Schott Residence

An elderly woman with glasses and short hair, dressed in a dark dress with a pearl necklace, sitting on a director's chair, holding a book or magazine, positioned near a window with a vase of flowers in the background. 
Mrs. Alice Schott, courtesy of the Presidio Research Center.

ALICE SCHOTT: PRESERVING THE ARTS IN SANTA BARBARA 

​In the late 1930s, the arts in Santa Barbara were in rough shape. Santa Barbara had hosted a school for the arts, but the death of its director and the financial strains of the Great Depression led to the school’s closure in 1932. In 1939, the school buildings were about to be torn down, when a woman named Alice Schott came to the rescue. Peace activist Frederick Libby was looking for a place to speak in town, and Alice declared, “There should be a place where people can say what they think.” 

​Alice poured her time and her money into restoring the school complex, particularly the theatre, which she renamed after her daughters. She later donated the restored complex to the Santa Barbara School District, and it became part of El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park in 1982.  

SOURCES

​Beck, Isabel. History of the Alhecama Theatre, copy in the Presidio Research Center.