{"id":4394,"date":"2009-01-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4394"},"modified":"2013-11-12T18:24:31","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T02:24:31","slug":"noozhawk-talks-leslie-dinaberg-sits-down-with-maria-herold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4394","title":{"rendered":"Noozhawk Talks: Leslie Dinaberg sits down with Maria Herold"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maria<\/a>

Maria Herold, longtime curator of the Montecito Association\u2019s history committee, is an enthusiastic resource for those conducting obscure research or exploring land-use background. (Elite Henenson \/ Noozhawk photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

As longtime curator of the Montecito History Committee<\/a>, Maria Herold<\/a> knows-
\nliterally-where the bodies are buried and the tales behind some of the most
\nstoried families and legendary estates. Here she sits down with Leslie Dinaberg
\nto discuss some of her own history.<\/p>\n

Leslie Dinaberg: How did you get involved with the Montecito History Committee?<\/p>\n

Maria Herold: When I retired I decided that I would like to do something useful and I looked
\naround. I first looked into Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic<\/a>, and I wasn’t quite
\nready for their structure. I had heard that somebody was needed up here, so I
\ndropped in and have been here ever since. (Laughs) I just showed up!<\/p>\n

LD: And when was that?<\/p>\n

MH: I think about 1991.<\/p>\n

LD: What did you retire from before that?<\/p>\n

MH: Well, immediately before that I took care of babies … I wasn’t looking for a
\njob, but people asked me to take care of their babies because the hours were
\nperfect, my husband was a teacher and most of the people who asked me to
\ntake care of their babies were teachers.<\/p>\n

LD: Has history always been an interest of yours?<\/p>\n

MH: Absolutely, because of the fact that my family has been involved with the
\nhistory of California and that has always been in the back of my mind. My
\ngrandfather immigrated to America in 1873 and first worked in Sonoma County
\nand then settled in Northern Santa Barbara County and worked as a supervisor
\non an old Spanish land grant.<\/p>\n

He went back to Switzerland after he had worked here for 30 years. I was born in
\nSwitzerland, and then I came to America when I was 16. He came when he was
\n15 and I came when I was 16. He came walking over the Isthmus of Panama and
\nI came on a freighter through the Panama Canal-so that’s history.<\/p>\n

LD: Did you come with your family?<\/p>\n

MH: Yes. The whole family came. … (My father) decided that instead of going to
\nthe Santa Maria area, where he was born … he looked for the nearest place that
\nhad a college and at that time there was a little college up on the Riviera so we
\ncame here because of the college on the Riviera. I was the oldest child and he
\nwanted to be able to send me to college locally.<\/p>\n

LD: You have an interesting history so I can see where your interest comes from.
\nWhat kinds of things do people come to the Montecito History Committee to
\nresearch?<\/p>\n

MH: Everything from what is the story of my house or who is the architect or how
\ncome my house is the way it is, to I heard about the Para Grande, or I heard
\nabout the San Ysidro Ranch. Or I heard about somebody from New York who is
\nfollowing a history of a person who started out in Europe, went to New York and
\nthen ended up dying in Santa Barbara and inspiring a story of the ghost of a
\ncountess in a local house. It gets that elaborate.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, people who want to know the history of a street or of a property
\nthat they want to buy. Or there is a legislation or development and, if they’re
\nsmart, they come here and see what the history is. There are very few people
\nwho are smart, but they manage to keep me busy, very, very busy.<\/p>\n

I wish more people would come in because it is always ignorance that causes
\nproblems, legal and otherwise. And in the community it creates a great deal of
\nproblems where people are really not well informed on the history of Montecito.
\nAnd the same thing in Santa Barbara, the same thing in Goleta. If people knew
\nthe histories there would be much less confrontation.<\/p>\n

LD: Do you have a favorite project you’ve been involved with?<\/p>\n

MH: I love it that the Pearl Chase Society<\/a> once gave a mandate to a lady that
\nthey were giving grants to look into part of the history of Montecito. And they
\nfunded this lady, not me because I’m a volunteer, I don’t take money, except for
\nas a gift to the History Committee. But they funded this lady to work with me in
\nputting together a history of a particular section. We picked this section of
\nMontecito and looked into it in detail, starting with a map from 1871 and then
\nfollowing the history of that section up to the present time. It was a fascinating
\nproject. It took us months and literally months and months but it ended up in two
\nring books of information with lots of pictures and everything else.<\/p>\n

LD: What part of Montecito did you look at?<\/p>\n

MH: We looked at the area between Jameson Lane (south), San Ysidro Road
\n(west), Hixson Road and Santa Rosa Lane (east) and Santa Rosa Lane (north).
\nThat encompassed old farmland that had been well known farms in the 1870s
\nand 1880s and 1890s and also included one of the two most historic parts of
\nMontecito, which is Romero Hill. So we got all kinds of background with Romero
\nHill and with the farming community and now having developments, so we have
\neverything there on how it developed since 1871.<\/p>\n

LD: Do the other local libraries know about your resources?<\/p>\n

MH: It depends on who they talk to at the library … I do know that UCSB is
\naware of us, the Santa Barbara Historical Society<\/a> sends us people all the time,
\npeople who come into the library and say what should I do to find out about this
\nand that and something else, the librarians here (at the Montecito Library) send
\nme people all the time. So between the Santa Barbara Historical Society and the
\nlocal library we have a lot of referrals. Also there seems to be somehow people
\nseem to have become aware somewhere on the Internet of our existence
\nbecause I’ve had calls from all over the continent.<\/p>\n

LD: What is the oldest structure in Montecito?<\/p>\n

MH: What they call the Monsignor Adobe, which is a misnomer, but everybody
\ncalls it the Monsignor Adobe. It’s a two-story Monterey and was built long before
\nthe Monterey Adobe was built … The Monsignor Adobe is the most classic
\nbuilding, I adore it. And yet it is the oldest building that’s still excellent.<\/p>\n

LD: And what street is it on?<\/p>\n

MH: It’s on the bottom of Sheffield Lane where Sheffield runs into North Jameson
\nLane and it’s a land marked house.<\/p>\n

LD: This sounds like very fun and very interesting work for you.<\/p>\n

MH: Yes, but a lot of work. I would dearly adore having a helper.<\/p>\n

LD: It seems like there should be a college student that would be
\ninterested.<\/p>\n

MH: Well, you know, people keep telling me that I should get involved with
\nWestmont students, etc. but the thing is they leave after a year, so all that is lost.
\nThe continuity is shot down. What I need is an apprentice who will take over
\nbecause I’m not going to last forever.<\/p>\n

LD: You’re still going strong, though.<\/p>\n

MH: I’m 76 years old. Start counting (laughs).<\/p>\n

LD: What else do you do like to do when you’re not volunteering at the historic
\ncommittee?<\/p>\n

MH: For a long while I worked at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, which I
\nadored, just adored. But I can’t do it anymore. I’ve had several operations for
\ncancer so this is quite a trip. I used to work hours and hours over there and I just
\nloved it, but I can’t do it anymore. Then I’m involved with music all the time, I
\nalways have been. I’ve been an accompanist and stuff like that. I’m still a
\nmember of a choir, I sing with a group every Sunday but this is strictly amateur
\nmusic, but I’ve always done music.<\/p>\n

LD: So is your group you sing with a church choir?<\/p>\n

MH: No, it’s just a group that gets together, we all can read music, we get
\ntogether and we sing what is called early music, a capella early music and we
\ndon’t perform, we do it for the fun of exploring early music.<\/p>\n

LD: That’s really fun. That’s a great little local activity. If you could pick three
\nadjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?<\/p>\n

MH: Old-fashioned, excitable, and enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

Vital Stats: Maria Herold<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born: August 14, 1932, in Zurich, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Family: Husband George Herold; six grown children, Ann Herold, Matthew
\nHerold, Tina DaRos, Mark Herold, Monica Christensen, and Joseph Herold; eight
\ngrandchildren and one great grandchild.<\/p>\n

Civic Involvement: Volunteer curator with the Montecito History Committee, very
\nactive with Mount Carmel Church<\/a>, former volunteer for Recording the Blind and
\nDyslexic.<\/p>\n

Professional Accomplishments: Runs the Montecito History Committee archives;
\nformerly took care of babies in her home.<\/p>\n

Best Book You’ve Read Recently: The Zookeeper’s Wife<\/em><\/a>, by Diane
\nAckerman.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Noozhawk<\/a>\u00a0on January 12, 2009. Click here to read <\/a>the story on that site.<\/h6>\n

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