Mission Rising From Ruins--Again

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 two 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 the mission, which was able to raise $600,000 in matching private funds, qualified for the transportation 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 county Supervisor Tom Wilson, who chairs 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?”

While 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 also 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 beginning 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. With a $5 admission fee 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. With the old stone church crumbling now for nearly 200 years, its complete stabilization 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 on 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 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. While some say the construction work has driven the birds away, Miller said that if nothing is done 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 even 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 by dynamite by local officials concerned 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 some 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 in 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 two inches wide; now it’s six. We were in danger of losing it all.”

For Sandy Wheeler, who works alongside Miller at the mission, it is the longevity of the structure that is most amazing.

“I’m not a particularly religious person,” she says. “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

The Mission San Juan Capistrano received $1.1 million in public transportation funds because it is considered an historic transportation hub. The money will be used to reinforce the Sacristy--a room where sacred vessels and vestments were stored--in the Great Stone Church.

ORIGINAL DOME:

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

Source: Mission San Juan Capistrano