National Register of Historic Places in Santa Barbara County

National Register #87001170: Janssens-Orella-Birk Building in Santa Barbara
  National Register #87001170: Janssens-Orella-Birk Building in Santa Barbara
  National Register #87001170: Janssens-Orella-Birk Building in Santa Barbara
13 March 2017
(Click Photos to Zoom)
National Register #87001170
Janssens-Orella-Birk Building
1029-1031 State Street
Santa Barbara
Built 1927

Edwards, Plunkett & Howell - a prolific architectural firm which organized the day after the catastrophic 1925 earthquake in Santa Barbara - designed this building in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style. It opened as the Copper Coffee Pot in 1927.

In 1932, Edwards, Plunkett & Howell designed an addition.

In 1946, a remodel compromised the architectural integrity of the building.

In 1987, the exterior was restored to its original exterior.

For almost sixty years, the Janssens-Orella-Birk Building was a center of social activity for Santa Barbara's literati and local celebrities.

This site has been occupied since the 1850s when Augustin Janssens built an adobe here. The adobe was the Orella family home until the construrion of the Copper Coffee Pot restaurant. Birk was the last owner and operator of the restaurant.

Hence the Janssens-Orella-Birk building.

Source: Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1987.

The interpretive marker reads:

Janssens-Orella Adobe House Site

An adobe house was built here in 1857 where Don Agustin Janssens, a Belgian, and his wife, Maria Antonia Pico, lived into the 1870s. Janssens, a frequent office holder in the region, had arrived in California in 1834. Don Bruno F. Orella, a native of Viscaya, Spain, and his wife, Mercedes Gonzalez, of a land grant Presidio family, bought it in 1872. Long the family home, it was owned by his descendents into the 1950s. The Orellas also owned ranch lands along the Refugio Coast.

In 1927 Manning's Copper Coffee Pot restaurant was constructed here, leaving only one adobe wall. The building is a city landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Placed by Orella descendents
July 1990

When we photographed the building in March of 2017, it was vacant.

Historic Adobe Buildings

Alvarado Adobe in Monterey
Alvarado Adobe in San Pablo
Anza House in San Juan Bautista
Boronda Adobe in Salinas
Branciforte Adobe in Santa Cruz

Caledonia Adobe in San Miguel
Casa Amesti in Monterey
Casa Covarrubias in Santa Barbara
Casa de la Guerra in Santa Barbara
Casa de la Torre in Monterey

Casa del Oro in Monterey
Castro Adobe near Watsonville
Castro Adobe Site in El Cerrito
Castro House in San Juan Bautista
Chew Kee Store in Fiddletown

Cooper-Molera Adobe in Monterey
Dallidet Adobe in San Luis Obispo
Dana Adobe in Nipomo
Don Fernando Pacheco Adobe in Concord
Don Salvio Pacheco Adobe in Concord

El Adobe de los Robles Near Lemoore
Estrella Adobe Church in Paso Robles
Fremont Adobe in Monterey
French Consulate in Monterey
General Sherman's Quarters in Monterey

Groveland Hotel in Groveland
Gutiérrez Adobe in Monterey
Hastings Adobe near Collinsville

Hill-Carrillo Adobe in Santa Barbara
House of Four Winds in Monterey
Ide Adobe in Red Bluff
Janssens-Orella Adobe House Site in Santa Barbara
Juarez Adobe in Napa

Kottinger Adobe Barn in Pleasanton
Larkin House in Monterey
Latter Day Saints Chuch in Moab, Utah
Leese-Fitch Adobe in Sonoma
Locke Adobe Barn in Lockeford
Martinez Adobe in Martinez

Merritt Adobe in Monterey
Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma
Mountain View Adobe in Mountain View
Moraga Adobe in Orinda
Nash Adobe in Sonoma

Old Adobe Barn in La Grange
Oreña Adobe in Santa Barbara
Peña Adobe near Vacaville
Petaluma Adobe near Petaluma
Plaza Hall in San Juan Bautista

Plaza Hotel in San Juan Bautista
Rancho Los Alamos in Santa Barbara
Ray Adobe in Sonoma
Reading Adobe Site near Cottonwood
Roberto-Suñol Adobe in San Jose
Robert Louis Stevenson House in Monterey

Shafer House in Moab, Utah
Sobranes Adobe in Monterey
Sonoma Barracks in Sonoma
Stokes Adobe in Monterey
Stone and Kelsey Adobe Site in Kelseyville
Sugg House in Sonora
Sun Sub Wo Co. in Coulterville

Sutter's Fort Adobe in Sacramento
Swift Adobe Site near Orland
Swiss Hotel in Sonoma
The Fort in Taft
Trussell-Winchester Adobe in Santa Barbara

Vallejo Adobe in Sonoma
Vásquez House in Monterey

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