2 Experts to Speak at San Fernando Mission

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of its founding, Mission San Fernando will host the “Valley Pioneer Lectures” today in conjunction with Cal State Northridge’s history department.

Scheduled to speak are two experts on California’s missions, Norman Neuerburg, professor emeritus of history at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and Greg Hise, assistant professor of the USC School of Urban Planning and Development.

Neuerburg, author of the book “The Decoration of the California Missions,” will discuss mission restoration in the lecture, “The Indian Via Crucis From San Fernando.”

During his career, Neuerburg has been involved in the restoration of about one-third of California’s missions and served as a consultant in the design of the Getty Museum in Malibu.

Hise, a historian of architecture and urban planning in Los Angeles and author of the book “Magnetic Los Angeles,” will discuss the evolution of mission design in his lecture, “Regional City or Urban Region? Planning and Postwar Development in the San Fernando Valley.”

“Dr. Hise will juxtapose our mission as it was 200 years ago with the present and how it has changed,” said Charles Macune, coordinator of the Valley Pioneer Lectures.

Today’s lectures, the seventh in a series founded in 1991 to honor contributors to the Valley Pioneer Scholarships, will begin at 2 p.m. at the mission, 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd. in Mission Hills.

For more details, call (818) 677-3566.