Above: The
Carmel Mission
courtyard on a foggy Carmel day. Photo by Mr. Toy.
Anybody who knows anything about California history has
heard of
Father Junipero Serra, and everybody on the Monterey
Peninsula knows (or ought to know) that he founded the Carmel Mission.
But between his day and ours, a lot has happened to that wonderful
landmark.
Our story begins in 1713 when Miguel
Jose Serra was born on the Spanish island of Mallorca. In 1769, after
twenty years of missionary work, he came to the Monterey Peninsula to
begin the monumental task of bringing Christianity to California and
establishing his famous chain of missions.
When he
first established his base, it was located at the Monterey Presidio,
which today is the site of the San Carlos Cathedral on Church Street.
(At that time the Presidio covered different portion of the city than
it does today.) After a short time, Serra decided to move his new
mission six miles south to a hillside overlooking the Carmel River.
This spot had the advantage of being closer to native Indian
settlements and there was ample space for agricultural development. He
also liked this site simply because it was a very pretty place
to establish his first mission.
Contrary to
popular belief, Father Serra did not build the massive stone church
which we all know and love. The first buildings on the mission site
were crude log huts. In 1771, Serra himself built a small adobe church.
When he passed away in 1784, he was buried beneath its sanctuary
alongside his close associate, Father Juan Crespi, who had died two
years earlier.
Serra was succeeded by Father
Francisco Palou, who came to the peninsula with Serra and Crespi.
However, Palou soon retired to Mexico City and the baton was then
handed to Father Fermin de Lasuen.
It was Lasuen
who oversaw the building of the big stone church at the mission. He
hired Manuel Estevan Ruiza of Mexico City, to do the actual
construction. Ruiza had just completed the Royal Presidio Chapel (San
Carlos Cathedral) in Monterey. Ruiza designed both churches using
contemporary Spanish styling. He tore down the small adobe church Serra
built so he could place the altar of his new edifice over Serra's
grave.
By 1813, the Spanish government decided to
take possession of mission properties throughout North America. The
takeover in California was delayed due to the lack of secular priests
available to staff them. After Mexico gained independence the Mexican
government completed the secularization of the California missions and
confiscated all the properties in 1834. Unfortunately, governments
aren't very good at running churches. Eventually, after years of
neglect, the beautiful arched stone roof of the church collapsed, and
the building became a forgotten ruin.
In 1846, the
Carmel mission was auctioned off and the property was purchased by a
builder in Monterey named William Garner. Garner dismantled many of the
mission buildings and used the materials to build many of the adobe
houses in Monterey. Only the shell of the main church remained. But all
was not lost. When California became a part of the United States,
President James Buchanan, showing that sometimes the government can do
things right, turned the mission properties back over to the Catholic
Church.
In 1863, Father Angelo Delfino Casanova
came to take over the parish in Monterey, and he soon took an interest
in the old Carmel mission. He managed to raise $40.00, just enough to
put a new roof over one room of the church alongside the main
sanctuary. He immediately began using that room to hold church
services. In 1879 he hit upon the idea of charging travelers a fee of
10 cents per person for tours of the church ruins, with the intent of
applying the revenue towards further restoration. After the first year
he had raised a discouraging $11.75.
But the
following year the Southern Pacific Railroad had completed construction
of the magnificent Hotel Del Monte (now the centerpiece of the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey) and completed a rail line to the
hotel. The tourism industry on the Monterey Peninsula was born, and
with it came money. Lots of it.
The hotel brought
wealthy and celebrated visitors to see the mission, enabling Father
Casanova to increase the admission to 15 cents. Many of these visitors
offered substantial additional donations and by 1884 Casanova had
enough money to build a new roof to cover the entire church. The new
roof, unlike the original curved stone roof, was a tall peaked wooden
covering. Soon after its construction, Casanova re-opened the church
and held mass within the church walls on a regular basis.
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