Being Neighborly

We love living on the Riviera
​ It’s all about the views. However, we don’t have much yard for a garden, and it is always a struggle to get back up the hill after a long bike ride to Carpinteria and Gobenador Canyon loop. 

Our amazing tree trimmer in the top of the tree.

---

Sunset views over the Mesa

Preserving the views can be a challenge. Always with the hopes that your neighbors will cooperate with your request for tree trimming. Thankfully we have such neighbors, no complaints here. We just had the oaks trimmed, and I started to wonder, where  did all these trees came from.

---

The Riviera was not always the coveted place to live as it is today. As little as 200 years ago the land was devoid of any vegetation with only sandstone boulders and sparse grasses dotted the hillside.

George Batchelder

It wasn’t until the Riviera Company purchased the old Hawley Heights tract that everything changed. The chairman and majority stockholder, George A. Batchelder of Atherton, became known in the years to come as “the father of the Riviera.”

---

Batchelder had a nursery in Atherton. One of his first moves on the Riviera was to plant hundreds of oak seedlings from his nursery. These are now grown to old specimen trees, and many who live here believe they were from the old Spanish days.
 
Batchelder also imported Italian stonemasons and hired Joe Dover of Santa Barbara to supervise the quarrying of field stone and the building of the beautiful stone walls, gates and stairsteps that line the Riviera streets and homes today.

Oliver enjoying the views and the rooftop sun.