Santa Barbara
City in California. Gourgen Yanikian, an Armenian Genocide survivor lived in Santa Barbara in his old age, when he lured two diplomats to a cottage at Santa Barbara’s exclusive Biltmore Hotel, promising gifts of art treasures for their government. Instead, he pulled a pistol from a hollowed out book and shot them. He then called the reception desk, announced he had killed “two evils,” and sat calmly on the patio awaiting arrest.
Armenian Sites
Haig Patigian did the exterior sculptures of the demolished Richfield Tower in Los Angeles, which was donated to UC Santa Barbara.
The central figures of the Tympanum (Navigation, Aviation, Postal Service and Industry) over the main entry were donated by the Atlantic Richfield Company to the UC Santa Barbara Art & Design Museum, negotiated by Professor David Gebhard, noted UCSB architectural historian. He published a small volume on the building before demolition, which is richly illustrated: The Richfield Building 1928-1968. Atlantic Richfield Co., Santa Barbara, 1970. After languishing in university storage for well over a decade, they were mounted outside the UCSB Student Health Center in 1982, where three of the four remain today (34°24'56.47" N 119°51'08.39" W). The fourth figure was incomplete and remains in storage.
Armenians from Santa Barbara
These are Armenians who were born or who have lived in Santa Barbara: