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 drawing of Mission San Buenaventura taken from Alfred Robinson's book, "Life in California", page 49, California, ca.1839. Two people are walking up a path that leads to the two to three-story church building. To the right of the church stand a bell tower with multi-level decks (where bells hang) and a dome roof. Various buildings and six teepees make up this mission community. Two cows(?) are grazing in the fields (foreground). Mountains are visible in the distance. "It was on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782, that Father Serra founded the mission, San Buenaventura, which proved to be the last he established personally. The Spanish King had changed his position again, claiming that a few white settlers were of greater value than any number of Indians. Father Serra argued that the money to found the missions came from the privately collected Pious Fund. The King replied that by law he administered the Pious Fund. New missions would be churches only, without usual industries supported by Indian labor. Serra ignored the new rules at Ventura, which temporarily halted further expansion. Even so, under the old rules, Ventura was quickly most prosperous. A reservoir and aqueduct system seven miles long supplied fields stretching to the very shore of the blue Pacific, growing, according to one record, 'astounding' varieties of agricultural products. Of course, with secularization, those rules originally ignored were completely enforced. By 1845 all the lands and even the church itself had been confiscated, although the church and a few bits of other property were eventually returned. The sleepy village beside the mission suddenly blossomed in 1887 with the arrival of the railroad. Now located on the main street of the city of Ventura, and hemmed in by the business community, it might be difficult to imagine that the old church was once surrounded by orchards, vineyards, and grain fields which made it a garden spot of the missions, thanks to the aqueduct. Two huge Norfolk Island pines in the garden between the church and little museum are 100 years old, reputedly planted by a sailing captain who hoped to grow a forest for use as masts. In the museum are two old wooden bells, the only ones of their type known in California." -- unknown author.
Type
image
Format
2 photographs : glass photonegative, photoprint, b&w 21 x 26 cm. glass plate negatives photographic prints photographs art
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