Dr. Ida V. Stambach

1509 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA

1891-93 | Residence | Demolished 1956

“Minerva Parker, architect, 14 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, is preparing plans for a house and offices to be erected at Santa Barbara, Cal., for Ida V. Stambauch [sic], M.D. They will be of frame and shingle work, with all modern conveniences.” (July 22, 1891)

“Minerva Parker Nichols, architect, 1616 Mount Vernon Street, is making plans for an addition to the recently built house of Dr. Ida V. Stambauch [sic], of Santa Barbara, Cal. These contemplate an addition of four rooms. The original plans for this house were made by the same architect two years ago.” (April 19, 1893)

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One of several unmarried professional women who commissioned Minerva to design their homes, Dr. Ida V. Stambach likely knew Minerva (or first heard about her) during her years in Philadelphia; she was born in the city in 1853, and inherited her mother’s house there in 1882. Ida attended Hahnemann Hospital Medical College of the Pacific in San Francisco, graduating at the age of 34 when women doctors were still unusual in the United States.

In 1889, she moved to Santa Barbara and started her own practice. Two years later, she commissioned a home from Minerva, despite the distance. She was active in the suffrage movement in California, hosting figures such as Susan B. Anthony, Rev. Anna Shaw, and Carrie Chapman Catt during their travels.

As noted in the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders Guide, Minerva designed an additional to the original house in 1893; Ida commissioned another addition in 1901 (by local builders, not by Minerva). When her sister Carrie died a year later, Ida took in Carrie’s two children. She appears to have moved out sometime between 1914 and 1917.

- Research by Elizabeth Sexton