The Orena Adobe

The Orena Adobe features a thick, white-plastered exterior and a terracotta tile roof that set it apart from the surrounding modern storefronts. Gaspar Orena, a Spanish sheep rancher, acquired this structure in the eighteen seventies and transformed it into the heart of his family’s affairs. While many adobes in downtown Santa Barbara vanished during urban expansion, this one survived because the Orena family held onto the property for generations, keeping the original thick-walled construction intact long after the town changed around them.