Jarrell Jackman: Santa Barbara Presidio Hosts More ‘Mudslinging’ and a World-Class Exhibition
Restoration project builds to groundbreaking display of early ceramics and their homemade importance to Spanish California
Then-Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum, center, celebrates progress on the Presidio Northwest Corner Project with Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation board, staff, supporters and other guests in 2008. (Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation photo)
The reconstructed adobe defense wall of the Presidio northwest corner. This 165-foot section represents about 10 percent of the original defense wall the Spanish built in the 1780s. (Jarrell Jackman photo)
Presidio northwest corner foundation work, circa 2008. The foundation was being completely rebuilt with no concrete used except in the mortar and the standing pylon that provides the building with seismic protection. In the presidio’s early years, boulders were carted in wagons to the site from the bea
I’ve also tried to explain the unique situation of the SBTHP drawing from both public and private sources. Through an operating agreement with the California State Parks Department, for instance, SBTHP was allowed to keep rental income from El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park to operate and develop the park.
This public-private partnership also enabled SBTHP to receive funds from a special joint powers agreement with the City of Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara County set up by civic leader and conservation and preservation pioneer Pearl Chase. Although the county dropped out after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the city continued to earmark money for the presidio in its annual budget, not to mention grants that were to come from the city’s since disbanded Redevelopment Agency.
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Lacking the modern equipment available today, the effort required a tremendous amount of paid physical labor and planning, as the construction had to take place seasonally adobe bricks could not be left out in the rain, as they would have melted to mud.
Over the course of describing the reconstruction of the fort, in several installments, I hope to convey to the reader just what it takes to make and lay the bricks and gather the other materials required for fenestration and the roof structure.
The task was formidable, and Goicoechea was able to carry it out effectively with a cooperative labor force that included a mix of soldiers and local Chumash Indians. I came across only one hostile incident in the records, when a soldier disobeyed a Goicoechea order, was pulled down from a wall, arrested and sentenced to jail time.
In this installment on El Real Presidio de Santa Bárbara, I try to encapsulate four decades of Presidio history in our community (1782-1820).
The Spanish period can be extended to five decades if the period when Alta California was first established in 1769 is included. The Spanish crisscrossed Santa Barbara during this time, and first developed El Camino Real through the region.
From some I have heard over the years that too much emphasis has been placed on this “sliver” of Santa Barbara history manifested in the Spanish colonial architecture that became a signature of the town after the 1925 earthquake, not to mention the annual Old Spanish Days celebration.