From Lemon Orchards to One of Santa Barbara’s Most Enduring Neighborhood Centers
By SantaBarbaraLocal.com | History Series
If you’ve lived in Santa Barbara for any length of time, chances are you’ve shopped at Loreto Plaza, met friends at Harry’s Plaza Café, browsed the shelves at Chaucer’s Books, or picked up groceries before heading home. Today, the plaza is simply part of the rhythm of everyday life along Upper State Street.
Yet few people realize that beneath the parking lot, storefronts, and sidewalks once stretched rows of fragrant lemon trees. Even fewer know the remarkable story of the immigrant family whose vision transformed two citrus ranches into one of Santa Barbara’s longest-held family-owned commercial centers.
The story of Loreto Plaza is not simply about real estate. It is a story of immigration, agriculture, military service, civic leadership, family stewardship, and Santa Barbara’s transformation from a town surrounded by orchards into the vibrant city we know today.
An Italian Beginning
The story begins thousands of miles from California.
Emil DeLoreto was born in Narni, Italy, at the close of the nineteenth century. Dissatisfied with opportunities available in his homeland, he immigrated to the United States in 1908, joining millions of Europeans seeking a better future in America.
Like many immigrants of his era, Emil began with modest work. He became a butcher in Connecticut, building a livelihood through determination and hard work. Those who knew the family’s history later recalled that he possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and continually searched for opportunities beyond the meat business.
While Connecticut became home for several decades, California was beginning to capture the imagination of people across the country. The state’s expanding agricultural industry, mild climate, and growing communities presented opportunities unavailable in the Northeast.
Westward to Santa Barbara
In 1947, Emil made a decision that would shape Santa Barbara’s landscape for generations.
He moved his family from Connecticut to Santa Barbara and purchased two lemon ranches along Upper State Street. At the time, this area looked vastly different than it does today.
Instead of shopping centers and busy intersections, the neighborhood consisted largely of:
- citrus orchards
- ranch land
- scattered homes
- open countryside
Upper State Street was still on the edge of town. Santa Barbara’s postwar expansion had not yet reached the area.
Like many newcomers after World War II, Emil recognized something others were beginning to see: Santa Barbara was growing.
The Orchard Years
For several years, the DeLoreto family became lemon growers.
The orchards produced fruit while simultaneously representing something else—a long-term investment in land.
The late 1940s and early 1950s were years of tremendous change throughout California. Returning veterans were purchasing homes. New neighborhoods expanded outward from established downtown districts. Automobile ownership exploded, creating demand for neighborhood shopping centers rather than relying exclusively on downtown commercial districts.
The DeLoretos watched these changes unfold around them.
Eventually, the highest value of the land was no longer agriculture.
It was community.
A Vision Beyond Agriculture
Around 1955, Emil DeLoreto made another bold decision.
Rather than continuing citrus production, he transformed the former lemon ranches into a neighborhood shopping center that would become known as Loreto Plaza.
Unlike many commercial developments that changed ownership repeatedly over the decades, Loreto Plaza remained a family enterprise.
That continuity would become one of its defining characteristics.
While shopping centers throughout California were bought, sold, demolished, and redeveloped, Loreto Plaza maintained remarkably consistent ownership under the DeLoreto family.
A New Generation
Emil’s son, James Meade DeLoreto, became one of Santa Barbara’s most respected civic leaders.
Born in Connecticut in 1916, James interrupted his education during World War II to serve as an Army Air Forces glider pilot—a role widely regarded as one of the most dangerous assignments of the war. Gliders carried troops behind enemy lines without engines, leaving pilots exceptionally vulnerable to enemy fire.
Following the war, James completed his studies at Harvard Law School before joining his family in Santa Barbara in 1947.
He would go on to enjoy an extraordinary career that extended well beyond the family business.
Among his many accomplishments:
- attorney for more than six decades
- President of the Santa Barbara County Bar Association
- Santa Barbara City Council member (1957–1959)
- Italian Vice Consul for Santa Barbara
- supporter of numerous nonprofit organizations
- longtime advocate for the city’s Italian-American community
His public service reflected the same long-term commitment that characterized the family’s stewardship of Loreto Plaza.
Growing with Santa Barbara
As Santa Barbara expanded through the 1950s and 1960s, Upper State Street changed dramatically.
The citrus orchards disappeared.
New residential neighborhoods emerged.
Schools, churches, and businesses followed.
Shopping increasingly shifted away from downtown toward neighborhood commercial centers designed around the automobile.
Loreto Plaza became one of those neighborhood anchors.
Residents no longer needed to drive downtown for everyday necessities.
Instead, Upper State Street became its own destination.
Older Santa Barbara residents still remember when the surrounding area retained traces of its agricultural past. Historical aerial photographs clearly show the orchards that once covered the property before commercial development transformed the landscape. Community members frequently remark how difficult it is to imagine today’s shopping center occupying what was once open citrus country.
More Than a Shopping Center
Over the decades, Loreto Plaza evolved into something larger than retail space.
It became a neighborhood gathering place.
Businesses came and went, but the plaza itself remained remarkably stable.
Generations of Santa Barbara families developed their own memories there.
Some remember shopping at TG&Y.
Others remember Grand Prix slot-car racing.
Many remember specialty stores that have long since disappeared.
Community discussions recalling businesses such as The Pacific Company, Glenda’s Party Cove, and other longtime tenants illustrate how deeply the plaza became woven into local life.
These businesses may have changed, but the plaza continued serving the community through every era.
Harry’s Plaza Café
No discussion of Loreto Plaza would be complete without Harry’s.
Since opening in 1968, Harry’s Plaza Café has become one of Santa Barbara’s most recognizable restaurants.
Known for generous portions, classic cocktails, red leather booths, and walls filled with historic photographs, Harry’s has become an institution in its own right.
Its Ranchero Room alone contains more than 1,500 historic photographs documenting Santa Barbara’s past, making the restaurant itself something of an informal local history museum. Countless celebrations, business lunches, reunions, and neighborhood gatherings have taken place within its walls.
For many residents, Harry’s is inseparable from Loreto Plaza itself.
Chaucer’s Books
Another beloved institution arrived in Loreto Plaza with Chaucer’s Books.
Over the decades it has become one of California’s premier independent bookstores.
Authors, readers, students, and lifelong Santa Barbara residents have made Chaucer’s a cultural landmark, demonstrating that neighborhood shopping centers can become centers of community life as much as commerce.
Its continued success mirrors the longevity of the plaza itself.
Family Stewardship Continues
The DeLoreto family’s involvement did not end with Emil or James.
James “Jim” DeLoreto Jr., born in Santa Barbara in 1951, eventually joined the family commercial property business after a career in banking.
He oversaw the major renovation of Loreto Plaza completed in 2009, ensuring the center remained attractive and competitive while preserving its longstanding role within the community.
That renovation reflected a philosophy that had guided the property for more than half a century:
adapt rather than abandon.
Supporting the Community
The family’s legacy extends beyond commercial development.
James DeLoreto Sr. became deeply involved in civic organizations throughout Santa Barbara.
Loreto Plaza also became an early and continuing supporter of I Madonnari, the annual Italian street painting festival held at Mission Santa Barbara.
According to family accounts, James’s work as Italian Vice Consul helped introduce him to the European chalk art tradition, eventually helping establish Loreto Plaza as one of the festival’s earliest major sponsors—a relationship that continued for decades.
A Rare Example of Continuity
Perhaps Loreto Plaza’s greatest distinction is something many visitors never notice.
It has remained under the stewardship of the same family for generations.
In an era when shopping centers routinely change ownership through investment firms and national real estate companies, Loreto Plaza represents a rare example of local continuity.
That continuity has likely contributed to its distinctive neighborhood feel.
It was never simply another anonymous commercial center.
It remained part of a family’s long-term investment in Santa Barbara.
Looking Back
Today, little evidence remains of the lemon orchards that once covered this land.
Cars occupy spaces where citrus trees once stood.
Restaurants and bookstores now welcome visitors where farm workers once harvested fruit.
Yet the transformation reflects the broader history of Santa Barbara itself.
Agricultural land became neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods became communities.
Communities created gathering places.
And those gathering places became landmarks.
Loreto Plaza stands today as a reminder that history is often hidden beneath the most familiar places. Every visit to Harry’s, every afternoon browsing Chaucer’s, every stop for groceries or coffee takes place on land whose story stretches back through immigrant ambition, postwar optimism, and decades of family stewardship.
Preserving Local History
As Santa Barbara continues to evolve, places like Loreto Plaza remind us why local history matters.
Buildings change.
Businesses come and go.
Families grow older.
But the stories remain.
The next time you drive into Loreto Plaza, take a moment to imagine the scent of lemon blossoms drifting across the orchards that once filled this landscape. Picture Emil DeLoreto walking the property in 1947, perhaps already envisioning something beyond agriculture. Consider the generations of family members who helped shape both the plaza and the community around it.
History isn’t always found behind museum walls.
Sometimes, it’s waiting in the parking lot of your favorite neighborhood shopping center.
Sources
This article was researched using historical family accounts, published obituaries, local historical references, and community recollections, including records from The Santa Barbara Independent, Noozhawk, community historical discussions, and Santa Barbara historical organizations.
Standard SantaBarbaraLocal.com AI disclosure
Editorial disclosure: This article was researched and drafted with assistance from artificial intelligence. SantaBarbaraLocal.com reviewed, edited, and fact-checked the final text using public records, archival materials, published reporting, and other cited sources. Artificial intelligence was used as a research and writing tool, not as an independent factual source. Final editorial responsibility rests with SantaBarbaraLocal.com.