El Paseo Scrapbooks

This collection consists of six scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings and ephemera about the El Paseo complex of buildings and shops (also known as Streets of Spain), including El Paseo Restaurant (also known as Restaurante del Paseo) and the El Presidio building across the street. Their provenance is unclear and they may have come from different donors. Five of the scrapbooks are of the same type and may have come to the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation when owner Irene Suski Fendon donated the El Paseo complex and Casa de la Guerra to the Trust in 1971.

Some of the scrapbooks were possibly created by Fendon and document the management of the complex, weekly events and personalities, merchants and their advertizing, and Old Spanish Days. The sixth scrapbook is labelled El Paseo Volume II; there is no Volume I. It contains clippings and photographs from the 1950s and is possibly annotated by Pearl Chase. There is also a mimeographed copy of a letter about El Paseo from the Plans and Planting Committee and signed by Pearl Chase that points towards this being created or owned by her.

This collection also contains three oversized folders of restaurant menus created for Fiesta; a small sketch plan of El Paseo and two renderings of a storefront; and brochures and maps of El Paseo.