The 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival courthouse where staff from the Public Defender's Office documented flying objects and unexplained tripping — and where a psychic in 2005 identified three named spirits still at work
1100 Anacapa St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The courthouse grounds and sunken gardens are publicly accessible. Docent-led interior tours are available at no charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Urban campus with paved paths; sunken garden and main floor are accessible. Upper tower levels require stairs.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1929 · National Historic Landmark · Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture · 1925 Earthquake Reconstruction · Pearl Chase Legacy
An earthquake on June 29, 1925, leveled much of Santa Barbara's commercial district. The reconstruction that followed was shaped largely by civic activist Pearl Chase, who organized a coalition of property owners and civic leaders to rebuild the downtown in a unified Spanish Colonial aesthetic rather than allow piecemeal modernization. The county courthouse was among the major public buildings constructed in this period.
The building was completed in 1929 and occupies a full city block on Anacapa Street. Its architect — working in close coordination with the community's design standards — produced an elaborate Spanish Colonial Revival complex with an open sunken garden at its center, a prominent clock tower, and interior rooms finished with hand-painted murals, wrought iron, and glazed tile. The Mural Room on the second floor is decorated with scenes from Santa Barbara's Spanish and Mexican history.
The site itself carries history older than the 1929 building. Ramon Lopez, convicted of the 1890 murder of his pregnant partner, was hanged at the courthouse location on January 26, 1891 — the last public execution in Santa Barbara. The execution occurred at the arch that now forms the boundary between the service entrance and the end of the building, in the same location that the present structure would later occupy.
The courthouse was designated a National Historic Landmark and continues to function as an active county court complex. Free docent-led tours have been offered by the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Docent Council for decades.
Sources
The documented paranormal history of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse is unusually specific. The Public Defender's Office, located in the building's upper floors, was the source of a series of staff reports that courthouse docent Peggy Hayes gathered and preserved around 2005. Those reports described books falling from shelves or moving side to side; a stapler that flew through the air with no proximate cause; unexplained eyes observed in doorways; people being inexplicably tripped near the elevator. Hayes also reported witnessing a large section of original floor tile in the main hallway buckle and raise in 1987, an event that county Public Works could not explain.
In the early 2010s, Noozhawk reported on a psychic engagement in which three named entities were identified. The first was Pearl Chase — the civic leader most responsible for shaping Santa Barbara's Spanish Colonial reconstruction after the 1925 earthquake, and whose influence on the courthouse building's commission was direct. The psychic described her as a proper, protective presence who approved of the Docent Council's work. The second was Judge Patrick McMahon, a recently deceased silver-haired jurist described as wholly committed to the law. The third was Mildred Pinheiro, founder of Casa Serena, a safe house for women; she was detected in the Mural Room, still oriented toward justice.
The courthouse's deeper history includes the 1891 hanging of Ramon Lopez at the building's current location — the last public execution in Santa Barbara County. That event predates the 1929 construction by nearly four decades. Tour operators in the city include the courthouse among their recognized paranormal sites.
Notable Entities
The courthouse is open to the public during business hours. Free docent-led tours cover the Mural Room, the clock tower, and the building's Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. The Public Defender's Office on the upper floors is where documented staff reports of anomalous activity originated.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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