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A mission to restore missions - Many of the historic
buildings and their artifacts are in need of help
By By Michael Collins u collinsm@shns.com
December 22, 2003
WASHINGTON -- For two centuries, the San Buenaventura
Mission has stood as an enduring symbol of California's Spanish
heritage and has been a place where people, regardless of religious
persuasion, have come to get in touch with the past.
But the old beauty is showing its age.
A new coat of paint has restored some of its luster,
but there's still a lot of work to be done. Artifacts dating back
to the earliest days of the 222-year-old mission -- vestments, Indian
baskets and altar furnishings, such as crucifixes and chalices --
are in need of restoration and must be cataloged and preserved.
The mission gardens, where people come to reflect,
are basically a fountain surrounded by grass, shrubbery and a few
trees. The mission hopes to eventually restore the gardens to their
original condition.
"That is a constant thing, preserving these kinds
of places," said Monsignor Patrick J. O'Brien, the mission
pastor.
Help could soon be on the way.
A bill before Congress would provide $10 million in
federal assistance to restore California's 21 historic missions.
The bill cleared the House in October and is awaiting action in
the Senate. A committee hearing on the legislation is expected in
late January or February.
Californians in Congress say they expect the legislation
to be approved.
"This would be an important federal investment
not only in California's rich cultural heritage but in our vibrant
tourism economy as well," said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara.
Historians and preservationists say the money is just
a fraction of what is needed. It has been a century or longer since
there was a major effort to restore the missions, said Richard Ameil,
director of the California Missions Foundation, a nonprofit agency
based in Sacramento.
"Everything California is today goes back to
the California missions," Ameil said. "Architecture, apparel,
music -- everything, really, is based on the California missions
when they started. ... They were really the start of the Western
development. They were built before the federal government was formed.
So I think we need to preserve them for future generations."
The missions, spread along Highway 101 from San Diego
to Sonoma, were founded by the Catholic Church in the late 1700s
and early 1800s in conjunction with Spain's effort to colonize territory
that eventually became California.
Though the church still owns 19 of the 21 facilities,
including the San Buenaventura Mission in downtown Ventura, the
missions act as cultural and community centers as much as places
of worship. They are often the site of concerts, art exhibits and
other community events. They attract more than 5 million visitors
a year.
The missions rely on donations and proceeds from museums,
gift shops and fund-raisers to make ends meet, but the money has
not been enough to keep up with needed repairs. As a result, some
of the old buildings are literally falling apart.
At Mission Santa Barbara Virgen y Martir, mortar has
eroded between the stones on the front wall of the structure.
"You can brush every day around the windows and
door jambs, and you have piles of sand," said Kristina Foss,
the mission's museum director. "If you do a huge amount of
that every day, pretty soon you don't have a wall anymore."
At the other missions, adobe walls are crumbling;
there are deep cracks in the tile and plaster, and plumbing and
electrical systems need upgrading. Cemeteries and ancient burial
grounds are overgrown. Museums are in need of security systems to
protect mission artifacts.
Mission San Miguel Arcangel, founded in 1797 in San
Luis Obispo County, is probably in the worst condition of any of
the structures. The adobe walls on the front and side are cracked
and are shifting. The building also is feeling the effects of traffic
rumbling down a freeway on one side and railroad tracks on the other.
"The building is being shaken apart daily,"
said Foss, who also serves as vice president of the California Missions
Foundation. "If we got an earthquake on top of that, it is
a mission that we could actually lose."
San Luis Obispo County has given the mission until
Sept. 1, 2004, to shore up the walls or the structure will be condemned.
Overall, $50 million will be needed to repair all
of the missions and preserve their artifacts and artwork, Ameil
said. His organization has raised about $3 million from private
sources and is trying to get an additional $10 million from the
state through Proposition 40 funds. The measure, approved by voters
last March, set aside $267 million for historic preservation projects.
Another possibility, Ameil said, is to ask voters
to approve a bond issue to raise money for the repairs. But given
the upheaval in California politics over the past year, "right
now I don't think the climate is right," he said. "We
are looking at possibly exploring that in 2005."
The San Buenaventura Mission, founded in 1782 as the
ninth mission, is in better shape than most of the other structures.
Major restoration work was done in 1956 and in 1976, and the work
needed today is mostly cosmetic repairs, Ameil said.
Monsignor O'Brien said financial assistance from the
federal and state governments would allow the mission to establish
a priority list and make repairs in an orderly manner instead of
waiting until the need becomes critical.
"These are things you cannot replicate,"
he said. "I think a little money at this stage would make a
terrific difference." |
Jason Redmond / Star staff
Jason Redmond / Star staff