When was mission la purisima concepcion founded

The revolt caused great damage along with the deaths of sixteen Indians and one soldier. Mission life was self-sufficient; the residents baked their own bread, they grew their own fruits and vegetables and measured grain with a fanaga , the equivilent of 1.

Water was transported through an elaborate system of aqueducts, pipes, reservoirs and filtration buildings. Rawhide braiding was also a common practice at the missions, as well as candle making and wool spinning. It was the 11th of 21 Franciscan Missions. A major earthquake on December 21, , destroyed many of the mission buildings. In private ownership deeded several parcels to the State of California. The first entry in the baptismal book is "On April 9, Indian Matzzaguit was baptized with the name of Francisco de Conception by Fr.

Jose Arrorta. The first confirmation class on December 9, numbered 75 and Padre Lasuen administered the sacrament. In , the first adobe Church was built with Fr. By Fr. Mariano Payaros, one of the most illustrious of the Parish Pastor had complet. Then, on December 12, 1 came the great ea rthquake, which destroyed the Church burying unde r its walls the imported images and paintings and making most of the mission buildings uninhabitable. It was not worth rebuilding on its original location so Fr.

Payeros, then Parish Pastor, moved the mission two miles over to the dale called Los Berros where it now stands. In October of , the country around the old Mission was divided into farms. In , when it became evident that one of these camps could be stationed in Santa Barbara county, the possibility of setting up the restoration of Mission La Purisima Concepcion as a project for the camp, provided a sufficiently large acreage could be acquired to make the site into an historical monument, brought immediate action.

By deed of gift, titles to the church ruins and the Monastery ruins were transferred to the county by the Catholic church and the Union Oil company, respectively, and the county of Santa Barbara and the state of California jointly purchased additional land, making a total of acres.

On July 18, , an advance cadre was moved in and construction of the camp was begun. On August 1st the camp was formally occupied by the main body of CCC enrollees and on August 2nd field work was begun.

To the camp personnel, at that time, the task which they were asked to undertake seemed a bit staggering and the problems which presented themselves were many and varied. For this purpose the State Park commission asked a group of seven well qualified people of Santa Barbara to act as a committee.

This group, known as the La Purisima Advisory committee, made a very thorough study of the possibilities and after numerous conferences and review of data collected, on September 24, , rendered a very comprehensive report which outlined a logical policy for the restoration work and clearly defined the objective toward which the work should be directed.

The report was accepted without change and has been used basically as a guide in setting up the master plan for the Monument. The policy which received greatest emphasis, and which has been conscientiously and consistently adhered to throughout the entire restoration program, was that every effort should be made to authenticate every feature of architectural design and construction by documentary or photographic evidence, or by evidence established from study of the ruined buildings themselves or by first hand information gained from early settlers of the region adjacent to La Purisima and from study of original structures still existing at other California missions.

Adherence to this policy gave definite assurance that the finished structures would present the appearance of faithful reproductions of original mission buildings and that a minimum of design and construction would be left to conjecture. It early became evident that an enormous amount of painstaking research work would have to be done, as very little historic data of the kind required was readily available. Fortunately, the task of conducting this research work was delegated to the staff architect and others, and the practical thoroughness with which it was done is one of the outstanding accomplishments that contributed so greatly to the success of the enterprise.

Original records and documents of Mission La Purisima were traced down and examined, as were also official and personal letters written by or to the resident padres, photographic studios and private collections were searched for early photographs of the mission buildings, early settlers were interviewed and other missions were visited for the purpose of study, photographs and measured drawings were made and files of the Historic American Buildings Survey were searched.

In this work the Franciscan Padres of other missions, particularly those of Mission Santa Barbara, were of invaluable assistance, giving freely of their time and knowledge to help increase the accuracy of the work.

Also, in realization of the importance of the work for its historic and educational value, the National Park service secured the services, as consultants, of two of southern California's most eminent authorities on the California missions, M. Harrington, curator of the Southwest Museum, and A. The architectural designs and supporting data were reviewed by the Regional Historian and the technicians of the National Park service, by the Washington office and by the State Park authorities.

A special report on the possibility, feasibility, and desirable extent of restoration was made by Dr. Herbert E. The men in the field, who with consummate skill and sympathetic understanding, designed, supervised and directed the work, contributed immeasurably to the historical value of the Monument by their patience, perseverance and close attention to detail.

Frederick C. Hageman, architect, after months of extensive research, developed the plans for restoring the structures and generally supervised the reconstruction work. He was ably assisted by his associate, Harvey E. Walter A. Stewart and Edward Negus, construction foremen, directed the actual work of reconstructing the buildings.

Ralph E. Ames, construction foreman, directed the work of making the many thousands of adobe bricks, floor tiles and roof tiles. Edwin D. Rowe, horticulturist, collected the seeds, cuttings and scions from which he propagated the plants used in landscaping the area. Valentin J. Goelz, metal worker, assisted by Richard Barrios, made the hand forged locks and other hardware and metal work for the buildings.

William H. Cassuth, mechanic, was responsible for the maintenance of the fleet of motor trucks and other heavy equipment used in connection with the work. While the historical research was being carried on, archeological investigation of the ruins was also taking place, and crews of CCC enrollees, under supervision of the technical staff, were busily engaged in removal of the thousands of yards of soil which had been deposited on the site by the strong prevailing winds and which in some locations reached a depth of eight feet.

In clearing away the debris around the ruined buildings, the eroded adobe earth from the old walls was carefully saved and was later recast into new bricks. Diligent watch was kept for any artifacts that might be unearthed and many were found which furnished valuable information to the technicians. The ruins of 13 buildings were located, including a neophyte barracks feet long, in addition to a large part of the very extensive and interesting water system of reservoirs, tile pipelines, aqueducts and fountains.

The excavation of the ruined buildings themselves involved another major problem, as it was uncertain just how stable the old walls would be once the mounds of eroded earth which helped support them, were removed, and it was not yet decided what could or should be done with them, structurally. However, after excavation had been completed, it was decided that they could and should be permanently preserved and incorporated in the new construction. Many other problems developed as a result of the adoption of this policy, which problems of necessity had to be solved largely by trial and error.

Had the old walls been torn down and cleared away, and construction started entirely anew from the foundations, the size and appearance of the individual adobe bricks, floor tile and other structural elements, would have had to be only relatively exact as there would have been no basis for comparison.

This involved consideration not only of types, volumes and sources of supply of the different materials, but shapes of the molds and changes in size due to shrinkage during the process of drying and curing, or burning as in the case of the tile.

In working out the structural details of the designs for the buildings, supreme importance was attached to factors of strength and permanency, including maximum resistance to earthquake shock. These necessitated some divergence from the original methods of construction, as they involved the use of reinforced concrete columns, girders and beams, as well as trusses and sub-roofs of modern construction, in some of the buildings.

But as all these modern structural elements are concealed either within the thick adobe walls, or above the ceilings of the rooms, they do not involve any change from the original in the general appearance of the buildings. By early summer of , the most pressing of the major problems had been solved, the plans and working drawings had been completed and approved by the State Park authorities and the Regional office of the National Park service.

Large crews of CCC enrollees had begun the seemingly endless task of manufacturing thousands upon thousands of adobe bricks and clay tiles. Others were engaged in gathering and preparing other structural materals, while still others were repairing the old, original stone foundations in preparation for capping them with concrete in readiness to begin laying up the adobe walls.

On July 7, , the first brick was laid and construction of the first unit of the Monastery, or residence building, was begun. The Annual Report of Mission La Purisima for the year , signed by Padres Payeras and Gil, gives this meager description of the building, under the heading, "Buildings:" "The temporary ones have been undergoing repairs, propping up those made of posts which threaten to collapse, and they have built a wing one hundred varas in length, double row of rooms, with walls an adobe and a half thick and roof of tiles, which serves as habitations for the Fathers with all the servants, guests quarters, chapel, and the rest for work shops.

These few lines constitute the only written description of the building ever found. Evidently the padres were not nearly as interested in their quite remarkable physical accomplishments, as they were in their spiritual work with the Indians.

Actually the building proper is In width the building itself measures A central longitudinal wall divides the two rows of rooms, which number 21, and an arched passageway slightly over 11 feet wide extends through the building from side to side, near the south end. The building slopes downward a total of 3. The maximum height is 34 feet and the plastered adobe walls are approximately 4 feet 4 inches thick.

These columns are both chamfered and fluted at the corners, and with their white plastered sides and red fluted corners, they are exceedingly graceful in appearance. The rectangular, fluted, tiles of which they are constructed are so designed that by laying them at right angles to each other at the corners and by reversing each course, the entire shaft requires but a single mold of tile.

La Purisima is the only California mission at which columns of this design appear. Each brick and tile was made by hand, by CCC enrollees. To obtain the redwood for the huge beams which span the ceilings, the puncheon floor planks and the material for the doors and shutters, fleets of trucks were dispatched to the forests of northern California where CCC enrollees had labored for months, felling massive red-wood trees and splitting the logs into sections.

On arrival at La Purisima the beams and planks were marked out and enrollees using only axes, broad axes and adzes, hewed them to size, dressed them down, and installed them in the building. The handsome corbels on which the ceiling beams rest were carved by hand, with wood chisel, gouging tool and mallet.

The massive carved doors, the shutters, the stairs and stair rails, the chancel rail, choir rail, and other woodwork were all fashioned by hand and fastened together by wedged dove-tail or mortise and tenon joints, wooden dowels or handmade iron nails.

The patterns for the joints were determined by carefully taking apart sections of some of the old woodwork unearthed in the ruins of the buildings. Similarly, all the iron work, including the cumbersome locks and keys, the heavy hinges, hasps and latches, the iron and brass lighting fixtures, and all the exposed iron nails, were hand forged by the exceptionally skilled metal worker especially employed for that purpose.