San ROQUE, in northwestern Santa Barbara, is a leafy, well-established part of town where development began in the 1920s and '30s and was largely completed during the building boom of the '50s and '60s.
The neighborhood is named for St. Roque, from 14th century France, who is variously described as the patron of surgeons and bachelors, dogs and diseased cattle.
The area has three parks -- Stevens, Willowglen and the half-acre San Roque -- good schools are nearby and it's within a short drive of a post office, banks and several shopping malls, many developed in response to San Roque's rapid growth.
The commercial and cultural facilities of Santa Barbara also are within easy reach, making San Roque a convenient and idyllic spot in which to live. But it wasn't always so.
History
San Roque 150 years ago was the headquarters of gang leader Jack Powers, one of California's most notorious bandits and gamblers. Powers established a base here, squatting illegally on private land, and for years resisted all efforts to evict him.
Powers and his henchmen controlled Santa Barbara with "a virtual reign of terror" in the early 1850s, on one occasion scaring off a 200-strong posse of local citizens, according to historian Walter A. Tompkins.
A century later, much more law-abiding folk were setting up homes in San Roque as part of the postwar housing boom, and today the neighborhood has an eclectic mix of architectural styles -- Spanish and American Colonial, English Tudor, French and Italian.
Market report
San Roque offers mainly small, ranch-style, single-family homes, said agent Scott Williams, a 30-year Santa Barbara real estate veteran. Others were custom built 70 or 80 years ago with design flourishes including oak floors, barrel ceilings and bay windows.
The area also has some larger and more gracious homes, many lining Canon Drive, Calle Fresno and Carrizo Drive, plus pockets of older condominiums and clusters of apartments, most notably on San Remo Drive.
The median price in San Roque is $1,195,000, just a fraction higher than the median for the whole of Santa Barbara, and there are currently about 30 homes on the market, said Williams, who works at Prudential California Realty.
Two-bedroom homes are typically priced in the high $700,000s, although one requiring a lot of work is available at $699,000. Three-bedroom, two-bathroom houses fetch between $1 million and $1.2 million, while larger homes range from $1.5 million to $3 million. Eighteen condos are for sale, mostly between $540,000 and $969,000.
