Arlington Hotel Ruins After Santa Barbara Earthquake (1925)

The sheared facade of the Spanish Revival Arlington Hotel showing guest rooms torn open to the elements and piles of structural rubble. — Arlington Hotel Ruins After Santa Barbara Earthquake (1925) · Donald A. Hall Estate Collection

Documenting the seismic devastation of the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake, Donald A. Hall Sr. photographed the sheared wing of the historic Arlington Hotel. The collapse occurred when a rooftop water tank crashed vertically through five floors of guest rooms, leaving a mountain of masonry and broken timbers at the base of the Spanish tile roof.