McCaffrey Brothers

McCaffrey Brothers was a sporting goods store that had evolved from a family who had established a tradition of serving the needs of the Santa Barbara community. Originally setting up as a liquor store in 1899 which evolved by 1960 to serve the sportsmen's needs with equipment for scuba diving, fishing, and hunting.

The McCaffrey Sporting Goods store was co-owned by H. James McCaffrey and Richard Weston Dowse. McCaffrey and Dowse formed a partnership January 1, 1957 and purchased the the store from Jim McCaffrey's father. "We were basically in the sporting goods business because we did enjoy sports and so forth," said Mr. Dowse. And the sportsmen participated in local and out of the state area hunting and fishing excursions.

"His father (Hugh) and uncle (William) founded the McCaffrey Bros. store here before the turn of the century (1899) after first having established the business in San Luis Obispo. In the early days it was a liquor store, later a combination liquor and sporting goods store and in recent years, a sporting goods store, with Jim and his partner specializing in guns and skin-diving equipment." Santa Barbara News Press, "In Sea Tragedy" June 10, 1960.

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