History
The Covarrubias Adobe stands at 715 Santa Barbara Street near the historic plaza of downtown Santa Barbara, on a site closely associated with the political life of the late Mexican period. The house was built in the 1810s or 1820s by Domingo Carrillo, a member of one of the prominent Californio families of Santa Barbara, and later passed into the hands of the Covarrubias family, from which it takes its modern name. Jose Maria Covarrubias served as a delegate to the 1849 California Constitutional Convention, and the adobe is associated with his residence in Santa Barbara in the years before and after statehood.
The building is a one-story vernacular adobe with thick lime-plastered walls, a low-pitched tile-clad roof, hand-hewn ceiling timbers, and a linear interior plan opening onto a sheltered verandah. The exterior detailing and roof form follow the regional Santa Barbara adobe type, distinct from the two-story Monterey Colonial idiom of the central coast. The building was documented in the 20th century by the Historic American Buildings Survey, and measured drawings and photographs in the Library of Congress collection record its form and detailing.
The Covarrubias Adobe is one of the small group of original adobe residences that survived the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake substantially intact, and it has been incorporated into the city's broader preservation framework as part of the local landscape of Spanish and Mexican-era buildings around De la Guerra Plaza. The adjoining Historic Adobe building shares the site, and the two structures are typically interpreted together.
The Covarrubias Adobe remains under stewardship by the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and is occasionally accessible for events and programming. Within California's adobe tradition, the building represents the urban Hispanic residence as it developed in Santa Barbara, complementing the Casa de la Guerra and other surviving plaza-area adobes in documenting the civic life of the city during the closing decades of Mexican rule.
Common questions
What is the Covarrubias Adobe?
The Covarrubias Adobe is a historic adobe building in Santa Barbara, California, documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) at the Library of Congress. The HABS record includes architectural photography of its exterior, interior fireplace, doorway details, and a fountain in the interior patio.
When was the Covarrubias Adobe built?
No precise construction year for the Covarrubias Adobe is preserved in the available HABS documentation. The building was photographed for HABS by Henry F. Withey in November 1934, confirming the structure was already established by that date.
Where is the Covarrubias Adobe located?
The Covarrubias Adobe is located at 715 Santa Barbara Street in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, California.
Is the Covarrubias Adobe open to the public?
No, the Covarrubias Adobe is listed as a private residence and is not open for tours. Photographic documentation of the building is publicly accessible through the Historic American Buildings Survey collection at the Library of Congress.
