Montecito and Chapala streets meet at the Moreton Bay fig tree spreading above you, a few blocks from the ocean. Believed to be the largest Ficus macrophylla in the United States, this tree began as a seedling an Australian seaman presented to a local girl in 1876; she planted it at 201 State Street. When she moved away a year later, her girlfriend Adeline Crabb transplanted the young tree to this site on land then owned by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The tree was officially designated a historic landmark in 1970 and the property was deeded to the City of Santa Barbara in 1976; it has since been placed on the California Register of Big Trees. In July 1997 its circumference, measured at 4.5 feet above the ground, was 41.5 feet, the average crown spread 176 feet, and the total height 80 feet. Today its roots are protected by a chain barrier the size of the canopy, and you can view it from the Amtrak Train Station at 209 State Street.
A chain barrier the size of the canopy circles the roots, tracing the full scale of that vast crown on the ground.