The Reception
Casa de la Guerra by Henry Lenny
CASA DE LA GUERRA
This adobe residence was constructed between 1818 and 1828 by José de la Guerra, the fifth comandante of the Presidio. His home was the social, political, and cultural center of Santa Barbara during the Mexican period. José’s children and grandchildren occupied the building until 1943, when the Casa was fully incorporated into the El Paseo complex.
THE GRANDEST WEDDING
On January 24, 1836 Alfred Robinson, a Boston native and American seaman/commercial agent, married the daughter of José de la Guerra, Ana María. The reception was held at the Casa de la Guerra, the grand residence of the pueblo’s grandest citizen. Richard Henry Dana, chronicled the wedding in his best selling book: Two Years Before the Mast. Dana and other crewmembers attended, as did literally the entire town, to be wined and dined, to enjoy the music of violins and guitars, to dance.
Moonlight, circa 1924 (Casa de la Guerra in Spanish Times) – Alexander F. Harmer
“After supper, the waltzing began ... Don Juan with a sister of the bride ... no one else taking the floor. They were repeatedly and loudly applauded, the old men and women jumping out of their seats in admiration and the young waving their hats and handkerchiefs.”