Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Public Domain. Release under the CC BY Attribution license--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/--Credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Send requests to address or e-mail given USC Libraries Special Collections specol@usc.edu
Description
Photograph of a painting of Mission Santa Clara by Andrew P. Hill as it appeared in 1849, 1880. The church, at right, has a tall square bell tower at its left corner. A low iron fence encloses the small yard in front of the main entry. A long low building extends as a wing from the church to the left. People are gathered near the fence in front of the church. The foreground illustrates horsemen riding around in the wide-open space front of the church. An ox is hauling a wagon with six passengers. A large cross is mounted on a platform on the rocky area at left. "It was the intention of the padres to found another mission in pretty meadowland a few miles south of San Francisco Bay as soon as the San Francisco mission was well established. The mission of Santa Clara indeed was established only three months later on January 12, 1777. To the dismay of the missionaries, in six more months there arrived a large group of colonists from Mexico. The padres did their best to keep the mission and the pueblo separated, well knowing the detrimental influence of civilians on the neophytes. Ultimately, mission and pueblo grew into the twin cities of Santa Clara and San Jose. In 1784 the mission had to be abandoned because of damage from a great flood. A new site on higher ground was soon occupied, with the help of skilled artisans from the pueblo whose work gave the buildings a much more professional appearance. Yet this skill came to naught in 1818 when an earthquake effectively destroyed the mission again. With seemingly boundless energy the padres built a third time, with everything completed by 1825." -- unknown author. "Natural disasters did not prevent Mission Santa Clara from achieving great prosperity, being exceeded at the time only by San Gabriel in the importance of its possessions. Under Mexican authority mission activity disappeared, however. In 1851 the property was given to the Jesuits who founded, and still maintain, the University of Santa Clara on the old mission site. Today a section of garden wall on the campus is all that remains of original mission buildings. Today's university chapel was built after the fire of 1926, its design a faithful reproduction of the old mission church of a century earlier. The bell tower contains the original bells sent from Spain so long ago." -- unknown author.
Type
image
Format
4 photographs : glass photonegative, photonegative, photoprints, b&w 21 x 26 cm., 10 x 15 cm. glass plate negatives negatives (photographic) photographic prints photographs art
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