Courthouse Mural Room Restoration Nearly Complete

The Mural Room in the Santa Barbara County Courthouse got a much needed facelift and will soon be back open to the public.

The $600,000 restoration project is spearheaded by the Santa Barbara Courthouse Legacy Foundation and was funded through community donations.

It’s the history of Santa Barbara starting with the Chumash Indians and then the coming of Cabrillo,” said Bill Mahan, the president of the foundation.

Scaffolding covers most of the artwork but most of the restoration is complete.

In 1929, the plaster walls were covered in canvas and painted by Dan Groesbeck. He spent years as a Hollywood scene artist and added a few things to the painting that even locals might not know about.

“It’s a painting of Peter Pan and he just put that in there. It’s nothing to do with Santa Barbara,” said Mahan with a laugh.

After 86 years and a fire in 2010, the walls needed sprucing up.

Kumiko Hisano with Evergreene Architectural Arts, was a part of the team to clean up the artwork and said it will last for many more years to come.

“I was so honored to be here to start working on this beautiful mural. And the reaction that we get from the people who visit, people who work here. It’s amazing,” she said.

The room will be open to visitors in June.

“It makes me feel really excited because this was the top priority for us after we did our historic structures report to restore the mural room and now it’s going to be done. It’s going to look just like it did back in 1929,” said Mahan.

The restoration took four months and it was no easy task.

“It’s particularly challenging to steward the building because it’s an active, working courthouse, government building. It’s not just a quiet museum,” said Robert Ooley FAIA, the Santa Barbara County Architect.

The Courthouse Legacy Foundation’s next project will be to restore the courthouse archway.