Seismic Salvation

The priesthood is not normally the kind of occupation that requires one to wear a hard hat.

But here’s Msgr. Peter Nugent--in white collar and silver, metal helmet--standing before a dusty pile of bricks that once made up the back wall of the Santa Clara Church.

“We’ve talked for four years about this,” Nugent said, peering through a gaping hole where the wall stood. “It’s great to see it happen.”

Nugent is overseeing a renovation of the historic church that began last week. It is a project that Santa Clara’s 3,300 families and other donors have spent years saving for, collecting $2.4 million to shore up the building in time for its 100th anniversary in 2004.

Built before earthquake standards were established, the church has managed surprisingly well this century. A 1957 quake reduced the church’s 125-foot tower to 108 feet. But the church survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake with only minor cracks.

“The whole building was very strongly built,” said Frank Lee, the Los Angeles-based contractor hired to handle the renovation.

His crew will reinforce the back wall with concrete and steel, and then put the pieces back together brick by ornately designed brick over the next nine months.

The momentary destruction is a blessing--and admittedly a bit of a pain. Weekday Mass has moved to the auditorium of the church-affiliated Santa Clara Elementary School across the street. A week of banging hammers was just getting too noisy, Nugent said.

“It’s an inconvenience, sure,” said Bill Mahoney, a parishioner since 1985. “But once the church is done, we’re going to wonder how we ever survived here.”

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The majestic stone and brick building, an Oxnard landmark, is a rarity in Southern California, where almost anything pushing 100 years old is considered ancient.

The church’s high ceilings are the sweeping slopes reminiscent of Gothic architecture. Gilded diamonds line the ceiling’s arches. The bell tower rises above surrounding buildings, making it visible from much of downtown.

But the plaster inside is fractured. The stained glass, though still bright, is cracked and pitted.

Repairs will cost another $1 million, money the parish is expecting to raise slowly, as it has for this most recent work.

Nugent said the church’s history reflects that of the city.

McGraths, Borchards and Friedrichs--pioneer families--worshiped here in the church’s early days. And their descendants still do.

But now, nearly half of the parishioners are Latino, Nugent said.

The original Santa Clara Church, founded in the late 1870s, was built on the south side of the Santa Clara River where the Esplanade Mall now stands.

The parish opened its doors on St. Patrick’s Day, 1877, with Mass spoken in English, German and Spanish to accommodate its diverse worshipers.

With a population explosion in Oxnard after the opening of a sugar beet factory in 1899, the tiny brick building was no longer large enough for the growing number of parishioners, and the Gothic-style structure was built at 323 E St., where it still stands.

“This was the Taj Mahal in the middle of farmland,” Nugent said.

The reconstruction is offering parishioners a look back at the way buildings were made at the turn of the century.

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Gus Ramirez, project manager, is a member of the parish. After poring over the original 1904 plans enough times, he’s brimming with facts about the building’s infrastructure--or at least what the infrastructure is supposed to be.

“I’ve learned that what they say happened, didn’t always happen,” he said. “We’re just making sure it’s all going to go back up the same way.”