Let there be skylight at Hall of Records

By CHUCK SCHULTZ

NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The skylight atop the county Hall of Records is 50 feet in diameter
 and has 128 panels separated by copper supports. 
How the skylight has looked the last fifty years, is on the right.

It was covered with tar paper and plywood, 
some of which Jesse Hampton, below, is handling, 
more than 50 years ago.

As workers peeled back layers of tar paper and plywood, the sun shined Friday through an ornate skylight atop the county Hall of Records building that had been darkened for a half-century.

Its coverings were removed for the first time "so we could see what's underneath and how light reflects inside" the 75-year-old building at the north end of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, said county Clerk-Recorder-Assessor Joe Holland.

"It's been very dark in the Hall or Records for many years because it doesn't have windows," he said. "By opening up the skylight, you can now see the remarkable architectural features of the interior."

For instance, a large, triangular mosaic made of colored tiles directly below a towerlike roof had been hidden from view by an inch of dust until the skylight was uncovered. "Because it was so dark, no one knew it existed," Mr. Holland said.

The circular skylight, which is 50 feet in diameter and has 128 panels separated by copper supports, was temporarily covered over again because all its glass is missing. It will be restored over the next six weeks, Mr. Holland said, as part of a $1.8 million to $2 million renovation of the Hall of Records that began early this year and is scheduled for completion in March.

 That work includes a $247,000 geothermal heating system, already finished, and installing an elevator to make the building more accessible. Furnishings are also being restored, and some new ones created, to more closely match the decor of the building when it opened in 1929.

The existence of the skylight was not a surprise, but why it was covered in the 1950s is somewhat of a mystery, Mr. Holland said. "It's said that it leaked years ago, but we don't know that for a fact."

Architects are convinced that won't be a problem now, he said, because better materials are available to seal the glass panes.

Money for the restoration comes from fees the county collects to record documents.

LEN WOOD / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS