The Unusual History of the Tea Fire’s Point of Origin

Growing up in SB, I had heard about the Tea Gardens as a skating destination but had never been to the property, and am sad that I never saw it in its glory. I was curious to know if there were any actual buildings that were burned on the property, or if it was just vegetation that burned? (Since it seems the stone work was the only thing left standing after decades of decay.)

Deeds are a matter of public record. Why is the deed holder "classified information"?

FYI - The Bothins did not live "uphill from the area". Their home "Piranhurst" was below the "Tea Gardens" along the west side of Cold Springs Rd and the south side of Mountain Drive.

Until the fire I never heard of it as the "Tea Gardens" but rather, the "Teahouse," or the "Mountain Drive Teahouse" but no big deal as each generation that finds it can call it what they want.

Unless I'm behind in my news of owners (a possibility) the current owner's name isn't any kind of a secret. A few years back they were in the papers a number of times due to the controversial plans they had for a mega-mansion on the site.

This part of the property is privately owned. A plan for a home, albeit a large home, was rejected by the Montecito Planning Commission.

If not rejected it would have been private and no one would have been there to start this fire. When one takes private property rights away, that leave properties like this vacant and an attractive nuisance - leading to tragic endings. Either we allow people the enjoyment of their land or the public needs to buy it and protect it.

Surprised it took so long.

I dont think the current owners are some secret- it is probably that the Land Trust just didn't feel comfortable being the ones who gave out that information. It was always my understanding that the "Tea Gardens" were the name for the whole area, that the "tea house" was the weird, open air four-walled structure at the arches and that the the "tea bowls" is what you called it when you were talking about all the skateboarding that went down at the place. Speaking about skating- I bet with all the bowls burned out now, the place is probably more skater friendly than it has been in 30 years! Also, I heard the bonfire lighters were from SBCC- not Westmont. Hope all the haters on this site are ready to eat a big dose of crow.

It was known as the "Bowl"or "T-Bowls" when we hung out up there in the 80's.

To answer SolaLola, there were remains of what looked like small cabins up along the road just below the large upper bowl. There had obviously been a fire through there after is was built because most of them only had stone work left with burnt timbers showing. There were still some wood parts left like a lattice cover built over one of the lower water tanks but I imagine that stuff burned this time.

During the time we were exploring there it was very overgrown and to find all the different features took a lot of crawling through brush (like to get to the amphitheater and adjoining water tank). It looks like it has been cleaned up a lot since then. The photo in this article shows a cleared Tea House area, which used to have brush right up to the back of the left side, and the article liked below describes some clean up.

http://www.sbphototours.com/data/static/...

I was hoping at some point to share a hike at this special place with my young daughter but after this fire it will likely be much more closed off. I guess she'll have to settle for Knapp's Castle, Lizard's Mouth, etc. It's a shame this place will probably never be restored and opened to the public, if it was it would be one of the most unique and amazing parks in SB.

Is this the same skateboarding area that was called the "Flybowl" in the late 1980's?

Hello. This is in response to "History Buff" among others wondering... This is William Abbott from the Land Trust. I never stated that the "deed holder" was classified information; I stated that the Land Trust was not at liberty to discuss who the owner of the property is. You may find the deed at the County office, as it is a recorded document.

"Legendary status" among the skating community is a fair if even understated comment.

The T-Bowls had a great skateboarding revival in the late 80s when me and several of my friends spent days of work digging out the dirt from the lower Bowl. That ended when it was re-dynamtied in 1990 (or 1991?)... rumor was that it happened after one young fellow skater got a concussion and his parents threatened legal action. A terrible and predictable shame if true.

Also vandals destroyed some of the more amazing fountains (the stepped basins that empied out into the lower bowl) around 1987. Since 1987, there has not been much to look at as far as the fountains were concenred. However the view from the ruins of the house at the top of the trail is a more sepctacular and unobstructed version of the view from the top of Cold Springs Trail.

One other thing... I am not a botanist, but there were some very unusual and beautiful plants along the main trail.

ONe of things I always like to point out about the tea gardens is that nearly every property around it, meaning homes, has some of the sculpture that once made up the Tea Garden. It was, as they say, "retrieved" by the locals and could be found out back in many gardens. Now that the fire has burned through, I'll bet that what remains on burnt out property are the gargoyle heads and bowls and figures that once lived at the point of this latest fire's origin. Take a look-see next you gander the freshly wipe landscape.
j

The owner (or surrogate owner) of the Tea Garden estate is Keith Schofield. He has given wonderful and informative public hike tours of the property once or twice a year lately. See Sierra Club photos here: http://www.swt.org/hikesierra/teagarden-....

If I remember correctly, he and his wife have a plan for a rather modest (by area standards) house to build there.

Cgallery-Thanks for the great info and pix,

Flash Flood Warnings..Please help the people in the burn areas if you have the time....Sanbags need to be taken to them...here is more info. Thank you
Sandbags will be available for homeowners and residents from the City of Santa Barbara's Corporate Annex Yard at 401 E Yanonali Street. The yard will be open until 8 p.m. tonight, and from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. the rest of the week, unless other notice is given

Skating T-Bowls was one hundred times more fun than Santa Barbara's current sk8park and was definately heartbreaking when they blew it up. The only other place in SB that would have been comparable to the T-Bowls is the old sk8park at Golf n' Fun next to the old Bob's Big Boy between Hope and Hitchcock where car dealerships now stand. Someone mentioned flybowls but it was actually called Flyaway by me and my mates and is located in Goleta. I beleive that has been ruined as well after a resurgence in sk8ing.

Flybowl was up off of painted cave road...had a huge boulder in the middle that you had to carve around and if you fell, watch out, the base of the rock was littered with broken glass...gnarly! we used to skate the T-bowls in the early to late 80's...very fun...we used to call the lower bowl the Moon Bowl for all the craters from dynamite and plant erosion. very fun. the Upper bowl we called the concussion bowl...hairy to say the least. We all knew it as the Tea Gardens as well, but for skaters it was always the T-Bowls. When Skating home we'd make our way across mountain drive past cold springs and hot springs and then straight down Picacho Lane and sesh slide all the way down. Fun Days!

What was the "brutal injury" that caused the bowls to be destroyed? I had a friend in college (late 70s) get hurt while climbing the fence, but they weren't going to skateboard.

I think around 20 years ago or so, a kid hit his head skating up there, and was in a coma for a few days... Long time ago so I could be wrong about dates and such.

Mesamike is correct. A close homeboy's best friend bit it bad and hit his head. I think it was 1989 or 1990. He was in the hospital for a few days. My girlfriend at the time and I visited him in the hospital. He had mild amnesia but recovered his memory after a few weeks. I was not aware that his parents threatened to sue.

I'm not sure who had the accident that caused the bowls to be dynamited the first time...

The Flybowl was fun, but nothing compared to T Bowls!