Life on a Fault : Mission Ritual: Check the Cracks After Quakes

The day after twin earthquakes shook the Los Angeles region, Father Arnold Gonzales paused near a side wall of the San Gabriel Mission, trying to figure out--as he does almost every time the ground trembles--if any of the deep cracks lacing the 218-year-old building had grown bigger.

“It’s hard to say when you see these cracks all the time,” the priest said.

The staff of the historic mission has been living with cracks, jagged fissures and gaping holes ever since the 5.9-magnitude quake of October, 1987, sent chunks of mortar and concrete crashing to the ground. The building was immediately closed to the public, considered too badly damaged to be entered.

Ever since, the mission, believed to be the oldest stone building in California, has been in a race against time. A citizens’ committee has been trying to raise the money for the estimated $2-million repair job before another major quake destroys the landmark.

When Monday’s temblors--of magnitude 4.5 and 4.3--struck, they rattled the mission chapel where Gonzales was conducting a funeral.

“All the people got hold of each other, and I thought, ‘Here we go again,’ ” he said.

But later, he climbed up to the bell tower, where the mission’s famed six bells are set into individual arched recesses, and decided that the deep cracks caused by the 1987 Whittier quake looked no worse than they had before. In a quick tour of the exterior, the long nave inside the church and its domed baptistery, he found nothing more than “a couple of bricks fallen down and plaster.”

Still, one of the tiered cornices on top of the building--already dislodged by the 1987 quake--appeared to have slipped a little more. A structural engineer checked the mission late Tuesday, Gonzales said, and decided “in case of another earthquake, to shore up the walls inside and the bell tower.” That work will begin in two or three weeks, he added.

The engineer is concerned that the building may not be able to withstand many more blows, Gonzales said, adding, “We don’t know how weakened the structure is.

“What we’re really afraid of is another five-point earthquake that lasts 20 seconds,” Gonzales said.

The work will add to what Gonzales calls a “multiphased renovation project” which has already begun. It involves documenting how the mission looked in 1830 and painstakingly restoring the ancient structure to the look of that period. The work will also require a detailed analysis of the materials used in the original construction.

Some refurbishing had actually started before the 1987 quake, Gonzales said. The altar was restored, as were some of the church paintings.

“We were just doing this as money was available,” he added.

But now that has changed. While each new earthquake threatens to undermine the building further, the fund-raising has stalled.

“We are more or less on hold right now,” said Helen Nelson, the parish secretary.

In the aftermath of the Whittier quake, Gonazles said, “we’ve received gifts from people in Alaska, Hawaii and Delaware--from people who used to live here and heard about it. And from one little girl who sold aluminum cans and sent us $4.”

About 2,200 families in the parish have collected about $170,000. The state Office of Emergency Services also contributed $350,000 toward restoration of the museum.

There have been no major foundation grants, however, Gonzales said. Nor has the Los Angeles Archdiocese allocated any funds for the restoration.

“I guess they’re waiting for the Lotto too,” Gonzales said.

Mission officials are precluded from seeking government funds to restore the church “because of the separation of church and state.”

Nevertheless, the structural engineer and an architect were recently hired, even though only a fourth of the restoration funds have been raised, Gonzales said.

The experts do not believe the old building can wait much longer, he added. Maybe more donations will come, Gonzales said, “when they begin working, when people can see something is happening.”