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 Diego Alcala, by Henry Chapman Ford, ca.1883. The mission consists of the two-story church and several smaller buildings. The church features a multi-curved parapet where on the peak sits a cross. Behind the church is a wall with multicurved parapets and supported by large wooden beams. A palm tree stands below the hill in front of the mission. A line of birds is crossing the sky overhead. "It was a pitiful group of missionaries and soldiers who gathered on the shore of San Diego Bay on July 1, 1769. Of the 219 Spaniards who had left Lower California two months before, only half were still alive. Of the survivors, many were sick and exhausted. Even so, after two weeks' rest Governor Portola gathered the strongest men about him and set off northward in an attempt to locate Vizcaino's Bay of Monterey. Two days later, on July 16, 1769, a crude brushwood shelter had been erected. There Father Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá, which was to be the first of the famous California missions. The Indians, however, were slow in accepting the blessings offered. They approached the strangers with extreme caution at first, then later wandered about the new settlement stealing whatever they found the chance to carry away. Father Serra considered the loss of a few trinkets a small price to pay for the friendship of the natives, but the Spanish soldiers were resentful. When it appeared the Indians were approaching to steal in force, they were fired upon and quickly scattered by the soldiers. Naturally any conversions were thus considerably delayed. -- unknown author (part 1 of 2). "Eventually the mission was moved six miles inland to separate mission and presidio. A later Indian attack, which could easily have been repulsed by the soldiers, destroyed the buildings, and killed a priest and two workmen. Then the mission was moved back to the presidio. But, that arrangement was no more satisfactory the second time than the first time, and the inland site became the final location of the San Diego Mission. The church of today was not completed until 1813. During the next 54 years the Spanish padres established a chain of 21 missions to the California Indians, which stretched along the coast for 600 miles from San Diego to Sonoma, north of San Francisco Bay. Originally the San Diego Mission and the Spanish presidio, or fort, were located on the hill above Old Town San Diego, but the mission was soon moved to its present location five miles up the San Diego River. Mexican secularization laws took away the vast mission property. It was not until 1862 that a mere 22 acres were returned to the Church by the U. S. Congress. The original buildings were in ruins. In 1931 restoration began which exactly duplicated the Padres' church and bell wall." -- unknown author (part 2 of 2).
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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