Once part of a far larger Spanish Presidio, the Palace of the Governors today faces numerous preservation challenges. As part of the museum’s Adobe Summer celebration, Jarrell Jackman, executive director of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, speaks on the successful renovation of his city’s 1782 Spanish presidio. "El Presidio de Santa Barbara: Its Founding, Heyday, Decline, and Rebirth" is a free lecture at 6 pm on Friday, Aug. 28.
Adobe Summer is part of the Summer of Color and is designed to focus attention on a marvel of adobe architecture: The Palace of the Governors. A 400-year-old National Treasure, its longevity will continue only with the support of our many friends and faithful preservationists.
The Santa Barbara Presidio was the last Spanish Fort founded in California and in North America. It marked the beginning of the town of Santa Barbara in 1782 and was born under the influence of the Spanish Enlightenment. Its heyday represented the last expansion of the Spanish in the New World, and its reconstruction from 1963 to the present is one of the major ongoing adobe projects in the Western Hemisphere.
Jarrell C. Jackman, earned a BA in German at UCLA, an MA in American Studies from California State University Los Angeles, and a PhD in history from UC Santa Barbara. He co-edited for the Smithsonian a major volume on the intellectual migration from Europe during the Nazi Period entitled The Muses Flee History. He is the author and editor of numerous reviews, articles and books including Santa Barbara Historic Themes and Images. For 34 years, as CEO of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, he has overseen the development of El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park, as well as the Casa de la Guerra adobe mansion, and the Santa Ines Mission Mills State Property. He is most proud of the fact that the trust has made over 100,000 adobe bricks for the Presidio reconstruction, restored a 1920s theatre, and created the only significant research center supporting a state park in California.
To download an image of Jackman, click on "Go to related images" at the bottom of this page.
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