Betsy J. Green

Courthouse Mural Artist

Dateline: July 1924
This 9-by-12-foot mural was the largest in Santa Barbara in 1924, and it took three weeks and hundreds of working hours to paint it. Artist Dan Sayre Groesbeck painted the mural depicting Cabrillo landing on one of the Channel Islands for a bank on State Street.

The colorful mural would be on display in the bank, assuming that it was possible to get the mural inside the bank. "The ingenuity of the bank officials will be taxed to get it through the door, Mr. Groesbeck prophesied."

[Spoiler alert – In 1929, Groesbeck painted the even more spectacular murals in the mural room at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. His 1924 mural is now in the courthouse in a hallway near the mural room.]