The Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara celebrated its 150th anniversary on Wednesday.
Organizers with the theatre organized a private birthday celebration event.
The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the recently restored Lobero Golden Eagle statue.
The statue was part of the Lobero Theatre's grand opening in 1873.
Organizers shared the history of the statue saying, The Lobero Golden Eagle was a patriotic symbol on Cornelius Vanderblit’s Yankee Blade ship in 1853, surviving the 1854 shipwreck, and a few months later was found at the Lobero Theatre where it presided over thousands of shows for the next 40 years.
In 1929, theatre officials say the eagle was sold at an auction and no one knew where it was for over 30 years. In 1960 the eagle was found atop the gateway to a local ranch and in 1961 was donated to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.
This year, the eagle statue returned to the Lobero Theatre in time for the theatre’s 150th anniversary, which also experienced a lengthy restoration.
