Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields

El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara

by Michael Hardwick

 

 

 

Felipe de Neve, first governor of the Californias, decided in 1777 that the Santa Bárbara Presidio should be located midway between San Buenaventura and Point Concepcíon. This section of coastline was the most vulnerable to a possible landing by a foreign power or to severance of communication between northern and southern settlements by hostile Indians. Neve chose the Santa Bárbara location because it had the best nearby anchorage; it offered a reasonably good supply of water, stone and wood; the Indians were friendly; the soil was fertile; and irrigation works were feasible.

Founded April 21, 1782, the Royal Presidio of Santa Bárbara was the last in a chain of four military fortresses built by the Spanish along the coast of Alta California, then a wilderness frontier. Others had been established at San Diego, San Francisco and Monterey. Padre Junípero Serra, well known for his leadership in founding the California missions, blessed the site of the Santa Bárbara Presidio four years prior to the establishment of the Mission of Santa Bárbara in 1786. Presidios played a vital role in the occupation of New Spain. They protected the missions and settlers against attack by Indians, provided a seat of government, and guarded the country against foreign invasion.

The Santa Bárbara Presidio was both military headquarters and governmental center of the entire region extending from the southern limits of present day San Luis Obispo County to and including the Pueblo of Los Angeles.

Presidial commanders were called comandantes. Comandantes of the Presidio of the Santa Bárbara were as follows:

1781-1784	José Francisco de Ortega
1784-1802	Felipe Antonio de Goicoechea
1802-1807	Raymundo Carrillo
1807-1815	José Dario Arguello
1815-1828	José de la Guerra y Noriega
1819-1820	Gabriel Moraga (acting)
1828	José Joaquin Maitorena (acting)
1828-1830	Romualdo Pacheco (acting)
1830	Domingo Carrillo
1833-1836	Juan María Ibarra (Mazatlán Co.)
1837-1838	José Castro
1839-1841	José de la Guerra y Noriega
1841-1844	Gumesindo Flores
1845	José Carrillo

 

 

 

Ground Plan, Santa Barbara Presidiowith modern streets overlaid.
Courtesy of Santa Barbara Trust for Historical Preservation

 

Additional Information

The initial version of the Presidio was a temporary wooden stockade 60 yards square, enclosing a number of log huts that served as officers' quarters and barracks, accompanied by some irrigation works in preparation for small-scale farming. Two years later, the wooden structures began to be replaced by an 80-yard-square, adobe-walled, rectangular enclosure with adobe buildings lining the interior walls, all on stone foundations, and a bastion in the east and west angles. Most of the reconstruction was accomplished during the 1784-88 period.

 

 

It had been reported that in the following year there were some 60 to 80 one-story adobe houses, each of which had its own garden, outside the Presidio's walls. By the time the Americans arrived in 1846 to take possession, the Presidio had become utterly decrepit. The American flag was raised above the Presidio's crumbling walls on August 1, 1846, by Comodore Robert F. Stockton. A small garrison occupied the Presidio until sometime in the late spring of 1848, when it was abandoned by the military and surrendered to the alcalde of Santa Barbara. A number of restored Spanish and Mexican-built buildings were destroyed by the earthquake in 1925, but two pre-1790 buildings, formerly within the Presidio compound, survived, although considerably altered. The site of the Presidio is located in the area hounded by Gardem, Anacapa, Carillo and De la Guerra streets, in the heart of a modern American city.

 

Royal Presidio Mule Brand, Compania #5, the 5th and last Presidio of the Californias

 

---

For More Information

 

On the web:

 

Santa Bárbara Trust for Historic Preservation

 

Los Soldados: Soldiers of the Royal Presidio of Santa Bárbara

 

Books:

 

Citadel on the Channel: The Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara, It's Founding and Construction, 1768-1798

by Richard S. Whitehead and Donald C. Cutter

Hardcover. Published by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historical Preservation

The history of Santa Barbara's Presidio

 

 

 

Search our Site!

Search the Web Search California Military History Online

 

Questions and comments concerning this site should be directed to the Webmaster

 

Updated 8 February 2016