Jeremy D. and John K. Hass Papers

Jeremy Dennis Hass was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 24, 1936 and spent his early years in St. Paul, Minnesota, before his family moved west. He attended Pomona College where he majored in economics-engineering, with a minor in history, before going on to Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, and Loyola University in Los Angeles. He was admitted to the California State Bar and joined the family law firm Weldon and Hass. Jeremy retired from the firm in 2001.

In the mid-1960s, while working for Jules Brasseur at Santa Barbara Title Company, Jeremy became interested in the Presidio project, a historic site in downtown Santa Barbara. He plotted the boundaries of the old fortress by studying historic property documents. By 1967 he was an active member of the Presidio Volunteers, a group who conducted archaeological excavations and public events at the site.

In early 1971, Jeremy wrote a proposal for the future presidio project at the request of Miss Pearl Chase and the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (SBTHP). For the next several decades Jeremy played a major part in property acquisitions for what became El Presidio de Santa Barbára State Historic Park. Working with local and state legislators, he made numerous trips to Sacramento to consult with state officials about transfers to the State of lands purchased by SBTHP for the park. He and an assistant to the director of the California Dept. of Parks and Recreation developed the concession agreement through which SBTHP operates the State Park.

Hass was instrumental in early efforts to discover the boundaries of the original presidio and to acquire property for the newly formed State Park. He played an important role in helping negotiate the gift of El Paseo and Casa de la Guerra to SBTHP in 1971. He was a board member from 1970-1976 and was named a Life Honorary Trustee in 1983. He also served briefly as Acting Director of SBTHP in late 1984 to March 1985. In the 1990s he helped arrange the purchase of the Santa Inés Mission Mills lands by SBTHP and he later became a member of SBTHP's Mills Committee. He was a recipient of the Pearl Chase Historic Preservation and Conservation Award in 2000.

Jeremy presented papers at a number of conferences. His intensive research on the subjects of waterworks, fulling mills, and of California pioneer Joseph Chapman contributed not only to his own publications, but to the academic field, providing source material for scholarly research on the subject by others. Hass passed away on June 30, 2014, at his home in Santa Barbara.

Jeremy Hass’ father John Kelleher Hass was an attorney and intelligence officer at the Marine Corps air base in Goleta during World War II. The family made Santa Barbara a permanent home after the war. John Hass was the founding partner in the law firm, Weldon and Hass. Like his son, he served on the board of the Trust from 1981 until 1986 and was president from 1984-1985.