmer Hershey.