Top Restoration Projects

Presidio Chapel/Bell Tower: Has to receive top rating as rebuilding the town’s first church was a profound moment (1985), and then thanks to an assertive SBTHP restoration committee chair James Mills the bell tower was added in 2001. One of the most complete projects as it included decoration and furnishing of the interior designed by the noted Spanish colonial art historian Dr. Norman Neuerburg (more on him in exhibition section).

Restoration of Casa de la Guerra: This was a major ongoing project on the 1820s adobe that began in the 1990s and was completed around 2005.  The detail that went into this project was phenomenal, made possible by a thorough archaeological investigation of the entire building—walls, floors, ceilings, roof, porch area. What the visitor sees today at the Casa is what visitors would have experienced in the 1820s to 1850s.  Without question it is the most accurate restoration ever undertaken of a Hispanic Period adobe in California.

Presidio NE Corner Reconstruction: Archaeology began in earnest in the mid-1980s, and construction began in the 1990s completed in 1998.  Nine rooms counting the second  floor of the two story tower; at least 30,000 adobe bricks made and laid. In this project we used beams cut down in the Los Padres National Forest—with permission from the National Forest Service. This was a time and materials project: we raised funds as we went—never had to stop the project due to lack of funds.  SBTHP was hitting its stride. It is important to realize this, and Casa de la Guerra project were going on at the same time. Workers moved back and forth between sites.

Presidio NW Corner Reconstruction: This was another important reconstruction project. Archaeology began in 1970s but due to the Great Recession and other hurdles the project was done in fits and starts and finally completed in 2014. Once done, it was an amazing achievement—most exciting to me was the long stretch of defense wall that gives one the sense of the efforts that went into building the fort because this section of over 150 feet represented only a tenth of the total wall that was originally built.  Four rooms were also constructed during this phase. New Park restrooms were also built. Channel Coast Construction was hired to do this project—they did high quality work, and the project was given a top Green Project Award by the Santa Barbara Contractors Association.

Restoration and Creation of the New Research Center: I am rating this slightly above the comandancia project, because while adobe was the name of the game for SBTHP the new research center was key to the future research and interpretation of the Presidio, although until now it has been underused. The 1920s former artist studio in the Spanish Colonial style is a beautiful two story building with a studio with a large north facing window that serves as the reading room and houses the book collection. Meticulously restored, it provides for storage of books, documents and photographs, and in the basement the parks artifact collection, and has ample office space for the staff. The Center is a great example of the growth of the organization from a small world of big dreams to realizing one of those dreams—a research center unlike any others in California State Parks.

Presidio Comandancia Reconstruction: In 1992 this building was completed with its three rooms. It included building a section of defense wall with a back entrance that was discovered archaeologically.  Also, archaeology uncovered a perfectly preserved section of the aqueduct that was interpreted in this project.  One of the great features of this project was extending the building out into the sidewalk, then narrowing the street to remove parking and save the pedestrian sidewalk; stonework was laid in the street where the original commandant’s bedroom was. The stonework aligned across the street to meet up with the buildings that that were later built on the NE Corner.  A large plate glass window in the wall allowed passersby to look in the building, and those inside to look outside to the buildings across the street.  I loved this feature that had been suggested by architectural historian David Gebhard at one of the City Landmarks Commission meetings.

El Cuartel Conservation: In the 1990s a tremendous amount of conservation work was done on these two presidio rooms.  First measure was to remove the concrete floor with radiant heating that was doing damage to the original walls by allowing moisture to deteriorate the adobe. Wall repair took place matching like materials.  All greenery was removed from the walls.  This is considered the oldest building in Santa Barbara and the State Park system, so its care is especially important.  Still to be done is a seismic retrofit.

Alhecama Renovation/Restoration: A restoration usually means to a particular period, but there were some things left that dated from different periods. What a little treasure this auditorium is.  What was discovered during various work on the artist studios at the site was that all the wood frame buildings, including the theatre were built on solid foundations. There was still work to be done after my time, but it turned out to be something special—the City declared it a City Landmark—well justified especially beautiful was the restored mural depicting a scene with dancing and public watching dressed in period Hispanic dress in a Spanish village setting. The buildings in the mural look like the interior of the Arlington Theatre.

Protection of the Stick Figure on the Santa Inés Fulling Mill: There is a stick figure probably drawn by an Indian on the exterior wall of the fulling mill; a team went in recorded the figure digitally and then took conservation measures to protect it.

Small Ball Project: It may seem strange describing the hardening of the ground surface at Casa de la Guerra as a restoration project, but it brings to mind that so many people always want to plant grass in Santa Barbara landscaping—in itself not a good idea for its overuse of water. From a historical perspective the Casa courtyard had to be dirt to be accurate to the period that the house was being restored to. But high use of the site created a lot of dust. We came up with a petrochemical product that hardened the surface—thus preserving the historical appearance and making it usable for wedding receptions and many other events.  The beautiful oak tree that is today in the courtyard, shouldn’t really be there, but in Santa Barbara one has to choose one’s battles when it comes to tree removal.

Top Tenant Improvement Projects

This category demonstrates that there are many ways to do historic preservation: one of them is having tenants do the work and pay for it. Obviously there had to be rent concessions. Also, technically the new El Paseo owners were not a tenant, but their restoration work was based on agreement that had a similar outcome for SBTHP; as did the restoration of the Santa Inés Mills.

El Paseo Renovation (1990s): This was the mother of all renovations that SBTHP has been involved with.  Built in the 1920s the complex had not undergone any major repair work in over sixty years. In its sale agreement to the new owners represented by Peter Kaufmann, they were required to restore the buildings and site to preservation standards we set. Technically they were not tenants but in our control over the building’s renovation, the relationship was as if we were landlord and they the tenant.  When it was all said and done, more than ten times the amount to be spent under the agreement with SBTHP was expended. This spelled financial problems for the new owners, but the building was restored beautifully. I will site only one of many preservation measures: the flagstone in the courtyards and passageway was taken up and all of the individual pieces were turned upside down and reused.  It was an amazing thing to be part of this effort.  SBTHP had met its fiduciary responsibilities in this project—retaining a historic easement that protects El Paseo into the future.

Santa Barbara Contractors Association Greening of 1920s Studios (2000s): I have described in detail in the text how this project unfolded, with the Association doing all the work with archaeologist Mike Imwalle and me making sure that preservations standards were adhere to.  As far as I have been able to determine these were the first historic buildings “greened” in any of California’s State Parks. Here is a model for other parks to follow as we move into the brave new green world.

Jimmy’s Bar Restored to its Original Configuration (2014): Another splendid case of tenant improvements, tenant Bob Lovejoy was willing to go beyond the call to restore the Bar of Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens to its original appearance with only slight modifications, one of which was installing the original outdoor sign above the mirror over the bar. Bob restored the canopy over the bar, obtained copies of the original chandeliers, put back the full length of the bar, restored the seats and booths. Plus, he provided space on the back wall to interpret Santa Barbara Chinese American history. We couldn’t have done a better job ourselves.

Restoring the Santa Inés Mills: This doesn’t quite fit tenant improvement category but is an example of SBTHP having someone pay and do its preservation work. In this instance Harry and Ellen Knill then owners of the Mills had two SBTHP volunteers engineer and design restoration of the two mills that included repointing all the walls and replacing the ceiling with redwood beams and historic-sized roof tiles. After doing this work SBTHP acquired the mills in 1995, later conveying the property to the State of California for its future development of a State Historic Park.  

Restoration of the Ranchero Room Murals: Located upstairs and connected to the main restaurant of El Paseo, this was the meeting place of some of the finest Western artists of the 1920s era—Ed Borein, Carl Oscar Borg, Will James and others.  The current owners of El Paseo hired the best art conservation company in Santa Barbara and had the room restored in 2009.  Protection of the artwork was part of the SBTHP historic easement over the property, and the owners met their obligation to care for the it.

Anacapa School Improvements: Anacapa School opened a campus on State Property in the 1980s, on the Old City College site.  They relocated to buildings that the State owned on Santa Barbara street that included land that eventually according to the General Plan is to become a parking for the Presidio State Park and borders on the southerly defense wall.  This property contains relocated Hof Heights World War II buildings relocated there from the original site next to Las Positas Street. Here were hundreds of buildings originally serving primarily as a site for soldiers wounded with eye injuries.  Anacapa School is a private school for students from 9th to the 12th grade.  The school upgraded the rooms to meet California Field school standards, and then later they leased the historic Rochin adobe and made improvements to the building to serve as offices of the school. For some these former hospital buildings will have more importance than removing them for parking but having a defense wall there and teaching the next generation about adobe technology is a greater good, in my opinion, fulfilling the vision of the founding and second generation of SBTHP volunteers and leaders. Expect the Flow of History people to come out against removing the buildings. These buildings, relocated once, along with one other smaller Hof Heights building located on Park property near the Playa Azul restaurant, could also be located again somewhere outside the Park.   On the other hand, the school has had its financial struggles and may not survive beyond this decade.  All said, during my time, Anacapa School was a responsible tenant in the park, maintaining their campus in good condition.

Spanish Garden Inn Improvements: Behind the Alhecama Theatre, Spanish Garden inn was built in 2001. I worked with the owners allowing access through State Property during the construction of the hotel. SBTHP allowed the hotel to have access through State Property to a vacated former artist studio, which the hotel renovated as a meeting room, and shared use of it with SBTHP; later the hotel leased the space for an exercise room. The area behind the building had been a dumping ground for one of the artists, and the hotel cleaned this up at its expense.

Playa Azul Conversion of SBCC School Offices to a Restaurant: Playa Azul Restaurant is the longest active tenant in the State Park, their tenure dating to the 1970s, before the property was owned by the State. When in the 1980s SBTHP began serious archaeological investigation of the northeast corner area of the Presidio, Playa Azul was relocated next door to a site that had previously been used as school offices with the latest tenant, Antioch University having relocated to a larger space outside the park. The owners of the restaurant undertook all the expenses of converting the buildings to a restaurant, including a nice outside seating area, with views of the rebuilt presidio.  SBTHP gave them rent concessions to enable their project to proceed. This was another example of the musical chairs SBTHP engaged in over the years to retain original tenants whenever possible. It helped to minimize the impact on the neighborhood as well as providing income to operate the Park.

West Wall Casa de la Guerra Restoration: Not technically a tenant improvement, this is however example of a neighbor partnership that has the qualities of tenant improvements.  It involved Derrick Westen again, with whom SBTHP had worked to solve the Alhecama Theatre conundrum.  The Westen family owned the property on the westerly side of the Casa de la Guerra, with an alley in between the two buildings. The alley way was an eyesore, with homeless and others dumping and doing other bad things to the site.  Derrick suggested we do a joint proposal with the Redevelopment Agency of Santa Barbara: he would create a new trash enclosure and repave his area; on our property we would restore the area next to the adobe including re-creating the original drainage system of the adobe that had been archaeologically uncovered. The RDA staff liked the idea and funded our portion of the alleyway  Derrick restored his section at his cost.  A win/win for us and the City as an eyesore had been removed. We later proposed that the alleyway that narrowed as it went toward the El Paseo property, be opened as a Street in Mexico similar to the Street in Spain on the eastside of the adobe, and we even designed the pass through idea in a rendering; the narrowness of the passageway was an issue and plus other factors led El Paseo ownership to decline implementing this idea.

Top Archaeological Discoveries

I have to admit that there is nothing more exciting than archaeological discoveries—sometimes they would confirm what the original 18th Century ground plans indicated would be there; sometimes there were just amazing, unexpected finds.  Archaeology dated back to the 1960s, with the early excavations on the chapel site, done with both amateur and professional help. Sometimes the amateur would provide professional help—by which I mean, Richard Whitehead, retired planning director of the County of Santa Barbara, became a Presidio volunteer in the late 1960s and lent his training as an engineer to plot the original foundations on a modern street map. This work of his was a brilliant contribution as since he first did this in the 1970s, just about every excavation confirmed the accuracy of his efforts.  I can’t possible list all of the discoveries but rather will highlight what I consider the best of them.

Chapel Foundations: As mentioned the work on the foundations dated to the 1960s, and then continued up to the time of my arrival in 1981.  By that time most of the footprint of the original foundations had been uncovered, except for the front section of the chapel, whose foundations had been wiped out by a basement that had been part of the Buddhist church that had been built on the site in the 1920s.  Jim Mills, chair of the restoration committee, who had been a fireman in his early career before becoming a pharmacist, cajoled the local fire department to come out with one of its trucks and had the foundations photographed from the top of the firetruck’s ladder. It was one of the great photos capturing the years of stonework that had been exposed. Today of course it would be an easy task to use a drone to capture such an image, but back then that shot was one of the neat moments. Jim Mills also set up a camera across the street from the chapel site and provided motion pictures of the chapel under construction.  In the event, nothing SBTHP could do on the site archaeologically could ever top the team effort that made the reconstruction of the chapel possible.  Kudos to all those who worked on it. It rates number one by far on my list.

NE Corner Tile Floor: This was one of the great 1980s accidental discoveries so to speak. Archaeologist Vance Benté and Dr. Pandora Snethkamp were overseeing an excavation of a UCSB Field School class in a section of the northeast corner of the presidio. At that time there were two existing buildings still on the site near the corner of the lot. As the field school was coming to an end, I asked Vance to dig a trench between the two buildings. He was not too keen on the idea because he felt it wasn’t likely to reveal anything.  Au contraire, the trench at about a foot or so down, revealed an intact tile floor dating from the Spanish period.  We knew then that we might find an archaeological bonanza under these buildings. Got great press, and it gave archaeology a shot in the arm.

Presidio Aqueduct: One of the great unexpected discoveries circa 1987.  The Shalhoob building had been demolished next to the Chapel.  Expectations were low of finding any of the remaining comandancia footprint, but a lower course of the stone foundations remained of each of Comandante Goicoechea’s three rooms. Then as we lowered the backyard to the historic grade, a fully intact section of the presidio aqueduct appeared on an angle ending in the back of the comandancia living room. This led to the speculation that it first came to his quarters than perhaps went underneath his quarters ending somewhere in the plaza, maybe draining out the front gate. Another speculation was that this was a branch off the main aqueduct.  Eventually we tried to trace the aqueduct to Pedregoza Creek (today Mission Creek) following the landform and contacted neighbors but received zero responses.  Restoration committee member Norm Caldwell, a civil engineer, calculated that the aqueduct section uncovered could easily have carried enough water to supply the entire fort.  Longtime SBTHP volunteer Richard Whitehead was still alive then, and I remember his excitement when he saw the aqueduct and how much all of us there enjoyed that moment with him.

Presidio NE Corner Excavation:It is hard to put this below the aqueduct discovery, but part of the reason is some of it had already been uncovered when we discovered the intact tile floor; with this excavation we confirmed that the tile floor had been laid down in one of the rooms normally reserved for an enlisted soldier and would have been a dirt floor. We speculated that after an earthquake an officer may have moved into these rooms; it could have been De la Guerra.  Also uncovered during this excavation was the wide foundation that obviously was meant to support a two story tower actually in the location where the Vischer plan had located it. One of the rooms had the complete intact foundation on which we rebuilt the room. As if all of this were not enough, we found a completely intact roof tile that had likely collapsed into one of the rooms during an earthquake. The tile confirmed the size that we had been making for our reconstruction projects.  All of this was nothing short of amazing.

El Cuartel Discovery: I don’t remember right off hand the year this took place, but during the conservation work done on this original presidio adobe one major discovery happened: as archaeologist Mike Imwalle removed the plaster near the roof beams on the interior of one of the rooms, he came across one of the holes filled in that had held the original beams of the room—and the hole was clearly rounded.  This small discovery had a big implication—it meant that all of the roof beams (called vigas) had to be left round and not squared at any of the future reconstruction projects at the presidio. And someday the roof of El Cuartel will be replaced and returned to its original configuration—one hopes at the time when the seismic retrofit takes place.

Defense Wall Discovery: One of the mysteries we had to deal with in advancing the reconstruction of the fort was a gap in the defense wall foundation behind the Cañedo Adobe.  It suddenly ends abruptly.  Was it left unfinished? On the other side of the section of defense wall that would have run through the property not owned by the state, is a section of foundation that should have had been built there.  We came up with a simple idea. The area next to the state park had been backfilled to accommodate parking, and we pulled out blocks where the wall foundation should have continued: and there it was—behind the wall: a stone foundation for the second defense wall that had been built in the 1790s at the time the Chapel was lengthened.  Now that all that has to be done is to convince the owner of the property to convey the small section of property needed to build the wall, not to mention the will of the SBTHP to make it happen.

Cemetery of the Presidio: As I reported in the narrative, the area behind the Padre’s Quarters was subject to flooding, primarily because the accreted soil had built up to raise that area higher than the building that was rebuilt.  With funding help from the Redevelopment Agency of Santa Barbara, we undertook to lower the area behind this Padre’s quarters to the historic grade and improved the drainage that went under the building to the street. This was all done inside the first defense wall.  Next in the 1990s we decided to cut a trench on an angle behind the first defense wall to the second defense wall. This trench unearthed a burial that was exhumed sent to UC Santa Barbara for study and returned to SBTHP once it was determined its physical remains were of European origin. We had come across a cemetery for the presidio. We now know for certain we had burials and a cemetery, besides those buried in the chapel. Someday a plaque needs to be installed calling out by name the people who were buried here, as has been done inside the chapel for those buried in the floor.

Casa de la Guerra Discoveries:  There are way too many to describe them all; they are deserving of a separate publication that will help visitors appreciate what went into this restoration project and just how important archaeology was in creating an accurate restoration.  To give a sampling: I will mention Room 1 and porch discoveries.  Room 1 of Casa de la Guerra is interesting because it contains the only surviving original roof.  This happened when a family dispute led to a lot split with one family member retaining ownership of this one room. Thus, when the roof was replaced all around the adobe circa 1910, this room retained the original rounded vigas or beams.  We had these tested and determined they were white pine from the local mountains, and eventually when we restored the bodega (wine storage room) and other rooms, we used white pine from the local mountains, a fascinating story described in the narrative. Today that room has been restored as a store, similar to the one that existed during the prime interpretive period of the adobe. The porch examination had many unexpected surprises.  The Casa had gone through various renovations over the years: four counting the last one SBTHP engaged in. The porch that existed when we started was from the 1920s and we removed it. Then the discoveries came spilling out, as it were. The porch had on it an old tile floor, which we removed. We learned right away that the porch on all three sides had been extended out a couple of feet in the 1920s—then we discovered bases of the bases of the original columns s for the roof structure. Then after peeling off the chicken-wired plaster, discovered the round holes that held the beams. We had all we needed to design an accurate version of the porch. Plus, we learned that the original porch did not have tile, but a hard-packed adobe mixed with lime. These discoveries were all incorporated into the restoration of the building.

Santa Inés Mission Mils Discoverie: These took place before SBTHP took ownership of the property in 1995 but were important for future interpretation of the site and the mills. Dr. Bob Hoover oversaw an excavation that determined that an acequia system had brought water to the fulling mill and emptied if out of  a drain through the front door, down to Alamo Pintado Creek; Another discovery on the floor was a pile of fuller’s earth that would have been mixed with the wool to help remove the lanolin.  This gave a strong indication that the fulling mill was actually used from the time it was built circa 1820.  Thus, at some point in the future, I hope the mill is completely restored and put into operation. There will be preservationists opposed to this idea, but like everything to do with historical interpretation, there are always countervailing opinions.

SW Corner Foundations of Presidio: Not as exciting as some of the other discoveries, but the Southwest corner excavations had some interesting moments—a well, non-presidio period, was found.  Also, a foundation of a room that was not on any of the original 18th Century ground plans.  This site along with excavations of the Padre’s quarters were not earthshaking in their research results but vital to advancing reconstruction of these sites.

Not mentioned in this section were the many artifacts and potsherds uncovered during the above excavations. These have all been stored on site.

Top Research Projects, Publications

Research got kick-started in the years before I arrived in 1981. Russell Clay Ruiz and Richard Whitehead led this charge—and did amazing work that advanced the presidio project. I tried to continue this research orientation engaging students from UC Santa Barbara plus volunteers who continued research in the tradition of Ruiz and Whitehead. Jerry Hass should also be mentioned as he did title research to help locate the original footprint of the presidio. I emphasize that the following is only a sampling and my sense of the most important publications.

Giorgio Perissinotto and Cathy Rudolph, Documenting Everyday Life in Early Spanish California: The Santa Barbara Presidio Memorias yFacturas, 1779-1810: Published in 1998 it still stands tall in terms of the valuable information it conveyed on the material culture of Spanish Santa Barbara and for that matter of Alta California. Meticulously translated with the help of graduate students from the Spanish Department at UCSB, the bills of lading and requests for items provide a unique perspective of how international trade items, while limited to Spanish ships. still reached faraway Alta California. The book is still available for purchase online and at the Presidio gift shop.

Richard Whitehead, Citadel on the Channel: The Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara, its Founding and Construction, 1768-1798 (published in 1996 by SBTHP and the Arthur Clark Company, and Richard Whitehead, “Alta California’s Four Fortresses,” Southern California Quarterly, Spring 1983 (28 pages). These two publications are of equal importance in the history of the Presidio project. The former’s importance is reflected in its title, the latter in presenting early ground plans of California’s presidios including introducing what are called the Vischer plans of the four presidios dating from 1820. Whitehead found the plans in the Bancroft library and the Santa Barbara plan was extremely important because it established there was a bell tower on the Chapel, and that a two-story observation tower was located on the northeast corner. As a sidelight, up to the discovery of this plan, Whitehead had been resistant to building a bell tower because he felt there was not enough evidence that it existed or that we knew what it looked like. His own research provided conclusive evidence that it had existed.

Jarrell Jackman, Felipe Goicoechea: Santa Barbara Presidio Comandante (1993 Anson Luman Press): At the risk of sounding egotistical, I rate my research on Goicoechea highly because of the topic, more than any personal brilliance.  It represented a new direction of the research: previously most of the research on the presidio had been on its physical attributes—its construction and material culture. My efforts were to humanize the presidio by pointing to the leadership of its longest serving comandante. Also, he was an important but mostly unknown figure in early Santa Barbara history compared to the likes of Don José de la Guerra and Pablo Cota. One of the reviewers of my short biography made my point—that my research should be pursued on other comandantes in Alta California. SBTHP’s La Campana and California Mission Foundation’s Boletín also published some of my other research on Goicoechea.

Marie Duggan’s The Chumash and the Presidio of Santa Barbara: Evolution of a Relationship, 1782-1823: An economic historian, Marie brought a new perspective to presidio history examining account books and noting that the Indians had agency taking advantage of the mission and presidio’s competition for their labor. Several outstanding reviews indicated she was on the right track.  Eventually with her work on the California Missions she received the Norman Neuerburg Award from the California Missions Foundation for her original research and important conclusions regarding the Padres’ economic relations with the Indians.

Michael Hardwick, “Arms and Armament of the Presidios of California,” (2006):  Mike is a longtime volunteer of SBTHP, helped form the Presidio soldiers’ group, served on the board of SBTHP and has done yeoman’s research on the military aspects of the Santa Barbara Presidio.  This unpublished manuscript on arms and armament is extremely valuable for park interpretation as it identifies the weaponry available on the frontier, especially cannon, describes powder magazines, has an excellent glossary and detailed bibliography. He has also published articles on California’s early cannon.  Fort Ross State Historic Park has a section in its buildings devoted to armaments. This is something that could be done at the Santa Barbara presidio, taking advantage of Hardwick’s research.

Plaza de la Guerra Reconsidered: Exhibition and Symposium (published in 2002 by SBTHP): Conceived by SBTHP staffer Patrick O’Dowd, this catalogue contains essays by scholars on the history of plazas.  Some of the best and brightest architects and historians were contributors. Patrick set the gold standard for considering issues that had to be confronted regarding plazas and historical precedents for dealing with them. The plaza is still up for grabs in terms of its highest and best use, but there seems to be a weakening in the need to have cars parking in the plaza, and this publication is currently part of the discussion going on. The exhibition at the casa was a result of research that contributed to this volume.

Russell Skowronik, et al, Rediscovering the Ceramic History of the California Frontier (2015 published in the journal Ceramics in America: I described in detail in the text this project. About as scientific as you can get in its chemical analysis of Early California ceramics.  This publication included the contributions of SBTHP archaeologist Mike Imwalle but included the research of scholars at the Smithsonian.  The practical byproduct of this research was building a kiln and making pottery for the Presidio that ended up in the comandancia and at the store at Casa de la Guerra—not to mention spawning a major exhibition in the rebuilt rooms of the northwest corner of the presidio.

Mardith Schuetz-Miller, Buildings and Builders in Hispanic California, 1769-1850: (1994 published by Southwest Research Center and SBTHP): This compilation and narrative had a special appendix on those who worked on Presidios.  Thoroughness is Mardith’s middle name. A reviewer criticized the low quality of the printing and various other faults with the book, but in terms of information it contained that could be followed up on, it was of significant value to the SBTHP and its desire to learn who actually was involved with building the missions and presidios.

Year 1 Overview: El Camino Real de California Initiative (2013): Professor Emerita at UC Santa Cruz Julianne Burton-Carbajal compiled this information from the symposium we held at El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park in 2012 on the subject of the possibility of El Camino Real de California becoming at World Heritage site similar to El Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. This idea of WHO designation came out of my head, but much of the symposium was put together by Julianne. Unfortunately, the idea, which I passed on to the California Missions Foundation has fizzled. But if anyone wants to revive it, a place to start would be reviewing this document. Only a small number were printed, but a copy should be available in the Santa Barbara Presidio Research Center.

La Campana over time and El Presidio de Santa Bárbara: Birth of a City (1913):There is lots of good history embedded in SBTHP’s quarterly publication La Campana dating back to before my time.  There are many historical articles in the early years written by Russell Ruiz. In fact, it would be good thing to pull out some of those articles and reprint them in current issues.  The Presidio Research Center keeps a record online of all titles of the articles and their authors and an interested researcher in presidio or casa history can consult this list.  The Birth of a City piece, printed and edited by David McLaughlin of Pentacle Press, is a fold out timeline, well-illustrated, beginning with the founding of the Presidio in 1782 and carrying the history of the site to the present. It is the perfect little document for anyone wanting a good introduction and outline of the history of the Presidio and Casa de la Guerra.

El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park General Plan (1988):  This unpublished document is available in the Santa Barbara Research Center and in state archives in Sacramento. It is hardly a slick publication, but it was my bible during my years as CEO of SBTHP.  I followed it as closely as possible and, in my opinion, if it is ever updated, it should contain a statement of renewed commitment to fulfilling as much as possible the original vision of the SBTHP founders out of respect for them and their efforts, but also because it is a great idea still today.

Top Permanent Museum Displays and Room Furnishing

Presidio Chapel Interior: Designed by famed Mission Period art historian Norman Neuerburg, the decoration and furnishing of the Chapel is the highlight of a visit to El Presidio de Santa Barbara.  A re-creation based on Neuerburg’s knowledge and research, it is so well done that of the many possibilities Donald Francis Toomey had for the cover of his book, The Spell of California’s Spanish Colonia Missions (2001), he chose the altar and sanctuary of the Presidio Chapel. It is great to have something from the hand (he painted most of the decorations himself) and the mind of Norman permanently installed at the Presidio. This legendary historian has the highest honor handed out by the California Missions Foundation named after him.

Presidio Cocina:  This kitchen located at the Presidio’s northeast corner was rebuilt in the 1990s and historically served the officers of the fort.  Again, we went to the best: Edna Kimbro, the most knowledgeable person on early Californiakitchens designed the cocina for SBTHP. It contains a kiln and other cooking areas, and utensils of the period purchased in Mexico and other places. Interestingly, the second highest award handed out about the California Missions Foundation is entitled the Edna Kimbro Award. It is one the most popular rooms during living history days at El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park

Gardens in Presidio Backyards: Having the gardens so high on my list may surprise some, but these gardens have been a wonderful surprise addition to the Presidio thanks to the green-thumb of SBTHP archaeologist Mike Imwalle.  There was nothing planned ahead of time regarding these gardens, they just gradually evolved over time. These gardens contain period vegetables and herbs, and are maintained by Mike. Also, Anacapa School students help with the gardening. These gardens have appeared not just at the northeast corner but also in the backyards of the reconstructed soldier quarters of the northwest corner. Mike also went so far also to install a coop at the northeast corner of a species of chickens. Yes, they lay eggs.

Presidio Signage Project: SBTHP received a hundred thousand dollar grant from California State Parks to create and install interpretive ground level panels all around the State Park site.  The signs were welcomed by the City’s Landmark Commission who approved the design of them unanimously. These panels with text and images were in the process of being fabricated and installed when I left in 2016. One of my favorites is at the southwest corner of the Presidio where construction began on the adobe fort in 1784. Unfortunately, the photo of the southwest corner foundation opened during archaeology was not used, but maybe someday it will find its way into a future version of the panel. There are around half a dozen of these panels around the park, and they really do add something to the interpretation of the site.

Videos at the Presidio and Casa de la Guerra Created by Karen Shultz Anderson: I had Karen create these in the 1980s (El Presidio) and 1990s (Casa de Guerra). While when I left, they were out of date after 20 years of educating park and museum visitors, they did the job extremely well for several decades. Karen was not a professional videographer, but she hired help to put the 15-minute show on two slide trays to music and hired two people to dothe voiceovers. My wife’s cousin Louise, a professional voiceover person from Hollywood, did the Casa de la Guerra show gratis.

Memorias and Facturas Exhibition at the Presidio Northeast Corner: Based on the translations of the invoices and requisitions of goods shipped to the Santa Barbara Presidio in the book Giorgio Perissinotto had done with his graduate students. The exhibition created an enlarged version of one of the documents on the wall so the visitor could read all the various foodstuffs, clothing, utensils and the like available to the soldiers and their families.  A chocolate made into a liquid drink was a favorite.  The exhibition had samples of medicines and some objects dug up at the site that matched what had been recorded in the documents. One of the highlights of the exhibition was a large reproduction on the back wall of a Russell Ruiz painting of the Santa Barbara presidio. Electrified ,the painting showed where some of the objects were found at the presidio. You pressed the button by the object that lit up the area where it was found. The State Parks local district office was not entirely happy with the exhibition because it did meet certain access and ADA criteria, but it was very done and when I left was still in place.

Casa de la Guerra’s Visitor Center: It might be a surprise to some that I select this as the best of the exhibits and displays at Casa de la Guerra; to be honest after Patrick O’Dowd left SBTHP some of the energy went away during the phase of furnishing the museum.  Of all the rooms at the casa, I like the visitor center or the room that is the main entrance to museum. One of the first things you see is a column, which is a reproduction to scale of the columns built for the second porch after the collapse of the original porch during the 1850s Fort Tejon earthquake.  Also, there is an excellent model of the Casa based on the period that the building is being interpreted. It also includes some of the cottage industries around the house at that time.  A modern painting by artist/architect Henry Lenny of the Casa as it looked in its early period is on the back wall. Photos of later restorations also are in the room; in the next room the De la Guerra family is interpreted in panels and photos. When visitors leave these rooms, they have a sense of the importance of the house in Santa Barbara history and its many iterations over the course of its 200-year history.

Casa de la Guerra Store and the Bodega: Both of these rooms are in the northwest wing of the adobe.  Each represents a different way to interpret a museum room. The store is well furnished with objects on shelves that were for sale; it also included a countertop where items could be purchased. It includes some ceramics that were made in the Presidio kiln.  It is well done, with the problem that the street entrance for security reasons can’t be opened.  It diminishes the impact of the museum by not using its historic entrance; nevertheless, it has a nice feel to it. Things are not actually sold in the store, it is a museum, but it might be worth actually selling things and opening the historic entrance to the street. This would require a salesperson/museum attendant. It would help bring the adobe to life. Regarding the bodega, it is an example of an understated and barely furnished room. Yet is impressive with its complex open-beamed ceiling covered with tied-down reeds.  One of rebuilt counter tops and one of the originals hold wine barrels.  Architecturally it is by far the most interesting room in the house

Casa Sala: this living room has been faithfully restored with a copy of Don José’s portrait, a religious altar niche, some period chairs and some samples on one of chair rails of the various layers of paint used over the course of a century or so.  I don’t rate this room too highly: I think again because on a daily basis the beautiful double door entrance to the porch is kept closed for security and conservation reasons.  I believe just opening the door, even it not allowing for entrance through it, would enhance this room as a museum experience.

Don José’s Office in Casa de la Guerra: This room next to the sala has been re-created using the Mexican collection of art and artifacts of Charles Storke.  He put together this collection while living and conducting business in Mexico for twenty years.  The room also allows SBTHP to acknowledge Charles for his major contributions to the Casa restoration. Eventually the room maybe redone, with an interpretation of how this room was connected to the two-story tower attached to the building that no longer exists. For now, let us keep celebrating a man I much admired—Charles Storke.

Top Changing Exhibitions

Ceramics Rediscovered: Science Reshapes our Understanding of Hispanic Life in California (2009-14): This exhibition was the mother of all museum shows at the Presidio. It is described in detail in the text, but its brilliance lay in that the progenitors of the exhibit who included Smithsonian academics, a potter Ruben Reyes and SBTHP’s Michael Imwalle not only taught us the meaning of Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis but also its importance in researching early California material culture. It was a World Class Exhibit that through its excellent panels of text and artwork that included efforts to educate children and adults set the standard as the only World-Class exhibition SBTHP has produced to date.

Plaza de la Guerra Considered Exhibition (2001): This exhibition had some of the qualities of the Ceramics exhibition: it was an excellent museum show, but it also included a symposium with scholars and a first-rate publication that was paid for with funds from the Redevelopment Agency of Santa Barbara. The publication contained images of past, present, and possible future ideas for re-designing the Plaza.  A section in the volume entitled “Site History of Plaza de la Guerra,” reproduced many of the exhibition’s photos of the site dating back to the early part of the 20th Century. The brainchild of Patrick O’Dowd, this exhibition had particular relevance as it tried to guide the community toward rethinking the plaza that made it more than a parking lot with some grass in the center.

Nihonmachi Revisited Exhibit in Presidio Chapel (1991): This comes in surprising high on my list because it was like a transformation of the Chapel back to the time when the Japanese Buddhist Church stood on this site. What was particularly extraordinary were panels that traced the Japanese American experience from 1900 through the period of World War II when members of the community were relocated to internment camps.  The story is compelling, and the wood movable panels were works of art.  Kimonos and other Japanese articles were on display in the sanctuary of the chapel.  The displays were only up for a week but over two thousand people came through the presidio on one weekend to see the exhibition and enjoy the entertainment of Taiko drumming and Japanese dance.

Bouchard Exhibit (1999):  This exhibit had qualities I liked—it corrected a historical misnomer and had an international flavor.  The historical misnomer was that Hippolyte Bouchard was a pirate who invaded the coast of California with his crew and two ships. In fact, he was a revolutionary who started his career under Napoleon came to the New World eventually joining in the political insurgency against Spain in Argentina. With a letter of marque from the Argentine government he sailed around the world and terrorized California in 1818. Curator O’Dowd with his longstanding interest in things French traced Bouchard’s roots to Southern France. He also connected the exhibit with the Argentine government and the Argentine Consul General in Los Angeles had various museum pieces lent from his country including a bust of Bouchard.  O’Dowd also borrowed a mural of the Bouchard raid of California from the Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

Catalan Sardana Exhibit (circa 1995): The Sardana is an ancient dance dating to prehistoric times that is performed to this day all over Catalonia. It was to be performed at the 1996 Atlantic Olympics in a way that connected those games to the preceding Olympics in Barcelona in 1992. A traveling exhibit that originated in Barcelona including photos, artworks and other reproductions was offered to SBTHP thanks to Carmen Farreras, a Catalan then living in Santa Barbara.  This event had an international flavor that included a reception with a Catalan club from Southern California performing the Sardana in one of rooms of the Casa de la Guerra, where the exhibit was mounted.

Local Artists’ Paintings of Santa Inés Mission Mills and Surrounding Acreage (circa 1996): This exhibition idea came out of the head of yours truly. Michele and I had local landscape painter Ray Strong over for dinner and I thought it might be a good way to kick off the recent SBTHP purchase of the historic Santa Inés Mission Mills having local landscape artists paint the mills. It would call attention to the mills, and we would raise some money for the project by selling their artwork. A good idea that I learned afterwards was a violation of museum ethics: museums were discouraged from selling artwork and competing with private galleries.  Well, we only did it once, and Ray had a painting in the show, as did many others. The variety of styles and where the artists treated the site as subject matter was really quite extraordinary.  The artists appreciated our doing it, but after that we abided by museum ethics and avoided shows where artwork was sold.

Vanishing Landscapes: Homeland (2005): This exhibition had a homespun quality introducing children to art using an immersion approach of actually having them create art that eventually was displayed in the Casa de la Guerra.  It also taught them to think about their homeland and the importance of preserving it. I liked the local flavor of this exhibition that encouraged the children to become budding artists.

Forged in Iron: The Expressive Art of the Roof Cross Tradition in Chiapas, Mexico (2007): This show again connected the Casa to Mexico, and its traditions. I thought this was a particularly appropriate show at the Casa because it connected with the religiosity of the De la Guerras.  I describe the show in more detail in the text, but it definitely was one of my top ten changing exhibits.

Fridolin Haass Watercolors of Santa Barbara Adobes This could qualify as a permanent exhibit as between shows at the Casa de la Guerra, these paintings were re-installed during my time. But they have an interesting history which should be recognized—plus, they are very nice paintings. In the early 1950’s, community leader Pearl Chase commissioned Haass to paint the city's historic adobe buildings. Haass’ paintings were donated by Mrs. Chase to the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. This direct connection is noteworthy since Pearl is SBHTHP’s founding mother.

Casasola Archives—The Mexican Revolution and Beyond: in 2011 this exhibition at the Casa de la Guerra intrigued me. Photographer Agustín Victor Casasola captured the daily lives of Mexican people and the decade-long civil war in Mexico that took place between 1910 and 1920.  These black and white images capture this time of violence but also show the Mexican people pursuing their daily lives in a time of political upheaval.  Sometimes it is important to remember that the construction of Casa de la Guerra s began at the end of the Spanish period, but its heyday was when the adobe was a part of the Mexican Republic from 1820 to the time of the American annexation of the California in 1848.  This exhibition reminded us of that Mexican continuity

Top Ten Real Estate Transactions

There were a number of real estate transactions that took place before I arrived, mostly through the good works of Jeremy Hass. I only mention two of those, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least acknowledge the hard work that went into buying these properties in cooperation with the state. By the time I arrived in 1981 nearly half of the Presidio footprint had been acquired—a powerful achievement that had been done quietly with willing sellers. Through the early efforts of SBTHP board members, especially Pearl Chase, had purchased El Cuartel, an original presidio building and donated it to the state; this enticed the Parks Department to create El Presidio State Historic Park, the smallest state park in the State.  Yes, a lot of real estate creativity took place before I checked in.

Acquisition of Chapel site (1966 Trust acquisition): This has to be one of the most important moments in SBTHP history, when in 1976 the State acquired the site of the first church and the birthplace of the city in 1782. Impossible to top this acquisition that culminated in reconstruction of the church that was dedicated on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 13, 1985. Between 1966 and 1975 the State also acquired parcels on Canon Perdido Street and Santa Barbara Street completing purchase of land containing the Presidio footprint and surrounding the chapel parcel.

Sale of El Paseo (1989): this was a beautiful example of teamwork: board members put together a one-page deal that gave us cash and exchanged properties that gave us the parking lot that had on it the site of the former front gate of the presidio. It ended up with 100-plus page final agreement that took a year and three months to close escrow. Staff was vital in getting membership to support the sale, and I did my best going toe-to-toe with Peter Kaufman, who represented the new owners of El Paseo. Without question it was the financial turning point in the history of SBTHP. Suddenly we had millions of dollars in our bank account and never looked back, as they say.

Sale of Front Gate Parking Lot to State (2006): After the Chapel site, I consider this one of the most important areas to reconstruct. The easement the former owner retained makes this a real challenge, but the State owns it and has options in the future to make it happen. At the moment the BTHP leadership has placed this on the backburner, but things can change.

Sale of SBCC Adult Education Center to State (1982): SBTHP purchased this Property in 1980 because it had on it a section of the Presidio footprint—plus, it had classrooms, artist studios and the Alhecama theatre.  Bob Cleveland was at the time SBTHP executive director and he pulled off the deal with the State—for a purchase price of two million dollars. The Trust faced a balloon payment that it might not have been able to make, and Cleveland deserves credit for his efforts. He soon resigned after this. Also, board member Helen Pedotti needs to be recognized for helping make the down payment enabling SBTHP to purchase the property initially.

Acquisition of Santa Ines Mission Mills (1995): SBTHP was thriving in the 1990s and I and some of the board members felt it was time to take up Harry and Ellen Knill’s offer to sell us the Mills.  The transaction was easy enough, with the idea of eventually selling it to the state to create a state historic park.  One of the problems was access, but the State finally agreed to purchase the property in 2008. In turn, SBTHP agreed to continue managing the property, which it does to this day.

Purchase of Petersen Property Adjoining the Santa Inés Mills (2011):  Prior to our purchase of this property, Aaron Petersen had approached me with an idea to develop spec houses on his adjoining property, but he needed permission to access his property through ours.  In addition, the deal would give the park better access and he would pay us a six figure amount for allowing him this access. It was a controversial deal that got through the board on a narrow vote, but a bad economy made the project infeasible, and he sold his land to SBTHP.  SBTHP thus ended up owning this adjoining property but also now possessed an improved access for the future park. All’s well that ends well.

Purchase of Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens (2007): This was a case on the surface that looked like we were biting off more than we could chew. Sale price was almost three million dollars, but we made the leap.  We were on the verge of the Great Recession that soon followed this risky move on our part. Through foundation loans we stayed the course and eventually were rescued by some key donations and state purchase of another presidio property. When the state finally programmed some money to purchase Jimmy’s they only could come up with 1.5 million dollars—half of what we paid for it.  I came up with the idea that we do a lot split and sell the State half of the property that included the restaurant. At first Park staff resisted the idea, but it eventually happened, and the state purchased half the property in 2014. We survived and thrived, but it was touch and go for awhile.

Sale of Jimmy’s to State (2014): I am going to brag a bit on this one. I took a team of SBHTHP people to Sacramento, including former Jimmy’s owner Tommy Chung, to pitch purchase of the property to parks Director Ruth Coleman and her staff.

Acquisition of Rochin Adobe (1996): SBTHP exercised a right of refusal on this property that the ever-present Jerry Hass had negotiate; the transaction was a little more complicated than I am describing it, because of family resistance to our purchasing the property but it all work out and the state later came in to buy the property which besides including the historic adobe, also had a large swath of buildings and defense wall on the eastern front of the fort.

Castagnola Lot Acquisition: I tell the story in detail in the test of my getting to know Lino Castagnola in Ashland Oregon and his donating the property to SBTHP and his church in Ashland. We in turn paid the church half the property’s value to have clear title to the property. It all happened very quickly on Lino’s demise in 2003. The state not only purchased the property but returned it and the income from the lot back to SBTHP. This was last major piece of the Presidio in private hands.  It was a total win/win for SBTHP and the Park.

Top Fundraising Successes

Without question SBTHP is a fundraising success story. The uniqueness of its story is the blend of private and public support for the Presidio that accumulated over the years. I am going to keep to my ten best list—knowing that I will be ignoring some of the smaller donors who supported SBTHP. Of these here are two examples: a woman named Jessie Hartman took an interest in the Presidio chapel reconstruction; she was not a woman of means, but came in almost every week and gave me a check for $5 dollars. We decided as the money accumulated to purchase historic period candle holders for the chapel. The second example was Dr. Dorothy O’Brien who over time would donate money in much larger amounts stopping by on many occasions with a check for various different projects. She eventually lost her vision to macular degeneration but continued to come by to contribute until she finally died.  Then there was the case of the sisters in Brentwood who contacted me about contributing to SBTHP. Somehow, they had found out about our mission and expressed an interest in a bequest to us. Charles Storke and I drove down to Brentwood and they treated us to lunch and we left behind materials on SBTHP. Years later after they both had died SBTHP received a significant bequest from them.  Another woman, Josephine Harpham, became a donor and she and I connected through our mutual admiration of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.   Trust me, there were many others like this, and I valued their contributions. In the following I am going to bunch some of the donors in categories to be able to include as many supporters as I can.

State Invests 30 Million Dollars in Presidio and Mills Acquisitions:  Clearly the number one contributor to SBTHP projects are the taxpayers of California. Acquisition funds came from bond acts and other sources. The 30 million dollars is an inflation adjusted estimate, and it might be an underestimate. The money just didn’t show up—SBTHP people had plead their case to the Parks Department to program acquisitions of properties available in the presidio area. There were many trips to Sacramento, one of which I previously described regarding the purchase of Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens.  In recent years State Parks has provided additional funds for maintenance and repair in the State Park, and to create park interpretive signs. Also, important to remember that many of these properties produced substantial income that SBTHP uses to manage, maintain and develop the Park.

Other Government Support for SBTHP Projects: The city of Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency  provided major support through grants to the Casa and Presidio—the last for five hundred thousand to help fund the Alhecama theatre restoration. In addition, SBTHP and the State of California entered into a joint powers agreement in the 1960s with the city and the county of Santa Barbara.  For a number of years, the local governments deposited small amounts of funds to help purchase the land needed for the Presidio reconstruction.  On the federal level, SBTHP received an ISTEA grant of 500,000 dollars to rebuild a section of the Presidio. All told this funding, was over three million dollars.

El Paseo Gift (1971): Every nonprofit would like to have gift like this, especially after it was sold to create a quasi-endowment. Any use of these funds must support the Presidio or Casa de la Guerra/El Paseo per the condition set by the donor Irene Suski Fendon. It has helped with operations of the State Park providing on average several hundred thousand dollars per year.  

Individual Gifts: Following are some of the major gift donors: Charles Storke, Sue and Jim Higman, Pierre and Aileen Claeyssens, Jon and Lillian Lovelace. The major gifts ranged from 250,000 to a million dollars. There were many thousands of dollars of gifts from 100,000 dollars down to 100 dollars. The total value of these gifts is over $5,000,000, more if they are inflation adjusted.

Foundation Grants: These were a major source of funds over the years. Some of them made grants almost annually, others made them consistently if not every year: the over-all amounts ranged between 150,000 to half a million dollars. Among the major supporters were the Santa Barbara Foundation, Ann Jackson Family Foundation, The Hind Foundation, E.L Wiegand Foundation, the Stauffer Foundation, and the California Community Foundation. Several million dollars came in from these sources.

Estate Bequests: Starting with Pearl Chase, SBTHP has received significant bequests—including from Lino Castagnola, Julia Forbes, the Witasek Estate, and Virginia Ridder to name the largest donors.  Over three million dollars came from this source.  I knew all these donors except the Witaseks—this was a gift that Jerry Hass steered to SBTHP, another of his multiple contributions.

Corporate Grants: Most of these came in, in my early years at SBTHP. Board member Bill Luton was helpful securing grants from oil companies. Among these donors were: ARCO, EXXON, BankAmerica Foundation, and Wells Fargo.  Smaller grants came in from local companies.  

Robert Erburu: I single him out because he took a liking to the presidio in part because he traced his family roots to it, being a descendant of a presidio soldier.  As a board member of the Ahmanson Foundation, he steered many grants to us over the years. Plus, he had another foundation board he served on fund several of our projects. He was retired CEO of the Times Mirror Corporation and served as chair of other nonprofit organizations such as the Huntington Library, The J. Paul Getty Trust, and the National Gallery of Art. I thought it was great to have such a well-known figure in the business and art world also make time for the SBTHP.  After his death, his wife Lois continued supporting us, until her death in 2019. She was one of my favorite people.  

California Conservation Corps: It may seem odd to include a state agency under fundraising, but the corps provided invaluable pro bono labor rebuilding the chapel, making almost all the adobe bricks. It is estimated that making, moving and laying an adobe brick cost about ten dollars. Right there we have a donation of 300,000 dollars as there were close to 30,000 bricks needed to rebuild the chapel. That was only a portion of their labor contribution to the project. Later the CCCs helped with archaeology and provided live-in interns who helped with maintenance and repairs.  Trust volunteer Richard Whitehead made the initial contact with the CCCs, and I followed up with the CCC director at the Camarillo Center, Ignacio Piña, who made a long term legacy commitment to the Presidio project.  This was a truly great experience having these young folks on site and contributing their youthful energy to the Presidio project.

In-kind Contributions: I can only mention these contributions and can hardly cover all of them, as they would make a long chapter in themselves.  I remember Santa Barbara Stone hauling dirt and bricks at no cost; I remember Norman Caldwell doing engineering on some of our small projects pro bono; I remember architects like Tony Spann and Don Sharpe donating their services.  I remember my wife, a business consultant, donating hours of her time making sure I followed proper business practices, not to mention doing board and staff planning sessions; I remember the Knills of Bellerophon Books publishing many reports and booklets for free.  Richard Whitehead did so many valuable things for SBTHP including mapping the site. Jerry Hass, one could say, was one of the major fundraisers of SBTHP and never received a penny for these efforts, except for a short stint as acting executive director.  This is a mere sampling—it is impossible to put a dollar amount on it, but it was substantial. Most important to me the in-kind contributions represent the heart and soul of SBTHP that drove it forward—without it, there would not be any rebuilt presidio or restored Casa de la Guerra or a future Santa Inés Mission Mills State Historic Park.

Afterthought: As I look at the foregoing it seems to me that from a funding perspective, it was about a fifty/fifty situation between the various levels of government and the various private sources. Regarding the heart and soul of SBTHP: I thought then, and do still today believe, that my primary duty as CEO was to advance the goals and honor the efforts of the founders. We did pretty well. 

Top Board Members

This is a sensitive category, but I am compelled to include it because I have a particular view of what made a good board member. My number one criterion was loyalty to the cause, i.e. the primary cause being rebuilding the presidio.  I appreciate the need to have good legal and financial advice on any board, but that is a given in my opinion.  I could forgive anything if one stayed loyal to building the Presidio. But several of board members also didn’t believe in the big picture of the presidio and did things that damaged the long range reconstruction of the fort in my opinion. These people I leave off my list but express my thanks to them for helping SBTHP through various legal and financial challenges.  Also, I have a list of top volunteers and some board members will appear on that list but not on the board list. This apparent contradiction actually is related to the fact that their greatest contributions were outside the board.

Pearl Chase: You have to start with Pearl. She was indeed a force of nature.  She put together a founding board of Santa Barbara élites and worked mostly behind the scenes, letting others run the board and in some respects take the glory. She knew how to take advantage of government at the local and state levels. She never took “no” for an answer. SBTHP did a video of her life that captured all the activities and projects she was involved with in Santa Barbara over the decades. 

Dr. Garvan Kuskey and Dr. James G Mills: I call it a dead tie for second with these two gentlemen. Garvan was a dentist and Jim a pharmacist. Both were diehard Presidio fanatics. Garvan joined the board in the Sixties; Jim in 1980. While they were on the board the Presidio had two great advocates who always put the Presidio first. Garvan had pushed ahead to remove the building blocking view of the Chapel; Jim was the force behind building the Chapel bell tower. It was not until later in the 2000s after they had both left the board that I realized how important they had been in keeping the Presidio project front and center.  After that there was no one on the board with their energy and commitment to the Presidio reconstruction, and by the time I left in 2014 the project was about to be downsized by the board.

William Luton:  Bill was one of the early board member carry overs when I arrived in 1981. Bill was a direct descendant of José Francisco Ortega, first comandante of the Santa Barbara presidio and owner of the local TV station KEYT.  One of his longtime announcers Gene Forssell told me that the Presidio was on Bill’s mind all the time, sometimes frustrated but always committed to the presidio reconstruction.  That seems to sum up why I rate Bill so highly as a board member. We remember too that he paid to carry various mortgages SBTHP had on properties it purchased in the Presidio. We remember further Bill donating a Spanish statue of the Virgin and Child in 1987.

Richard Whitehead, Jeremy Hass, and Russell Clay Ruiz:  These are the only three who make both the list of outstanding board members and volunteers. Their presence on the board kept the focus on the presidio—all of them were presidio zealots.  At the same time work they did outside the board was in some ways more important—on that subject see list of outstanding volunteers.

Julia Forbes, Alice Rypins, Heather Bryden, Amelia Acres: These ladies were on the board when I first arrived or were seated shortly after I arrived in 1981. They provided an essential energy needed to get SBTHP back on track after a legal dispute with an employee and an effort to stack the SBTHP board.   These people were all totally committed to the Presidio project and dedicated themselves to improving SBTHP’s image and growing the membership.  Bryden improved the graphics of the SBTHP quarterly La Campana, other members wrote solicitation letters, and planned and manned events such as fundraising wine tastings. Within a year they had tripled SBTHP membership.

Vivian Obern: One of Pearl’s girls—loyalists to Pearl Chase--she was always a staunch supporter of the Presidio project. She was president during the 1980s when there was lots of political tension as we negotiated the General Plan through the city and state and sold El Paseo.  She never wavered in her committed and with husband George were involved with Founding Day ceremonies.  A true Presidio trooper

Charles Storke:  One of my favorite board members who is only down the list because his primary interest was Casa de la Guerra, not the Presidio. We couldn’t have done the Casa restoration without him, but I appreciated that he always treated me with respect, and I happily returned the favor. He knew that as a board member one of his primary responsibilities was to raise money and he pursued fundraising with a passion for the Casa. We traveled together to Washington DC, and I remember he insisted that he pay for his own airplane ticket and cover the cost of his hotel and meals.  If he had something critical to say to me, it was always in private. In public he always was supportive, even making the board one time watch a half-hour TV show I was interviewed on. 

Harold Kirker:  My mentor from UCSB days, he always had good advice for me while he served on the board; when I became frustrated, he would tell me to relax, stay the course, you belong here. He was right and I did hang in there.  I was particularly upset when SBTHP was criticized in the press and sometimes mocked in one of newspapers. Calm down, he would tell me, and I did, and I am glad I did.  

Craig Makela: I have no compunction listing one other board member who stayed a supporter as things started to go south for me after 2013. A presidio descendant, he and wife Cindy set up a significant planned gift for SBTHP for which he did not receive adequate acknowledgment.  He is passing along his Presidio genes to SBTHP through his son Cody who is now on the Board. My hope is that Cody will revive the Presidio restoration and complete the General plan.

Tony Spann:  A local architect who chaired the City of Santa Barbara Historic Landmarks Commission, he joined the board circa 2005.  As a principal of Harrison Design Associates, he lent his services and his company’s to create renderings and concept plans to complete Phase III of the Presidio of the Presidio reconstruction and also did an initial ground plan for redesigning the Old City College site. These plans were never followed through on but that was the Board decision, not his. He also had plans done for the Alhecama theatre, and we worked together to do a series of lectures and publications on classical architecture and Santa Barbara’s various styles of architecture. One of the employees from his firm is now on the board, and I hope he rekindles interest in completing the presidio projects in the Park’s General Plan.

Top Volunteers

This is sensitive territory as well, as hundreds, maybe thousands of people have volunteered over the years, and I saw so many of them in action or saw the results of their efforts. Nevertheless, I venture forth with my top ten, because I believe they were singular in their contributions but representative of the giving of so many others.

Jeremy Hass: I believe that the Presidio project would not be where it is today without him. He was a presidio zealot who participated at all levels of SBTHP—on the board, with the Presidio volunteers, searching property titles, helping secure funds from Sacramento, and being the prime mover behind the El Paseo gift.  Regarding El Paseo, I interviewed Ron Fendon, surviving husband of Irene Suski Fendon, who donated El Paseo. He told he remember many meetings His wife had with Jeremy and praised his persistence. I also interviewed Michael Hass, Jerry’s brother; he explained to me that Jerry was totally committed to SBTHP, obsessed with it.  He was also involved in SBTHP’s acquisition of the Santa Inés Mission Mills and studied the machinery of the fulling mill that he hoped to see someday rebuilt. He was without question a presidio zealot and the rebuilt buildings that stand there today are his legacy.

Richard Whitehead: A close second on the list, he literally put SBTHP on the map, with his plotting of the Presidio over modern streets; he organized research and translators, wrote a history of the Presidio, which SBTHP published and eventually gifted his library to form the collection of the Santa Barbara Presidio Research Center—a true giant in the history of the presidio reconstruction project.  

Russell Antonio Ruiz: His artwork alone would put him in the top echelon of Presidio volunteers. Numerous images looking down on the Presidio re-creating the fort from the 18th Century are spectacular. Also, images of soldiers, Indians and the surrounding Santa Barbara area.  I have the highest regard for his work, and subsequent research has confirmed the accuracy of his drawings and paintings. Added to this he was an active member of the Presidio volunteers. Suffering from muscular dystrophy he was confined to a wheelchair, he was undaunted—his passion for the presidio inspired presidio descendants of which he was one.  I had the good fortune of knowing all three of the men on the top of this list. Great men all of them. Russell’s son, Russell Clay Ruiz has been carrying on his father’s legacy as an active volunteer of SBTHP.

Mike Hardwick:  He gets my nod as next on list. He joined the Presidio volunteers in the late 1960s and is representative of that group. I know he thinks others are being short-changed not being mentioned, but at the same time I am sure appreciates that not everyone can be identified. Mike has stayed with the project for nearly a half a century. His research on military armament is extremely important, and he was a founder of the Presidio soldiers’ group in 1990.

Los Soldados del Presidio: This group brought the Presidio to life. Learning the manual of arms, training in musketry and canon firing, and dressed in accurate uniforms of the period, they have participated on hundreds of events and ceremonies, including the visits of Prince Felipe of Spain.  Among those who participated over the years—key among them were Jim Martinez, Bud Decker, Mark Martinez, Donna Egeberg, Russell Ruiz, his wife Diane, and Mike Hardwick. They became so popular that they have participated in reenactments around California, in Arizona and faraway Washington DC. My hope is that SBTHP will one of these days see the value of creating a next generation of Los Soldados.

George Obern/Elane Griscom: These two for about twenty years between them were editors of SBTHP’s quarterly, La Campana.  George followed Elane in this role. They worked with Kerry Marcu in the office putting together four issues a year, never missing an issue except once when sent out instead my history of presidio comandante Goicoechea.  This kind of loyalty is so typical of the many volunteers I have known over the years.  George also volunteered for other SBTHP activities, especially for the Founding Day ceremonies.   They were so easy to work with and so generous with their time.

Norman Caldwell:  A civil engineer, he served on the SBTHP restoration committee for almost 30 years. He did numerous calculations for our projects over the years, and check on others working for SBTHP. He made us professional in oversite of our projects. Also, one of the easiest, gentle people to work with. His wife was also a volunteer, and I must have spoken to her on the phone fifty times—always a fascinating conversation. In his earlier career he had been Director of Public Works for the County of Santa Barbara. One year a stateside organization voted him the volunteer of the year in the State Park system.

Carmen Farreras: High energy Catalan from Barcelona, she brought the Catalan world to Santa Barbara—a Catalan dance group and an art show were among activities she worked on with me.  But the highlight of her years as a volunteer was her role in the visit of Prince Felipe of Spain to the presidio. She made sure it was not a quick stop but full visit to the Presidio, including a great ceremony in front of the Chapel, one with the presidio statue of King Carlos III, a lunch banquet inside the chapel, and a walking tour through the presidio reconstruction of the northeast corner and a tour of the Casa de la Guerra.  It was quite a day thanks to her.  We also worked on El Camino Real de California as a possible United Nations World Heritage project, but she returned to Barcelona, and she was unable to continue working on the project. All told, however, a SBTHP heroine.

Valerie Yoshimura and Bill Shay: This is one of those rare cases where volunteers were only involved with us for several months, but the impact of their efforts were so profound that they must be recognized among the volunteer greats of SBTHP. I am referring to The Nihonmachi Revisited event they organized in 1991.   I have thoroughly described this event in the text of this volume.  They both through themselves into making this eve happen. Thousands of people showed up to see the event with its live music and dancing, Kendo re-enactment, taiko drumming, museum exhibits in the Chapel. Valerie organized hundreds of people who participated in meetings, brought in photos, constructed museum panels. Plus, she handled publicity, and we received spectacular coverage.  To this day, some 30 years later, I still shake my head in amazement at what they pulled off in a relatively short period of time.

David Bolton: David for years did SBTHP the favor of video-recording events at the Presidio.  The highlight of these efforts was a ten-minute video he did for the 50th Anniversary of the SBTHP. I did the voice over, and his production of it was high quality. David also did a video of the program and ceremony at the Santa Barbara Courthouse where I received a decoration from the King of Spain as a knight of the Order of Isabel la Católica in 2016. He also underwrote travel to photograph the original Santa Barbara Presidio Cannon at the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Top SBTHP Employees

There have many great people who have worked for SBTHP over the years. It's impossible to name them all. Some staff were simply a poor fit for the mission. I have this notion of how one evaluates employees and came up with the following categories:

• Talented, productive, and easy to get along with
• Talented, productive, and not so easy to get along with
• Not talented, nor productive but easy to get along with
• Not talented, nor productive and not so easy to get along with.

Not everyone fits into these categories perfectly—they may have flashes of brilliance, they may slip into fits of pique, just about anything is possible.  Another characteristic that I looked for was loyalty to the Presidio project.  I appreciated loyalty to me, but If the person thought I was not fulfilling our goal to rebuild the presidio, then their loyalty was misplaced. I did have a couple of backstabbings— staffers going to board members behind my back. In one case it was strictly out of ambition. Very sad. Admittedly, I was hardly the perfect boss, but I fortunately had the good advice of my wife, how to avoid potential sexual harassment and bullying.  I tried not to show favoritism. For the most part, I left employees as much latitude to define their jobs as possible. That normally worked well, but there are some who respond better to having defined following it to the tee and following it to the tee.  There are former staffers not on my top ten list who should know that I valued them.  The staff over time grew from three fulltime employees when I started to around fifteen fulltime and part-time staffers.  I tried to keep the lists of this appendix to ten.  In some ways the list demonstrates the different ways that staffers could contribute to advancing the goals of the organization.

Mike Imwalle: I came to call Mike the “Jesuit Genius,” an appellation based on his having attended a Jesuit high school in San Jose.  Mike started working part-time for us contracting with Woodward-Clyde, and eventually became a full time employee in 1998.  Mike was responsible for preparing multiple archaeological reports at the Presidio and Casa de la Guerra, including overseeing excavations. Without his valuable work nothing could have moved forward on SBTHP’s reconstruction and restoration projects. I also involved Mike in the restoration committee, and he became knowledgeable in the construction issues we faced.  An added bonus was his green thumb—creating historic gardens in the backyards of reconstructed presidio rooms.  He brought in chickens as well. Was he easy to get along with? Not all the time. But he still rates in my mind the number one contributor to SBTHP projects by the sheer volume of his productivity.

Patrick O’Dowd: Longtime friend from graduate school at UCSB, he transitioned from the board to the staff in the mid-1990s and was on board about five years.  Did we always get along?  No, but I put aside difference of opinion and emotions, and look at what he produced. Most important, he guided successfully the Casa de la Guerra restoration through SBTHP and the City’s Landmark Commission. He raised money for the project, and then topped it off doing a major symposium and exhibition on De la Guerra Plaza.  He also created a successful exhibit on the privateer Bouchard as well as a major permanent exhibition at the northeast corner of the presidio.  Both of us live under the influence of our fellow mentor at UCSB, Harold Kirker, and I value Patrick’s contributions to SBTHP and his friendship

Phyllis Moore and Kerry Marcu: They both were on staff when I arrived in 1981 and both stayed until the turn of the century, Kerry on board until mid-2000s.  They were definitely loyal to the Presidio.  Phyllis as bookkeeper did it all by hand entry, and did property management; and Kerry ran the office, helped schedule weddings in the Chapel, and produced a copy-ready version of La Campana, four times a year. I hate to say it, but I don’t think I really appreciated them until after they left.  I guess that is not uncommon. I saw them at their best during the El Paseo sale; Phyllis was great with Pastorela, making sure the financial side of payroll and other expenses was handled proficiently. We never had an issue with an audit, or with property management while she was in charge. Phyllis is now deceased, Kerry relocated to north county, she and her husband taking advantage of trading their higher appreciated real estate in Santa Barbara for a better house at lower cost in Santa Barbara. She once said to me that I was a “gentleman” out of the blue and that indicated to me her respect. 

Cathy Rudolph: As I remember, she came as a volunteer than worked the shop in El Cuartel, then moved to the research center that we decided to develop in old double garage attached to a three room small residence at the Cañedo adobe.  The tiny rooms were converted into one large room, and this became her office as she worked with various people on the board to advance the center as an important part of the park. While Cathy was not a trained archivist and librarian, Cathy began as a re-entry as an undergraduate student in history at UC Santa Barbara, going on to finish an M.A. in history.  In some ways I see her as an unsung hero at SBTHP whenever I think about her role in development of the new research center.  As I have mentioned in the chapter on the sale of El Paseo, she played a crucial role in swinging member votes in its favor. In addition, she kept minutes for years of the Restoration committee and kept a daily chronicle of events that have been important documentation of the history of SBTHP>

Karen Shultz Anderson: She came to me early in the 1980s as a student in the M.A. degree program in public history at UCSB. She participated in one of the public history projects that researched the Santa Barbara Presidio area and wrote her thesis on the Mexican Period.  She worked off and on for at least 20 years serving as curator and director of education during several different sessions. As previously mentioned, she developed the fifteen-minute Presidio and Casa introductory slide programs that were eventually converted to CDs. At my prodding she introduced the annual candlelight evening event that took place once a year.  Karen under my category of employees of easy to get along with may have been number one on the list. Everyone on staff she worked with liked her—as did board members, volunteers, and teachers who brought their students to the site. During my last years she left for a time to Europe, then came back and currently has a position at UC Santa Barbara.

Linda Moore Geis: She came to SBTHP in the mid-1980s while she was a doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara, only stayed a couple of years and may surprise some that she is on my list  She is primarily on it because she was enormously talented, and I took advantage of that talent while she worked for us. She was particularly committed to the Christmas play “Una Pastorela,” understanding its value to the interpretive public program at the park. In fact, the script of the play had been recorded by Pablo de la Guerra, and likely had been performed in the chapel in the 19th Century.  Linda took it upon herself one year to attend every performance to make sure that all came off in terms of ticket sales, and make sure the site was opened and closed. She was one of the few employees I did research during and after she left SBTHP, which I encouraged.  In fact, she and her husband Jerry Geis, a fellow historian, did research on the Chumash in the transition period to the missions.  She left to become a full-time Air Force historian and then took at tenured teaching history at Eastern New Mexico University. If she had stayed, she would have made a good Jackman successor. We had a mutual admiration of one another.

Jean Liston and Toni Clark: This is an interesting duo because they did not always get along, but both were valuable employees. Jean came in the early Nineties and stayed r to the first decade of the 21st Century. Jean was the receptionist who greeted visitors to the Presidio. She also was a skilled editor and was in charge of filing. On the latte she did a commendable job, but a document retention study needed to be done after she left.  Toni, came from the supermarket retail business, and brought this acumen to trying to upgrade the shop. Sometimes she would put things out on or near the front desk counter that Jean didn’t like and they would go around about this. But generally, they were both good people and both perspectives of how to present yourself at the museum entrance.  Jean has since died, and Toni has her own business, but I really liked both of these people.  They both brought commitment and professionalism to the position.

Waverly Paitson: SBTHP had trouble finding a successful development director primarily because the position did not pay enough, or we were not willing to pay enough. As they say, you get what you pay for—which didn’t entirely apply to SBTHP especially in the case of Waverly Paitson.  She came in the 1990s to us as former development director of another organization, and she was underpaid.  Nevertheless, she did better than anyone in the position and probably could have succeeded. We got along particularly well—it is important most would agree to get along with the CEO especially when you are trying to raise money. I knew, however, we were on borrowed time because she had a son to support and Santa Barbara is a very expensive place to live for a single mom. She left finally to Washington state, specifically Whidbey Island where she found a career position.  Like Linda, this was one that got away.  She wrote to me later that I was the best nonprofit CEO in Santa Barbara—unnecessary flattery, but I will take it.

Christine Stokes and Amanda Gonzalez: After Kerry left around circa mid-2000s, I decided to try a youth movement in hiring an office manager. It carried risks because it is an important position, and a younger person likely didn’t have a lot of work experience and would likely not stay for his/her career because the pay was not great.  However, my approach worked swimmingly with the first two I hired—first for two years Christine Stokes and then for two years after her—Amanda Gonzalez.  Both were recent UC Santa Barbara graduates.  Christine came in after Kerry gave short notice because she had a new position in north county, where she had already relocated. Problem was I was organizing a California League of Park Associations annual conference and Kerry was the key staffer helping me. Christine was a miracle worker and really saved my bacon on the conference which she helped pull off without a hitch.  It was indicative of her skill set and she was tremendous asset. She was then off to graduate school on the east coast to pursue a degree in museum studies. Today she is executive director of the Coronado Historical Society. Amanda Gonzalez also brought talent to the position of office manager, I especially appreciated her initiative—she was great in organizing our Veterans Day event, but after two years she also was off to graduate school. She wrote me a very nice letter of thanks for valuable experience she had gained at SBTHP.  After she left it became apparent that this wasn’t going to work in the long run. Plus, I made a mistake not hiring a recent graduate for from Westmont College going against my instincts as my previous experience with Westmont students was totally positive.

Eduardo Garcia and Renée Longo: Both of them spent over twenty years working for me. Eduardo was maintenance supervisor, who had the special skill of maintaining our adobe buildings. If I asked him to do something, he would do it. He also worked cooperatively with Renée who managed facilities rentals for over twenty years. I remember having trouble keeping people in that position. The board eventually agreed to let Renée do the job and she built it successfully until she left shortly after I did. She had the misfortune of being the boss’s daughter and in some quarters never gained respect that she deserved. She also covered a lot of events that were not rentals and I think there was only one complaint in 20 years of general praise from renters. In some ways it was a thankless job, keeping late and long hours, especially for wedding receptions. I would check on them on occasion and thanked the Lord we never had any serious incidents. And I thank Renée as well.

This is one category that deserves honorable mentions because they did yeoman service and deserve recognition: Joan Stewart, front desk assistant, a lovely person, artist skills, and was loyal—she was taken out by cancer, and it made me very sad.  Wayne Sherman was excellent as supervisor of Santa Inés Mills property; kept good records, organized with a dry sense of humor.  Jared Brach did membership and public relations and had writing skills—I felt he cared about the projects—it was more than just a job for him. Dennis Baker wrote grants for me. Easy to get along with, always did what I asked, and I admired the way he handled the challenges of his personal life.   

Top Contractors

Kenny Ruiz: he came to SBTHP during reconstruction of the comandancia and he was paid as an independent contractor. After that he was paid hourly, but more or less acted as a contractor going out and seeking subs for various phases of the Presidio northeast corner reconstruction and Casa de la Guerra restoration. He built a team of local Mexican-Americans, and I felt a great deal of camaraderie with him and his team. They were truly hard workers.  We did everything on time and materials while he worked for us.  He was probably being underpaid, but I liked the results, and besides I gave him some latitude to pursue other work, and he in turn set up moving my parents to Santa Barbara with the help of his team. (I paid them by the way.) I felt a personal connection to Kenny and his team over the years.

Joe Handerhan of Channel Coast Construction (CCC): Truth be told, when we shifted our construction projects to Channel Coast Construction, we became more professional, using a bid process.  Did it cost more to do it this way: I never did a cost comparison between CCC and Kenny, but the answer is probably yes. But CCC does high quality work and Joe was easy to work with. He even ate a couple of losses that were really a problem caused by one of my staffers—and I appreciated that.  

Wayne Donaldson:  Wayne is one of the leading restoration architects in California, and we were fortunate to have him involved in various projects—especially the northeast corner project, the Casa de la Guerra restoration, and the Research Center renovation. He knows the preservation business: I remember at a committee meeting, we suggested a certain design for the northeast corner, and Wayne said that’s fine until the first earthquake. He went on to fame as California State Historic Preservation officer and then nationally was appointed Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation by President Barack Obama.  

Tim Aguilar: Tim served on the SBTHP for a number of years, but as far as I am concerned his legacy is as our “adobero.”  With a small team of usually two or three helpers we contracted with him for years to make our adobe bricks on site.  He is a third generation adobe maker in Santa Barbara.  We couldn’t have built the presidio without him.

Mike Arnold: Working quietly behind the scenes, Mike is an appraiser who did all our appraisals for properties we acquired and sold to the state. Never once did the state object to his appraisal—he had a perfect record. Most importantly, he did the appraisal for the sale of El Paseo—he stood tall at the SBTHP membership meeting, successfully responding to queries about his appraisal. Also, the State Attorney General accepted his El Paseo appraisal without any questions. He is a true professional.

Vance Benté: He was the first archaeologist I worked with the SBTHP. My previous experience was with archaeologists working for the City of Alexandria Virginia.  Vance is high energy and we made great progress on archaeology in the 1980s with him as an independent contractor and later working for an environmental company called Woodward and Clyde.

Julianne Burton-Carvajal: Julianne worked with me on the symposium in 2012 held at the Presidio that brought together scholars to discuss and make recommendations regarding the possibility of seeking World Heritage Site for California’s historic highway—El Camino Real. She was thorough in organizing the two-day event, and I was truly impressed the professional way she followed through on all aspects of the symposium, including putting together various materials from the symposium into a publication.  She also helped write the grant that funded the symposium.  

Bill Dewey: Bill is one of Santa Barbara’s best photographers and worked as SBTHP photographer for many years.  His black and white photographs and color slides helped document SBTHP projects and events.  Later he donated most of his photography collection of his SBTHP images to the Presidio Research Center. I found him to be a consummate professional and gentleman.  He kindly donated his services for my ceremony when I was knighted at the County Courthouse in 2016,

Rob Ramirez:  Rob is a property manager who came late during my tenure at SBTHP.  I wished we would have had him years earlier, as he was truly great at managing our rental properties, especially good at increasing rents and reducing expenses. He liked history and that in working with us, he was dealing with historic properties, I think he liked the connection of helping us.

 Bob Sheets:  Bob did a lot of archaeology lab and field work for SBTHP at the Presidio and Casa de la Guerra.  I believe we paid him off and on as a contractor and as an hourly person.  He was one of those people you liked having around—good-natured and witty. Of all of Mike Imwalle’s archaeology sidekicks, he was my favorite.  I was very upset when I heard about his untimely death while I was still working at SBTHP. 

Top State Employees and Some State and City Elected Officials

Don Kinney, Dan Preece, Steve Treanor, Rich Rozzelle:  These four local superintendents oversaw SBTHP operation of El Presidio de Santa Barbara over the course of twenty years or so, from the 1980s on. Each one of them was supportive of SBTHP’s efforts to rebuild the presidio. I made a few mistakes now and then, but they were out of ignorance of park rules and regulations, and they were also tolerant of these. I felt it was important to build a strong relationship because they were delegating authority to a nonprofit and we needed to set a good example.  

Ruth Coleman: She was State Parks director during the administrations of Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over the years SBTHP had reasonably good relations with all the directors, but Ruth was forward thinking recognizing the importance of working with nonprofits and seeking a new approach to park leadership. In some ways, she was ahead of her time, but SBTHP benefited greatly during her tenure, as she supported several important Presidio acquisitions including Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens. I got to know her through the California League of Park Associations, and she actually came one year to Santa Barbara to be our feature speaker at SBTHP’s annual meeting.

William Penn Mott: State Parks director under Governor Reagan, he is legendary for the unprecedented development and growth of the State Park System during his tenure. This included state purchase of parcels in the Presidio area—among them the site of the Presidio Chapel.  After leaving the department, Mott founded the California State Parks Foundation and later became Reagan’s National Parks Director. A personal friend of SBTHP board member and volunteer Sue Higman, Mott gave several talks at SBTHP annual and other meetings. 

Senator Gary Hart and Assemblyman Jack O’Connell: These two together carried the most important piece of legislation ever passed that helped advance the Presidio and SBTHP’s role in advancing it.  Both Democrats, they were our local representatives in 1988 and the Bill was signed by then Republican Governor George Deukmejian. This was another example of the bipartisan the Presidio project garnered in Sacramento. The bill authorized State Parks to sign an operating agreement to manage and develop El Presidio. A key part of the legislation provided that all income (e.g., rental income) generated in the park must stay in the park. This gave SBTHP guaranteed operating funds over the course of many years.  

Robert Lagomarsino: Before he became Santa Barbara’s representative in Congress, Bob served as an assemblyman and senator in Sacramento in the 1970s. He helped supported and help steer numerous acquisitions of properties in the presidio area. He also came many times to speak at ceremonies at the Presidio while serving in Sacramento and Washington.

Wes Chapin: Wes was the Channel Coast District Interpretive Specialist. He generally was supportive of SBRHP, but he did one every important thing: In 2012 he spearheaded The “Interpretation Master Plan of El Presidio de Santa Bárbara state Historic Park, with my staff.  One of the great outcomes of the plan was setting up SBTHP to receive a State Park grant of $100,000 to construct and place interpretive panels all around the park.  This increased neighborhood and visitor knowledge of the history of the Presidio including the later periods of history.  

Moises Solis: One of the unsung heroes of the Presidio project.  Moises worked for decades at Mission la Purísima State Historic Park as its maintenance person. In his spare time, he was a blacksmith and used a forge to make handmade nails, sconces, and locks. All of the foregoing he made for the presidio chapel, as well as for our other projects.  He also constructed the period beehive horno (oven) now behind the padre’s quarters. While I was at SBTHP, he came almost every year to our living history days and brought along a small forge, from which he made nails; the children love taking one home after watching him make them.

Warren Westrup: Warren was Chief of State Park Acquisitions for many years, and I always got the impression he supported our park.  Many acquisitions took place during his time. State acquisition funds were very limited during the 1980s and onward.  Many acquisitions required special legislative appropriations, which were hard to come by. The fact that El Presidio garnered ten million dollars during this time period for acquisitions that included 1.7 million dollars for purchase of the Santa Inés Mission Mills speaks volumes just how support Warren was of our park.

Bob Reese: I guess Bob would be my sleeper pick, and I expect many in the park system today would not know who he is. He worked out of Monterey. Bob’s title was State Park Historian. He used to come down in the 1980s to check on the park, even provided some furnishings for the Padre’s Quarter.  He was always so positive-- by the end of the 1980s he came by and said he remembered when El Presidio had been a “sleepy little park.”  Not anymore, he opined, as he looked around at the activity of adobe-making and construction. I always appreciated that he appreciated the progress we were making.

Hal Conklin and Roger Horton: These gentlemen served on the Santa Barbara City Council at different times. Hal was among the most supportive on the Council as the General plan for El Presidio came before him for review in the 1980s.  Later, I have already mentioned in the text that he steered funds from the Joint Powers Agreement between the City, State and SBTHP to help us with archaeology.  Roger served after the turn of the century, and he set up many meetings for me with the city manager and other staffers to make sure funds from the Redevelopment Agency came our way.  The staff of the City was always cooperative and helpful. Our relationship with the State and the City of Santa Barbara were essential elements of the SBTHP success story.

Top Unique People

This is an interesting category for me in that represents meeting people who had unique personalities that intrigued me and would make great characters in a novel.

Norman Neuerburg: One of the more creative people I knew.  But temperamental he was to say the least.  When I first met him, I soon learned that he was the mastermind behind the creation of the Getty Villa, my favorite museum in California, one of my favorites anywhere, for that matter. I ended up writing a biography of him that is a very personal account of his life comparing it somewhat to my own experiences as a historical re-creationist.  He felt he was unappreciated at the Getty, and he was. He is one of the most brilliant people I met at SBTHP. He showed fits of anger whenever I talked to him about the Getty.  His design of the interior of the Chapel is a stroke of genius, and for years I prevented any changes to it except by the next person on this list, Paul Mills. Paul did like the simple paper artwork of one of the paintings and had it taken down. Paul’s opinion was not based on historical knowledge but personal taste, exactly what Norman felt had happened to some of his proposals at the Getty.

Paul Mills: He was an art historian and retired director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art when he joined the board of SBTHP. He had broad interests and was responsible for bringing a statue of Spanish King Charles III to Santa Barbara where it is ensconced today at the Santa Barbara presidio. He also was responsible for having the Chromatic Gate of Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer placed at the beach of Santa Barbara. Another of his interest was flags—he was the town’s unofficial vexillologist. After his wife died, he came into my office to introduce me to his younger gay lover to make sure I knew that he had returned to the homosexual life of his youth. This is the stuff that fiction is made of and sure enough his son wrote the script and directed a movie about his father. Actor Christopher Plummer played the part of his father and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Jim Mills: Jim had many interests besides the reconstruction of the Santa Barbara presidio. He was avid outdoorsman and served on many environmental boards. His interest in gray whales became a passion and he traveled to Alaska and Baja California to observe and document them. He became one of the leading authorities on the subject. Loquacious and full of enthusiasm, he was unrelated to Paul Mills, but they shared a passion for the presidio. Near the end of his life, he began to suffer from dementia and I saw our lifelong friendship suffer from it, but he will always be one of my great memories of the people who made the Presidio reconstruction happen.

Harry Knill: With his wife Ellen, he owned the publishing company Bellerophon Books, publishing mostly historical children’s coloring books, but also, he printed many materials of SBTHP and became the primary publisher of the books of Norman Neuerburg on the art and architecture of Spanish California.  He loved the Presidio and early California history, bought property that preserved California historical sites such as the Santa Inés Mission mills, which he partially restored and then sold to SBTHP.  During the time I have known him and Ellen, they have moved to probably ten different houses, and moved with them each time his extensive art, artifact, and book collection. Some may see him as eccentric—right up my alley.

Vince Pownall: He was in charge of construction of the Presidio padre’s quarters when I arrived in 1981. My first day on the job he came into my office and saw cut a door through a window base into the reconstructed padre’s quarters leaving a layer of concrete desk everywhere including on my desk.  He would arrive daily in his beat up old truck, wearing his khaki work pants and shirt, puffing on his pipe.  I got the impression he felt I was a “neck-up” guy who didn’t know anything about construction, and he was correct. But I learned about that business, and I learned to respect Vince. Not sure if he ever returned the favor, but he did provide impetus to finishing things and that has its virtue.

Mike Acosta and Mas Shimoda: Crippled with arthritis, Mike would show up almost daily with his crutches to observe the goings on at the Presidio. He was in fact a descendant of a presidio soldier and would come and cook food in our kitchen that the staff and volunteers enjoyed. He frequently would bring into us his nopalitos, his pickled prickly pear cactus which lasted about five minutes as soon as people found out it was there. Then we had Mas Shimoda, our Japanese gardener, who had been taking care of the Presidio and El Paseo for years. He was actually one of the Japanese from the Nihonmachi era of the Presidio and taught Japanese to young students in the Buddhist Church.  Yes, and he used to like to cook for us as well, preparing a Japanese barbecue menu each time.  With Mike and Mas, it was like have living history in our midst—a unique, memorable experience.  

Mika the Artist: Not sure what brought him to SBTHP and the Presidio, but I remember liking him from the beginning, and I engaged to do the flyer for buy-a-chapel-floor- tile program that board member Julia Forbes had initiated.  We used his artwork to raise funds and he even designed the board from which a donor could choose his tile. This was around 1983. From that day forward, he would come by and visit me about every three to six months. He lives in Pasadena.  He was involved in the early days of the Solstice Parade, and I even did an exhibit of his in the Chapel. Can’t remember what it was other than it was controversial in the staid chapel.  There was nary a complaint about it, however.  

Fritzie Seidler: I can’t remember the years she worked for me, but I believe it was the late 1980s. She was special, with a creative energy that turned the presidio museum shop into something special. During her short tenure we had revenue that was never exceeded after she left. She was particularly good in adding new components to our Founding Day activities—She brought in, for example a group to do a ceramic “dung firing.”  To coax a gentleman at the Santa Ynez Chumash reservation to bring his dancers to the presidio, she joined him in a sweat lodge at the reservation. Sure enough for several years the dancers performed at the Presidio.  After she left Santa Barbara, I have followed her career and she has made a creative impact in California and faraway Washington DC. Last time I heard she was back in California.

Sam Salario: Longtime member of SBTHP, he was a bundle of energy and would just show up to lend me his moral support with that stentorian voice of his—he came to Santa Barbara from Houston, Texas and had an energetic quality that carried into his 90s, when he started writing plays that were performed at a theatre in Carpinteria. I told one day we must perform a play of his in the Alhecama Theatre, but he died suddenly and that never happened while I was at SBTHP

Henry Lenny: Henry is a local Santa Barbara architect, born in Guadalajara, Mexico; his father was an American businessman and his mother Mexican.  His is a truly creative mind—especially when it comes to Spanish Colonial architecture. Out of his plans will come some of the most fascinating architectural concepts. In some ways, he is more of an artist---his architectural renderings are phenomenal—my favorite of course is rendering he did of the northwest corner of the Presidio with an angel hovering above.  Sometime in the 1990s we did a trip with Henry and noted architectural historian David Gebhard to Henry’s birthplace, Guadalajara.  From morning to night, we walked the streets of the city looking at some of the finest Spanish Colonial architecture in the New World.  To put it mildly it was an inspirational trip.

Kathryn Masson: On that trip to Guadalajara was Kathryn, and I am going to break my rule of only listing top ten to add her to the list. In my early years at SBTHP we she soon became friends with both Michele and me.  Michele  worked with Kathryn when she was president of the Santa Barbara Junior League. Then she was on the City’s Landmark Commission, then on the board of SBTHP and worked for a time for me in development. Kathryn’s middle name is “fun”; if you like to laugh and have a good time, she is the person to be with. Plus, she has this creative side as well—working with Rizzoli, the New York publisher, she has authored ten books many on regional architecture in California and Virginia, the latter where she now lives.  Two of her books have honored me with their dedication, including the latest—Adobe Houses (2017), for which I wrote the introduction.  We have formed a mutual admiration society.

Top Friends

Anyone who has been a CEO of a nonprofit knows that friendships are hard to come by at the workplace. Board members are your bosses, and you have to be careful with showing favoritism among employees. In real life friendships and family are everything to me. I used to think as I looked back that this was a bad thing about being CEO for so long—the lack of friendships. But then when I thought about it—I did have friends, most of whom have kept in touch with me if they are not deceased. Maybe if I channel those latter may re-connect.  Instead of ranking them, I list them randomly as they come to mind.  Their friendships mean everything to me.

Jennifer Ruffolo, Sam Salario, Linda Geis, Micah the Artist, Mike Hardwick, Rick McKnnie, Randy Widera, Laura Davick, Carolyn Christian, Jim and Sue Higman, Ignacio Felix Cota and his partner Veronica, Carmen Farreras, Kathryn Masson, Waiverly Paitson, Jim and Alicia Mills, Craig and Cindy Makela, Ambassador Javier Vallaure, Julianne Burton Carvajal, Richard Berti, Barbara Harris.

Top Events

Prince’s Visit:  How can you top the Spanish Prince of Asturias Felipe’s visit to the presidio in 1995?  You can’t!  The future King of Spain spent a day with us at the last Spanish fort founded in North America. Everything about the event was perfect: the ceremony, the luncheon in the Chapel, the reception outside by the statue of Felipe’s ancestor, Charles III, where the Prince greeted presidio descendants.  Then in November 2013, the Prince returned to Santa Barbara where we held a reception for him at the Biltmore hotel--just a few short months later, his father abdicated, and he became King Felipe VI. 

Jackman Knighted for His Efforts; Named CSPRA Honorary Ranger 2016: I suppose this will be interpreted as Jackman narcissism but 2016 had two wonderful events: First, in May after receiving official notice on my birthday on December 5th from King Felipe VI that I had be designated a knight in the Order of Isabel la Católica by King Felipe VI, we had a wonderful ceremony at the Courthouse with a hundred family, friends, co-workers, and some board members in attendance, where I was officially decorated by Ambassador Javier Vallaure. It was beautifully topped off by tenor Eduardo Villa singing, “the Impossible Dream. “a song about my favorite fictional character Don Quixote.  One of Michele’s friends said it was one of the greatest events she had ever attended. Then in November at Morro Bay State Park, at the California State Parks Rangers Association Annual Conference, I received my Stetson hat as the Honorary Ranger of the Year.  Past awardees included Walt Disney, Pearl Chase, Clint Eastwood, National Park Director Newton B. Drury, and numerous well known environmentalists.  I found myself in awfully good company.  

Una Pastorela: A special version of this historical play that Francisco Gonzalez brought to life with his extraordinary musical and theatrical talents.  The play’s religiosity especially appeals to me—the story of the struggles of shepherds overcoming their sins in their quest to see the Christ child. The play is all about redemption and that is how I felt when it was performed for over ten Christmas seasons in the Presidio Chapel: all the hard work that had brought Chapel back to life became a spiritual redemption thanks to Francisco and the cast members who participated in the play over the years.  Press coverage was amazing and set SBTHP on a course of broadening its interest in the diverse history of the site. 

Nihonmachi Revisited Living History at its Finest: In the narrative I have described this powerful experience—a two-day event in 1991 that brought Japan Town back to life.  This event came off flawlessly and honored the Japanese-American heritage of the Presidio area that had more or less been ignored ever since the Japanese internment during World War II. It brought to the park recognition that the Asian-American history of the site was an important element to be interpreted.  The media covered the event in the press and on TV.  Most important, it was totally put on by volunteers led by Valerie Yoshimura and Bill Shay, then students at UC Santa Barbara. There were brilliant in connecting with the local Japanese American community and bringing them on board through committees and various activities; plus, they brought in people from southern California.  To this day, it brings a smile to my face whenever I think about the positive energy this event brought to the Presidio. 

Demolition of the Shalhoob Building: As bizarre as it might sound to have a demolition on one’s top ten event list, I have no compunction having it there.  If board member Dr. Garvan Kuskey had done nothing else, his prodding us into demolition of this building would have put him in my pantheon of the SBTHP.  Of Course, he did more, but the day that building came down on the corner of Santa Barbara and Canon Perdido streets, all of us realized that the presidio was here to stay.  There stood the Chapel like a phoenix rising out of the ashes. I will never forget that moment as long as I live.

De La Guerra Family Reunion and Jackman/Longo Wedding:  The de la Guerra Family Reunion event at Casa de la Guerra was an exciting day of activities in June of 2011. Descendants came from all around the U.S. and Mexico to reunite in this wonderful moment organized by Victoria Seaman, who is herself a descendant of the Gran Capitan.  It was a great people event and was right there with the other people event the wedding reception of my daughter Renée and Dana Longo on September 21, 2002, at Casa de la Guerra.  That reception brought back memories of the famous wedding of  Anita de la Guerra to Alfred Robinson and the grand multi-day reception held at the Casa in January of 1836.  It was wonderful to intertwine my family with the de la Guerra heritage.  Board member Garvan Kuskey said that it was the most amazing wedding reception he had ever attended—350 people  roamed out into the street dancing the night away. It was something very special.

Trip to De la Guerra’s Birthplace: Just prior to Renée’s wedding Michele and I had been on the trip to Don José’s birthplace in Novales in Northern Spain. This special tour organized by Lynn Kirst of Spectrum tours, had endless highlights that I have described in the narrative.  It was interesting to experience the modest means that Don José came from, and then to contemplate his becoming one of the wealthiest men in Hispanic California.  It is not fashionable these days to crow too much about European roots transplanted to America, but Don José is definitely an example of that historical process that dominated the New World from then until now.  

El Camino Real de California Symposium at El Presidio de Santa Barbara May 6-7, 2012:  For me this was the great intellectual event at SBTHP during my years as CEO. I will take credit for the idea of thinking about our Camino becoming a World Heritage Site, but it was Julianne Burton-Carvajal who was the person who organized bringing to the symposium just about every major scholar who had done important research on California Missions and Presidios. I think perhaps only two or three scholars were missing from this elite collection of researchers. Thanks also to Julianne who did a summary report on the outcome of the meeting.  This was what I had envisioned when UCSB created a chair in Borderlands studies—that El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park with its glorious unique Research Center would become a magnet to researchers of Early California History. That dream has not been realized, but the collection of scholars for those two days gave a glimpse of the intellectual potential I hope someday is realized at El Presidio de Santa Barbara.  

Shakespeare at Casa de la Guerra: It gave me great satisfaction to support the various productions of Shakespeare’s plays that took place at the Casa de la Guerra. I have seen the Bard’s plays live all over the world--at the Folger in Washington DC, the Globe in San Diego, at the New Globe in London, at the Utah and Oregon Shakespeare Festivals. Michele and I have seen all 38 plays of the Bard performed live.  Then to have it for a number of years right in my “front yard,” as it were, was something special for me.  The quality of the Casa productions was really quite high—the best Malvolio, with his yellow cross-garters.  I have had the pleasure to see performed took place at the Casa de la Guerra.

Olives: One of the simplest but most satisfying rewards of my time at SBTHP has been the seasonal joy of picking olives at the Santa Inés Mission Mills. The Olive Tree idea has turned out to be a struggle, but over the course of the past ten years it has been interesting to observe the trees, at least some of them, begin to bear fruit, and then we actually turn the olives into oil.  Michele and I have become olive enthusiasts—we even came across a world-class olive museum in Sparta, Greece in 2010. This is another of those SBTHP’s ideas that has yet to fulfill its potential—but for now, I am just happy to spend an afternoon among those shimmering silver-leafed trees, enjoying the vast outdoors lost in reverie. The Makela Family planted the trees.

Swimming in the Hearst Castle Pool: As I think back at the rewards of my years at SBTHP, they far outweigh the trials and tribulations—albeit of those there were many. But the various trips I have described to Spain and elsewhere, the opportunity to do research, the pleasant trips to conferences especially to New Mexico, the family events—a wedding and baptisms at the Presidio—these were pleasures am so grateful for. Besides which a big chunk of Presidio got rebuilt.  The culmination of all these positive experiences had to be swimming in the Hearst Castle outdoor pool. This wonderful afternoon my staff and friends and family spent there was a reward for what we had done to advance El Presidio State Historic Park. One of the former district superintendents, Don Kinney, of our Central Coast area, had much admired our efforts at El Presidio, and in his role at the Castle arranged our swimming event. Previously he had already had us to lunch at one of the casitas at Hearst Castle, and the Castle park superintendent Kirk Sturm had hosted a CALPA conference when I was president of that organization.  When I started at SBTHP in 1981, I had no idea that someday I would have the opportunity to experience what I have just described. It has been an extraordinary series of unexpected, pleasant surprises.