Mission Santa Cruz

Mission Santa Cruz (La Misión de la Exaltación de la Santa Cruz, which translates as the Mission of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross)[9] was a Spanish mission founded by the Franciscan order in present-day Santa Cruz, California. The mission was founded in 1791 and named for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, adopting the name given to a nearby creek by the missionary priest Juan Crespi, who accompanied the explorer Gaspar de Portolá when he camped on the banks of the San Lorenzo River on October 17, 1769.[3]

Mission Santa Cruz
The Mission Santa Cruz chapel replica
Location130 Emmett St
Santa Cruz, California 95060
Coordinates36°58′41″N 122°1′46″W
Name as foundedLa Misión de la Exaltación de la Santa Cruz
English translationThe Mission of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
PatronThe Exaltation of the Cross[1]
Nickname(s)"The Hard-luck Mission"[2]
Founding dateAugust 28, 1791[3]
Founding priest(s)Father Fermín Lasuén[4]
Founding OrderTwelfth[1]
Military districtFourth[5]
Native tribe(s)
Spanish name(s)		Awaswas / Ohlone, Yokuts
Costeño
Native place name(s)Uypi[6]
Baptisms2,765[7]
Marriages860[7]
Burials2,120[7]
Secularized1834[1]
Returned to the Church1859
Governing bodyCatholic Diocese of Monterey
Current useChapel and museum
Reference no.
  1. 342
Mission Hill Area Historic District
LocationMission Street
Coordinates36°58′39″N 122°1′43″W
Area38 acres (15 ha)
Architectural styleSpanish Colonial, Stick-Eastlake-Queen Anne—Victorian
NRHP reference No.76000530[8]
Added to NRHPMay 17, 1976
Neary-Rodriguez Adobe
Location130-134 School St.
Santa Cruz, California
NRHP reference No.75000484[8]
Added to NRHPFebruary 24, 1975

As with the other California missions, Mission Santa Cruz served as a site for ecclesiastical conversion of natives, first the Amah Mutsun people,[10] the original inhabitants of the region renamed the "Ohlone"[11] by the Spaniards, and later the Yokuts from the east.[12] The settlement was the site of the first autopsy in Alta California.[4]

The current Holy Cross Church was built on the site of the original mission church in 1889, and it remains an active parish of the Diocese of Monterey. A section of stone foundation wall from one of the mission buildings and a few old headstones from the mission cemetery can be found directly behind the present Holy Cross Church. A reduced-scale "replica" chapel was built near the mission site in the 1930s and functions as a chapel of Holy Cross Church. Today's Plaza Park occupies the same location as the original plaza, at the center of the former mission complex. The complex at one time included as many as 32 buildings. The only surviving mission building, a dormitory for native acolytes, has been restored to its original appearance and functions as a museum of the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park.

History
Inside the mission chapel replica

The Santa Cruz mission was originally consecrated by Padre Fermin Lasuen on August 28, 1791,[13] on the San Lorenzo river's flood plain. It was one of the smaller missions, in the fourth military district under protection of the Presidio of San Francisco.[5] The mission was flooded as the San Lorenzo swelled with the rains that winter. Over the next three years, the padres rebuilt the mission on the hill overlooking the river.

In 1797, the secular pueblo (town) of Branciforte was founded across the San Lorenzo River to the east of Mission Santa Cruz. The mission padres did not welcome the location of the pueblo so close to the mission, and accused the Branciforte settlers of gambling, smuggling and tempting the native acolytes to desert the mission.

On October 12, 1812, Father Andrés Quintana was strangled to death by mission neophytes, angry over his use of a metal-tipped whip in the punishment of laborers, Native Americans, and Native children.[14]

In 1818, the Mission received advance warning of an attack by the Argentine corsair (simply a pirate, from the Spanish point of view) Hipólito Bouchard and was evacuated.[15] The citizens of Branciforte, several of whom were retired soldiers, were asked to protect the Mission's valuables; instead, they were later accused (by the priests) of stealing.

One of the only surviving first-person descriptions by a native Californian of life in a mission was given in an interview by Lorenzo Asisara[16] in 1877. Asisara was born at Mission Santa Cruz in 1819. His father was one of the neophytes involved in the Quintana killing, and Asisara repeated the story his father had told him about those events.

Decline and preservation
Holy Cross Church (circa 1900)

The front wall of the adobe mission, built in 1794, was destroyed by the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. A wooden facade was added and the structure converted to other uses. A new wooden church was built next door in 1858.[17] In 1889, the current Gothic Revival-style Holy Cross Church was built over (in the same orientation) part of the original sanctuary and cemetery.[18] The cemetery wall was defined in 1993 [19][20] and developed as a memorial and native plant garden.

At the same time, the mission cemetery was excavated and the remains moved to a mass grave at Old Holy Cross Cemetery,[21] a few miles to the east. In recent years, a group of local volunteers have been working to restore the old cemetery, and to identify the mission gravesite and those whose remains were moved there. A memorial was dedicated in 2016.[22]

The only original Mission building left is a long multi-room building which at one time housed local Yokut and Ohlone Native American families. The original building is located at 144 School Street and can be toured during operating hours.[23] There is also a protected remnant of the mission church foundation wall behind the current Holy Cross Church. The parish address is 126 High Street. The road leading to the mission from the west is called Mission Street, which is also part of California State Route 1.

In 1931, Gladys Sullivan Doyle proposed to construct a reduced-size replica of the original chapel. She contributed all of the construction costs, on the condition that she be allowed to be buried inside. Her grave can be viewed in a small side room. Since there were no surviving photographs or drawings of the original structure, design of the replica chapel was adapted from an 1876 (19 years after the collapse of the building's front half) painting by the French painter Léon Trousset.[24] The original painting hangs in the nave of the chapel.

The concrete construction was done by parishioner Tranquilino Costella, an Italian immigrant, whose contractor stamp is still seen in the sidewalk in front of the mission. The small replica chapel is mainly used for private services, daily Masses (M-F), and Morning Prayer on Saturday. An adjoining room functions as a gift shop. A stone fountain from the original mission complex stands in the garden behind the gift shop.

Santa Cruz Mission Historic Park and District

The only surviving original adobe mission building, a dormitory for Native American residents, has been restored as part of the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park as the Neary-Rodriguez Adobe.[25] The Santa Cruz Mission is designated California Historical Landmark number 342.[26] The Neary-Rodriguez Adobe was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Santa Cruz County, California as site number 75000484 on February 24, 1975, and the Mission Hill Area as a United States Historic District as site number 76000530 on May 17, 1976.[8]

Unidentified adobe foundations
Main article: Lost Adobe

The stone foundations of an unidentified adobe on the east edge of Mission Hill in Santa Cruz was first discovered in 1978.[27][28] Prior to any excavations an extensive archival research program was carried out.[29] After no mention was found in the written record, the foundations were given the name the "Lost Adobe". Archaeological excavations (from 1981–84)[30] indicated the presence of 18+ rooms structural foundations extending west toward the original church and cemetery. Artifacts found were a diverse collection of Spanish Mission Era/ Mexican Republic materials including glass beads, Majolica ceramic fragments and phoenix buttons.[31][32] These findings suggest that the structure was used to house the neophyte community of Yokut and Ohlone families living at the Mission in the 1820s and 1830s. The Lost Adobe collapsed during the 19th century and no remnants remain. The area is on private property and visitors are not allowed.

Mission Hill train tunnel

Mission Santa Cruz has a hidden single track gated railroad tunnel running under it.[33] Railroad train service used to connect Oakland to Santa Cruz with a train going down the middle of Pacific Avenue on the way to the wharf.[34] In 1876 South Pacific Coast Railroad built a railroad tunnel under Mission Santa Cruz to reroute train traffic out of the busy downtown corridor.[35] The entrance can be found at the end of Amat street with the tunnel going under the church's parking lot and Emmett Street and emerging at Chestnut street. This is still an active rail line for Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway connecting Santa Cruz with Felton.

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See also

Notes
  1. Krell, p. 219
  2. Ruscin, p. 105
  3. Yenne, p. 112
  4. Ruscin, p. 196
  5. Forbes, p. 202
  6. Ruscin, p. 195
  7. Engelhardt, Z. Missions and Missionaries of California, Volume 4, page 529
  8. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  9. Leffingwell, p. 131
  10. "Amah Mutsun Tribal Band History". Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  11. "Native Americans of Santa Cruz". California Missions Resource Center. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  12. "Santa Cruz Mission State Historical Park" (PDF). California Department of Parks and Recreation. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  13. California State Historical Resources Commission tacos. "Site of Mission Santa Cruz, California State Historical Marker". Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
  14. Castillo, Edward D. (1989). "The Assassination of Padre Andrés Quintana by the Indians of Mission Santa Cruz in 1812: The Narrative of Lorenzo Asisara". California History. 68 (3): 116–125. doi:10.2307/25462397. JSTOR 25462397.
  15. There is a great contrast between the legacy of Bouchard in Argentina versus his reputation in the United States. In Buenos Aires, Bouchard is honored as a brave patriot, while in California he is most often remembered as a pirate, rather than a privateer. See Hippolyte de Bouchard.
  16. Lorenzo Asisara
  17. http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/23/ Archived January 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Kimbro, Edna E. "Construction Chronology of the Site of Holy Cross Church". Santa Cruz Public Library
  18. Chesley, Joan "Digging into the past at Holy Cross Church". The Observer, Vol. 25 # 8, 1993
  19. Alvarado,, Emilio (July 9, 1993). "Working to save Mission Treasures". Santa Cruz Sentinel.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  20. Edwards, R., C. Simpson Smith & R.P..Hampson, "Historical Resources Investigations at Holy Cross Church, Santa Cruz, California,1999, (on file, Northwest Information Center, Sonoma State University)
  21. "Find a Grave: Old Holy Cross Cemeterey". Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  22. Masters, Ryan (December 16, 2016). "Thousands buried in mass, unmarked Live Oak grave honored with memorial". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Archived from the original on December 18, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  23. http://www.thatsmypark.org/cp-parks-beaches/santa-cruz-mission-state-historic-park/ Archived March 25, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks Website
  24. Archived January 10, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Leon Trousset.com
  25. "Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park". California State Parks official web site. Archived from the original on May 22, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  26. "Santa Cruz County". California Historical Landmark web site. California Office of Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  27. Neubauer,, Bill (May 19, 1978). ""Construction still suspended for archaeological dig"". Santa Cruz Sentinel.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  28. Koch, Margaret (May 21, 1978). ""Lost Chapel of SC Mission Discovered?"". Santa Cruz Sentinel.
  29. Kimbro, Edna E., Mary Ellen Ryan and Robert H. Jackson, with Randall T. Milliken, and Norman Neuerburg. "Restoration Research, Santa Cruz Mission Adobe." Santa Cruz Mission State Historical Park 1985. (on file California State Parks, Santa Cruz District).
  30. Allen, Rebecca (1998). "Native Americans at Mission Santa Cruz, 1791-1834". Perspectives in California Archaeology,. 5: 31.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  31. Strong, Emory (1975). ""The Enigma of the Phoenix Button"". Historical Archaeology. 9: 74–80.
  32. Sprague, Roderic (1998). ""The Literature and locations of the Phoenix Button"". Historical Archaeology. 32 (2): 56–77.
  33. "Yesteryear of Mission Hill Tunnel". Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  34. "South Pacific Coast Railroad History". Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  35. "Mission Hill Tunnel – Santa Cruz Trains". Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2018.

References
  • Engelhardt, Z. (1915). The Missions and Missionaries of California, Volume 4. Santa Barbara, Calif: Mission Santa Barbara.
  • Forbes, Alexander (1839). California: A History of Upper and Lower California. Cornhill, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
  • Jones, Terry L. and Kathryn A. Klar (eds.) (2007). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Altimira Press, Landham, MD. ISBN 978-0-7591-0872-1.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Krell, Dorothy (ed.) (1979). The California Missions: A Pictorial History. Sunset Publishing Corporation, Menlo Park, CA. ISBN 978-0-376-05172-1.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Leffingwell, Randy (2005). California Missions and Presidios: The History & Beauty of the Spanish Missions. Voyageur Press, Inc., Stillwater, MN. ISBN 978-0-89658-492-1.
  • Levy, Richard. (1978). William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. 8 (California). Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. p. 486. ISBN 978-0-16-004578-3.
  • Milliken, Randall (1995). A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769–1910. Ballena Press Publication, Menlo Park, CA. ISBN 978-0-87919-132-0.
  • Paddison, Joshua (ed.) (1999). A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush. Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA. ISBN 978-1-890771-13-3.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Ruscin, Terry (1999). Mission Memoirs. San Diego: Sunbelt Publications. ISBN 978-0-932653-30-7.
  • Yenne, Bill (2004). The Missions of California. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, CA. ISBN 978-1-59223-319-9.
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