Funds Boost Preservation of Mission

By MEGAN GARVEY

Nov. 21, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —

Jolted out of bed a month ago by the 7.1-magnitude earthquake, Gerald Miller’s first concern was for the crumbling Mission San Juan Capistrano ruins he has labored for most of the decade to preserve.

“I thought, ‘Oh no! I should get down there to see what happened,’ ” said Miller, the director of the historic mission. “Then I thought: ‘Once I get there, what will I do?’ ”

He was heartened to learn that no catastrophic damage had occurred, but the quake was a thundering reminder of the precarious health of the stone structure that is 2 centuries old.

The real relief came this month, with the infusion of more than $2 million in public money to stabilize the remaining walls and domes, which architectural experts have said are in imminent danger of collapsing.

Among the funds is a $1.1-million federal grant through the Orange County Transportation Authority, a slightly unorthodox source for a former sanctuary. But officials say that the mission--which was able to raise $600,000 in matching private funds--qualified for the transportation enhancement money because of its historic significance in the county, most notably as one of the state’s oldest rest stops for travelers.

“I’ve been supporting the mission for quite some time,” said Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson, who heads the transportation board. “I think everyone felt this was a good use of the money. What’s more historic in Orange County than the mission at San Juan Capistrano?”

Although the mission has been called the “birthplace of Orange County” and “the American Acropolis,” it has not, until this year, ever received public funding, Miller said. As a private nonprofit, the mission has not received any funds from the Catholic Church, which owns the 10 acres on which it stands.

The Great Stone Church, built by Juaneno Indians who began construction in 1797, is one of the biggest tourist draws in the county. Visited by 550,000 people each year, the historic site trails only Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. Charging $5 for admission in addition to fees for special events, the organization’s daily operation is self-supporting.

But what to do about the majestic ruins has long troubled those connected to the mission. Crumbling now for nearly 200 years, the complete stabilization of the mission’s Great Stone Church will cost about $7.5 million.

The project lay dormant after money ran out at the beginning of the year, but an infusion of three grants got the nonprofit to cut its goal in half and restarted construction in late summer. In addition to the state and transportation authority grants, $1 million in preservation funds came from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Veterans Administration.

The transportation money will be spent in the vestry, a small chamber next to the main church where the priests changed into their vestments. Now the cool, dark room is used mostly for storage, with its near-concave dome braced by padded scaffolding and a hook attached to steel rods installed a hundred years ago to hold up the sagging ceiling.

The overall effort is a technological challenge, calling not for the restoration of the five-story Greco-Roman structure that once rose from the wilderness, but instead its preservation as a ruin.

The famous swallows of San Juan Capistrano nest in the sanctuary remains, though their numbers have dwindled in recent years. Though some say that the construction work has driven the birds away, Miller said that if they do nothing to save the church, the swallows will have nowhere to nest in the future.

It was an earthquake, the same danger that Miller and others fear today, that felled the church in 1812, just six years after it was completed. That quake, felt all the way up in Northern California, left 40 worshipers dead. Of the structure’s seven domes, only three survived the quake. The front end of the massive building was reduced to rubble.

The largest of the remaining domes was later brought down with dynamite by local officials concerned that it too would fall and hurt someone.

Just before the turn of this century a group of businessmen, worried that the ruins would be lost to the elements, did stopgap work with steel rods and mammoth railroad ties to brace the standing walls. Their efforts held the stone walls and the brick and mortar domes together like a house of cards for the next 100 years.

Now, the ruins show signs of decay all around. Bits of rock and plaster fall like a light drizzle. Everywhere Miller reaches to touch, mortar crumbles in his hand and sandstone, battered by years of exposure to air and water, flakes away in paper-thin pieces.

But for the first time since he came to work at the mission eight years ago, Miller says he feels confident that what remains will be saved.

High above the dirt floor, on scaffolding recently erected around the outside of the largest remaining dome, Miller stuck his hand into a widening crack.

“It came down to a sense of urgency,” he said. “I was going around with a tin cup begging everyone I knew for money, and in the meantime this dome was pulling further and further away from the wall. A year or so ago this was 2 inches wide, now it’s 6. We were in danger of losing it all.”

For Sandy Wheeler, who works alongside Miller at the mission, it is the perseverance of the structure that has amazed her most.

“I’m not a particularly religious person,” she said. “But when we got up there and looked around and saw how big the cracks were in the building, I had to wonder how in the world it was still standing. It seems miraculous.”

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More Money for Mission Restoration

Mission San Juan Capistrano received $1.1 million in Orange County transportation funds--as part of a $2-million total infusion this month-- because it is considered a historic transportation hub. The money will be used to reinforce the vestry--a room where sacred vessels and vestments were stored--in the Great Stone Church.

Original dome

Baked adobe bricks, mortared together, spiraled out from center. Inside of dome was finished with a thin layer of plaster.

VESTRY PROJECT SITE

Great Stone Church ruin

Fountain

Serra Chapel

Entry plaza

Gift shop

Admission building

Barracks

Sanctuary

CUTAWAY VIEW