Linden Avenue: Defiantly Unchanged

You can’t visit Carpinteria without strolling down Linden Avenue. For a century, it’s thrived as the beach town’s main drag, a straight shot from the 101 to the sand, lined with bars and cafés, unique boutiques, ethnic eats, and a park. Whereas Santa Barbara’s State Street never experiences a lull of international visitors, this route through Carpinteria’s downtown core offers calmer, lower-key charms.

“It’s all walkable,” said David W. Griggs, who, as director of the Carpinteria Valley Museum of History for three decades, knows Carp better than most residents (even if he actually lives in Noleta). “You always run into someone you know. [It’s amazing] being 1.5 hours away from L.A. and a world away.” And unlike neighboring Montecito, “it’s less gentrified,” Griggs explained. “Carpinteria is real.”

Carpinteria’s original Old Town ran north of the highway along Santa Monica Creek, which was a year-round source of fresh water in an area awash in salt marshes. But in the late 1880s, the railroad bed was raised along the salt marsh, and Southern Pacific built its depot at the foot of Linden Avenue. “That switched the center of town,” said Griggs. “That’s where the mail came. Linden was one of the first paved roads of the county.”