Club History

In 1941, the site that is now MacKenzie Park was part of Hoff General Hospital Complex, where eventually some 8,000 soldiers and sailors returning from the war in the Pacific were treated. The massive water storage tank behind our clubhouse, empty now and converted to store City documents, is part of that construction.

The area was converted into a park in the 1950s, and MacKenzie Park Lawn Bowls Club was founded on October 6, 1965, by a group from the downtown Santa Barbara Lawn Bowls Club. Play began on the following January 6th on its Adams Green, named after Catherine Adams, Chair of SB Parks & Recreation, whose support was crucial.

The Club was immediately successful, and it soon became apparent that we needed a second green. $37,000 ($340,000 in 2026 dollars) was raised to build this green in 1969. It was (and still is) named Joslyn in honor of Marcellus L. Joslyn, an enthusiastic supporter of lawn bowling, and major contributor.

The Club was using the old pump house, from when the water tank was in use, as a clubhouse. But in the early 1990s the massive effort to renovate the pump house to make it a proper clubhouse began. Renovation was deemed impractical, so the pump house was razed and the construction of our beautiful clubhouse began in 1992. It took nearly 10 years and $244,000 ($3.8 million in 2026 dollars), 59% raised by club members, and the rest paid by the City.

By 2000, with the opening of the new clubhouse, MacKenzie Park LBC looked much as it does today, with the clubhouse, Adams and Joslyn greens, outbuildings for lockers, equipment storage, and a lanai for picnics. It remains one of the most picturesque lawn bowling clubs in the country.