📍 2933 Grand Ave, Los Olivos, CA, 93441
📞 805-325-9320
📍 517 N 8th St, Lompoc, CA, 93436
📞 888-368-4887
Self Storage Facilities and Units, Moving Supplies and Moving Trucks. Risk Free Online Reservations. No CC Required! Free Truck with Move-In.
📍 383 Ave Of The Flags, Buellton, CA, 93427
📞 805-688-8237
📍 334 N E St, Lompoc, CA, 93436
📞 805-688-8237
📍 3200 Skyway Dr, Santa Maria, CA, 93455
📞 805-925-2691
🌐 www.santamariatimes.com
One of the oldest businesses in Santa Maria is its daily newspaper, the Santa Maria Times, in operation since April 22, 1882. The Times of those days was a far cry from the newspaper you see today. It was a small weekly published only on Saturdays. Half of the front page was advertising, there were no headlines as we know them today, and columns were two inches wide. The first owner was H.J. Laughlin, who had as his editor a man named S. Clevenger. The subscription prices were $3.50 a year, $2 for six months, $1 for three months, all in advance. There was a notation that if subscriptions were not paid in advance the cost was $4 a year. Advertising took precedence in those early days with some front pages, such as that on August 22, 1882, having only one column of news, the remainder advertising. In that issue was also a story of a Charles Sigsley who was killed by Apache Indians, one of several throughout the early years of settlers who met their fate in that manner. Until August 1883 the dateline of the paper noted that Santa Maria was the place of publication but also carried the name Central City. On April 4, 1888, the Times became a twice a week paper, coming out on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Apparently the move to twice a week was made too soon, however, as the paper returned to a once a week on April 6, 1889, again coming out on Saturdays. During that time the name was changed to the Santa Maria Semi-Weekly Times. December 1889 gave the first indication of where the paper was located, in what is known as the Jones building. No address is available and no record can be found in early editions as to where the paper was located in the community when it was started. The Times was a local paper completely in the early days of this century, with little national news. As an indication, the death of President McKinley was just a few lines on page 3. On June 17, 1904, the first local picture appeared, the 1904 graduating class of the high school. This photo was the forerunner of several that year, climaxing with a full-color drawing of Santa Claus and his reindeer on the front page Dec. 17. His edition, which was the biggest to date, was 10 pages and carried 102 photographs and pictures. On Nov. 1, 1918, the Santa Maria Times name was changed to the Santa Maria Daily Times and it published six days a week, with C. H. Stater listed as editor and proprietor. The paper became a member of the Associated Press. In September 1921 the Times received a new, $8,000 flat-bed printing press, which would print an eight-page paper at the rate of 3,500 an hour. Comics became a regular feature in 1923, and in 1924 a picture of the sailing ship Santa Maria was added to the masthead. In October 1927 the paper noted that three large cans of milk cost 25 cents, Santa Maria beat Lompoc in a conference football game, and Ben Hur was playing at the theater. Later that year a story reported the arrest of a man for distributing narcotics valued at $6,000. The
📍 423 2nd St, Solvang, CA, 93463
📞 805-688-5522
🌐 www.syvnews.com
The Santa Ynez Valley News has become a community institution after serving its readers and advertisers for nearly 90 years. Our staff members remain dedicated to publishing the best possible community newspapers each week. Owner, editor and publisher Oscar "O.L." Powell introduced the Valley News to the Santa Ynez Valley on Dec. 11, 1925, although it wasn't the Valley's first newspaper. The Santa Ynez Argus, published by a Mr. King and a Mr. Merrill, was the Valley's first newspaper in 1895. Others also came and went, including the Santa Ynez Valley Sentinel and the Santa Ynez Valley Press. At first, the Valley News was printed on the Lompoc Record's press. With the help of Marcus Nielsen, the Feb. 19, 1926, issue was the first printed in Solvang. The Babcock drum cylinder press was six times faster than the previous "Diamond" model. In Nov. 1927, Walter L. Hanson and his wife, Mella, bought the Valley News. Hanson had owned newspapers in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, his home state, before coming to the Valley. Powell, the newspaper's first owner, was killed in Los Angeles by a streetcar in February 1943, two weeks after his 47th birthday. In an article published on Oct. 25, 1973, his widow Della M. Powell recalled the early days of the newspaper. Della Powell, 75 at the time, continued to ride motorcycles and fly aerobatic planes in Lancaster. The Hansons worked 16- to 18-hour days in production of the Valley News. Mella served as chief bookkeeper, Linotype operator and news writer. At the time, Solvang was said to be the smallest town in the country with a Model 14 Linotype. In early November 1945, the Hansons sold the newspaper to a pair of Army veterans returning home from the South Pacific theater. Richard Kintzel and Karl R. Jorgensen were both graduates of Santa Ynez Valley Union High School. The Hansons retired to their ranch "just north of town." Jorgensen had worked as an apprentice in the Valley News print shop as a youth. Kintzel, a Kansas native, had moved to the Valley in 1929. In 1958, Jorgensen bought Kintzel's share of the Valley News, and Kintzel went on to become Solvang's fourth postmaster in 1965. He served as postmaster until his retirement in 1977. He died in June 1982 at 67 years old. On Jan. 24, 1947, Kintzel and Jorgensen named King Merrill the newspaper's first news editor. Merrill served as editor for nearly 30 years, until his resignation in May 1974, and then returned in the early 1980s. With Merrill as editor, the Valley News won a number of honors, including a 1973 California Newspaper Publishers Association first place award for general excellence for weeklies under 3,500 circulation. Dana Merrill, King's son, said his father was a "born newspaper man." King's father, grandfather and great-grandfather were also in the newspaper business. King and wife Elenita, the daughter of Samuel de la Cuesta and one of the founding members of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau, met at a Solvang Veterans Memo