RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Welcome to Santa Rita ...

Santa Rita is located in Santa Barbara County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Santa Rita, you might consider that their post office opened in 1909.

Santa Rita is 280 feet [85 m] above sea level.<2>.

Time Zone: Santa Rita lies in the Pacific Time Zone (PST/PDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Santa Rita: 805 & 820<3>

Communities Also Named Santa Rita ...

While we believe that this Santa Rita is located in Santa Barbara County, we know of another 2 California communities named Santa Rita. Those communities are located in the following counties: Alameda and Monterey County.

Beyond California, there are 8 communities that are also named Santa Rita - they are located in Arizona, Montana, New Mexico (2) and Texas (2).

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Santa Rita.

Communities near Santa Rita ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Santa Rita.

  • Lompoc
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Lompoc is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 42,253 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lompoc <4>
  • Solvang
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Solvang is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solvang
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,556 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Solvang <4>
  • Buellton
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Lompoc Village
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Lompoc Village is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc Village
  • Vandenberg Village
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Vandenberg Village is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vandenberg Village
  • Los Alamos
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Lompoc Landing ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Lompoc Landing is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lompoc Landing
  • Casmalia
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Orcutt
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Ballard
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Santa Rita. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Santa Rita.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Santa Rita. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Santa Rita.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Santa Rita. See our Newspapers Page for Santa Rita.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Santa Rita ...

Looking for more information about Santa Rita? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Santa Rita, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Santa Rita.

Adding Santa Rita to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Santa Rita in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Santa Rita was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<5>

From that list, the Santa Rita post office opened in 1909. The Santa Rita post office closed in 1914.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Santa Rita.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of California's counties, including Santa Barbara, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Santa Rita - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 805 code has been Overlayed with the 820 area code. New phone numbers in the Santa Rita area will be assigned with one of these codes: 805 or 820. As a result, placing a call in the Santa Rita area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/