Ballard is a

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Santa Barbara County, California Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a County (United States), county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, California ...

. Ballard is the smallest and oldest community in the

Santa Ynez Valley The Santa Ynez Valley ( Spanish: ''Valle de Santa Ynez'') is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north. The Santa Ynez River flows through the valley f ...

. The nearest city is Solvang. The population was 768 at the 2020 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined that community as a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP). Ballard was founded in 1880 and has two buildings from that era: the 1883 Ballard School and the Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church, which was erected in 1889.

Geography

Ballard is a small, mostly residential town in the

, which is in the center of

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa M ...

, California. It is one of six towns in the valley, along with Buellton to the west, Los Alamos to the northwest, Los Olivos to the north,

Santa Ynez Santa Ynez ( ; Spanish for "St. Agnes", originally spelled ''Santa Inés'') is an unincorporated community in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. The population was 4,505 at the 2020 census, up from 4,418 a ...

to the southeast, and Solvang to the south. The town is located next to Ballard Canyon. Ballard is accessible by taking Alamo Pintado Road south from Los Olivos, which is located on

California State Route 154 State Route 154 (SR 154) (also known as the Chumash people, Chumash Highway or unofficially as San Marcos Pass Road after the signage) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs from Los Olivos, California, Los Olivos to Santa ...

, or by taking Alamo Pintado north from Solvang, which is located on State Route 246. From Alamo Pintado, Baseline Avenue is used to enter the main part of town. Baseline Avenue is also accessible directly from State Route 154. In 1987, Michelle Grimm and Tom Grimm wrote in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' that Ballard was often visited by "city folks hostop by to enjoy the tranquillity of a small town from bygone times." In 2012, the ''

Santa Barbara Independent The ''Santa Barbara Independent'' is a news, arts, and alternative newspaper published every Thursday in Santa Barbara, California, United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a ...

'' said the town "still has a 19th-century feel." The town's school is Ballard School, which serves grades K-6. It is famous for its one-room schoolhouse, named the "Little Red Schoolhouse". Some of Ballard's most important businesses and community locations include the Ballard Inn

bed & breakfast A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. In addition, a B&B sometimes has the hosts living in the house. ''Bed and breakfast'' is also used to ...

, the Bob's Well Bread bakery, the Loper Chapel used mainly for funeral services, and the Oak Hill Cemetery. The Santa Ynez Valley's climate is useful for

winemaking Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its Ethanol fermentation, fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over ...

. The Ballard Canyon AVA produces

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

wines. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the CDP covers an area of 2.8 square miles (7.2 km²), 99.98% of it land, and 0.02% of it water.

History

Ballard was founded in 1880 at the location of a

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

stage line station, being named by George Lewis after William Ballard, the former proprietor, who ran the station from 1862 to 1870. In 1882 it was believed that Ballard would grow into the central metropolis of

. The first school, Ballard's Little Red School House, was built in 1882 and is still in operation today, being the primary tourist attraction. The

wine-producing region Wines are produced in significant growing regions where vineyards are planted. Wine grapes berries mostly grow between the 30th and the 50th degrees of latitude, in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, typically in regions of Mediterranean ...

around Ballard was featured in the Academy Award-nominated film ''

Sideways ''Sideways'' is a 2004 American comedy-drama directed by Alexander Payne and written by Jim Taylor and Payne. A film adaptation of Rex Pickett's 2004 novel, ''Sideways'' follows two men in their forties, Miles Raymond ( Paul Giamatti), a de ...

''.

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Ballard had a population of 768. The population density was . The racial makeup of Ballard was 75.9%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.0%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.3% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0.3%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 3.6% from other races, and 17.3% from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau ...

of any race were 20.1% of the population. The whole population lived in households. There were 304 households, out of which 25.7% included children under the age of 18, 50.3% were married-couple households, 5.9% were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 30.3% had a female householder with no partner present, and 13.5% had a male householder with no partner present. 30.9% of households were one person, and 18.8% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.53. There were 189

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(62.2% of all households). The age distribution was 15.8% under the age of 18, 5.6% aged 18 to 24, 21.2% aged 25 to 44, 29.6% aged 45 to 64, and 27.9% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 52.4years. For every 100 females, there were 102.6 males. There were 347 housing units at an average density of , of which 304 (87.6%) were occupied. Of these, 68.4% were owner-occupied, and 31.6% were occupied by renters.

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Santa Barbara County, California Santa Ynez Valley Census-designated places in California