Though the city of Carpinteria’s population in the early 20th century may have been small, its impressive welcome sign was huge. Gracing the western end of town near Santa Claus Lane, the sign, depicting an open history book complete with quill pen, welcomed motorists and visitors with a lesson about Spanish missionaries from the annals of Carpinteria’s past.
The sign read: “You are now entering Carpinteria. Carpinteria was so named in 1769 because in its early days a carpenter shop existed on the site, the custom of giving expressive names being common with the people of Spanish extraction.”
Like most billboards, the adjacent page of the “book” featured an all-American ad for United States “Royal Cord” Tires. The sign, according to the Carpinteria Valley Museum of History, was dismantled in the mid-1940s.
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