Childhood of Hobo at the Santa Barbara estate: a legend that survived time.

In1935, Lillian Bailey Brown, the widow of a millionaire, lived in one of the most impressive villas in Southern California. Her17 acres were situated on a picturesque hill opposite East Beach in Santa Barbara. The Child estate, as the locals called it, had everything. There was a magnificent mansion, beautiful gardens, and breathtaking views of the city, mountains, and the Pacific Ocean. There were also vagrants living here.

"Child's property was near the railway tracks and highway. Just a quarter-mile from her plot was a railway crossing, which was an ideal starting point for any vagabond. The story begins with one of the finest policemen of Santa Barbara chasing three vagabonds along the railway, which was located north of Child's property. It was interesting to learn what crime the vagabonds had just committed, and the policeman's answer surprised her. 'Nothing,' he replied, 'but they might try something.'"

After further investigation, Child found that the homeless workers had not committed any wrongdoing and had no known criminal offenses. Therefore, she insisted that the police allow the wanderers to stay - on her own property - in the grove at the end of the estate. Child allowed them to build their temporary homes on her land with the condition that they would maintain the place in cleanliness and hygiene, refrain from drinking and using drugs, and maintain order. Thus, the wanderers on her estate began their pilgrimage in the mid-1930s. It was during the Great Depression, and these lonely men were mostly elderly gentlemen - over50 years old.

The first visitors to Child built half a dozen huts from scraps found at the city dump. When she saw that the men intended to organize themselves, she laid water and electrical pipes from her garage to the grove. The men found old cans for collecting garbage and dug a large pit for trash. They got brooms to clean up the area and placed them in their homes. Old chairs and sofas, strange doors and windows, cardboard or corrugated iron—all mixed together in the original "shabby-chic" décor of the listless houses among the eucalyptus trees. For a communal kitchen, the men created an open hearth from old bricks and sheets of iron. They also took up gardening. The residents had hot water for newcomers, who had to "sterilize" all their belongings to ensure that no insects came into their new home along with the boxcars.

In the 1940s, a journalist spoke with men about their lives and backgrounds. He found that they were not ignorant, and some were surprisingly educated. Among them were an artist, a chef, a woodworker, a dentist, a doctor, a gardener, a priest, a criminal lawyer, and two professors.

Child's kindness was legendary. She gave gifts at Christmas every year. She noticed the worn-out shoes of one of the men and arranged for him to get a new pair. She often provided them with food and allowed them to come into her kitchen through the back door if they needed to get something from the fridge. One day, she came home to prepare a roasted chicken that she had left on the kitchen table. Surprised that it was gone, she started looking for it when a man's voice came from the window.

In 1955, Santa Barbara police officer Noah "Stormy" Cloud created the "Cavalry" club, a club for teenagers of different races. They led a campaign to build a shelter for the homeless. The building provided sanitary facilities - a toilet, shower, sink, and a small lounge for elderly men on the premises. The "Cavalry" raised money from residents and utilized the help of workers from the construction industry.

In 1946, Child sold her land in the northern section to the neighboring Mar Monte hotel. The drifters now had to move their shacks from that area. But Child did not kick them out. She personally oversaw their relocation to the southern side of her property, where the apartment complex now stands across from the beach volleyball courts. Some shacks were moved along the railroad tracks opposite Dwight Murphy Park. The men spent a day or two dismantling their shacks, loading the parts onto wheelbarrows, and reassembling them at the new location chosen by Child.

Camp Child was managed by Mayor Samuel Kerry. He lived in a building that the vagrants called the "castle" - the former tool shed of gardener Child, overlooking their settlement. Kerry was also the postmaster and a "news transmitter." So on August 28, 1951, he took on the sad duty of waking the gentlemen to inform them of the death of their benefactor and protector, Mrs. Lillian Child.

Throughout her life in Vegamara, Lillian Beale Child organized hundreds of meetings, dinners, and luncheons for the leading citizens of Santa Barbara and wealthy estate owners in Montecito. She also hosted titled European aristocrats, such as Prince and Princess Orsini fromRome, Lord and Lady Tennyson, Marquis de La Coudray, Lady Ribblesdale, Count and Countess de L'Arbre, Duke de Trevise, and the Ruling Lord Shaw of Dunfermline. She also happily welcomed dozens of happy homeless men - drifters.

The Child estate became famous due to various reports and articles published nationally and even internationally. For example, in the "Stars and Stripes," an unofficial army newspaper published in Bavaria. Four years before her death, Child transferred her Vegamar to the Santa Barbara Foundation, which was established to improve the welfare of her community. She expressed a desire for the foundation to determine the best use of the property to serve the interests and needs of Santa Barbara, so that the estate could be used by the community. Along with the deed, there was a condition that Child would retain a lifetime right of ownership for herself and the drifters on her property. Her will allowed the drifters to remain on her land (some of them had been there for twenty years). Approximately 32 men lived there at the time of her death, including Gus Adams, Edward Anderson, Victor Charles Beckman, Ray Bowden, John Craver, Charlie Crow, William Evans, Frank Fay, Jack Gilmore, Harold Homeringer, Alexander Graham, William Oscar Gray, Maylon Harlick, Leon La France, Joe Lowliss, Michael Joseph Mayock, Patrick Mallan, Isaac Peracarp, Archpriest Louis Gustaf Peterson, Carl Rieger, Frank Rogers, Joseph Schutt, and Robert Splann.

Now the question arises: what will happen to the wanderers? What will happen to the estate? The next part: Part III, From the Child Estate to the Santa Barbara Zoo, will be released next week.