Editing Spanish missions in California (section)

=== Building restoration ===

California is home to the greatest number of well-preserved missions found in any U.S. state.<ref name="Morrison, p. 214"/><ref group=notes>Morrison: That the buildings in the California mission chain are in large part intact is due in no small measure to their relatively recent construction; Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded more than two centuries after the establishment of the [[Spanish missions in Florida|Mission of Nombre de Dios]] in [[St. Augustine, Florida]] in 1565 and 170 years following the founding of [[Spanish missions in New Mexico|Mission San Gabriel del Yunque]] in present-day [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]] in 1598.</ref> The missions are collectively the best-known [[historic]] element of the coastal regions of California:
* Most of the missions are still owned and operated by some entity within the Catholic Church.
* Three of the missions are still run under the auspices of the [[Franciscan]] Order (Santa Barbara, San Miguel Arcángel, and San Luis Rey de Francia)
* Four of the missions (San Diego de Alcalá, San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, San Francisco de Asís, and San Juan Capistrano) have been designated [[minor basilica]]s by the [[Holy See]] due to their cultural, historic, architectural, and religious importance.
* Mission La Purísima Concepción, Mission San Francisco Solano, and the one remaining mission-era structure of Mission Santa Cruz are owned and operated by the [[California Department of Parks and Recreation]] as State Historic Parks;
* Seven mission sites are designated [[National Historic Landmark]]s, fourteen are listed in the [[National Register of Historic Places]], and all are designated as [[California Historical Landmark]]s for their historic, architectural, and archaeological significance.

[[File:Mission San Luis Rey de Francia courtyard.jpg|thumb|The courtyard of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, with California's oldest pepper tree (''[[Peruvian pepper|Schinus molle]]''), planted in 1830, visible through the arch.<ref>Young, p. 18</ref>]]

Because virtually all of the artwork at the missions served either a devotional or didactic purpose, there was no underlying reason for the mission residents to record their surroundings graphically; visitors, however, found them to be objects of curiosity.<ref>Stern and Miller, p. 85</ref> During the 1850s a number of artists found gainful employment as draftsmen attached to expeditions sent to map the Pacific coastline and the border between California and Mexico (as well as plot practical railroad routes); many of the drawings were reproduced as [[lithograph]]s in the expedition reports.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}}

In 1875 American [[illustrator]] [[Henry Ford (illustrator)|Henry Chapman Ford]] began visiting each of the twenty-one mission sites, where he created a historically important portfolio of watercolors, oils, and etchings. His depictions of the missions were (in part) responsible for the revival of interest in the state's Spanish heritage, and indirectly for the restoration of the missions. The 1880s saw the appearance of a number of articles on the missions in national publications and the first books on the subject; as a result, a large number of artists did one or more mission paintings, though few attempted a series.<ref>Stern and Neuerburg, p. 95</ref>

The popularity of the missions also stemmed largely from [[Helen Hunt Jackson]]'s 1884 novel ''[[Ramona]]'' and the subsequent efforts of [[Charles Fletcher Lummis]], [[William Randolph Hearst]], and other members of the "Landmarks Club of Southern California" to restore three of the southern missions in the early 20th century (San Juan Capistrano, San Diego de Alcalá, and San Fernando; the Pala ''Asistencia'' was also restored by this effort).<ref>Thompson, Mark, pp. 185–186</ref><ref group=notes>Thompson: In the words of Charles Lummis, the historic structures "...were falling to ruin with frightful rapidity, their roofs being breached or gone, the adobe walls melting under the winter rains."</ref> Lummis wrote in 1895,

{{blockquote|In ten years from now—unless our intelligence shall awaken at once—there will remain of these noble piles nothing but a few indeterminable heaps of adobe. We shall deserve and shall have the contempt of all thoughtful people if we suffer our noble missions to fall.<ref>"Past Campaigns"</ref>}}

In acknowledgement of the magnitude of the restoration efforts required and the urgent need to have acted quickly to prevent further or even total degradation, Lummis went on to state, <blockquote>It is no exaggeration to say that human power could not have restored these four missions had there been a five-year delay in the attempt.<ref>Stern and Miller, p. 60</ref></blockquote>

In 1911 author [[John Steven McGroarty]] penned ''The Mission Play'', a three-hour pageant describing the California missions from their founding in 1769 through secularization in 1834, and ending with their "final ruin" in 1847.

[[File:San Juan Capistrano 1880 painting.jpg|thumb|left|''Misión San Juan de Capistrano'' by Henry Chapman Ford, 1880. The work depicts the rear of the "Great Stone Church" and part of the mission's [[Cemetery|''campo santo'']].]]

Today, the missions exist in varying degrees of architectural integrity and structural soundness. The most common extant features at the mission grounds include the church building and an ancillary ''convento'' ([[convent]]) wing. In some cases (in [[San Rafael, California|San Rafael]], [[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]], and [[Soledad, California|Soledad]], for example), the current buildings are replicas constructed on or near the original site. Other mission compounds remain relatively intact and true to their original, Mission Era construction.

A notable example of an intact complex is the now-threatened Mission San Miguel Arcángel: its chapel retains the original interior [[mural]]s created by [[Salinan]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] under the direction of [[Esteban Munras]], a Spanish artist and last Spanish diplomat to California. This structure was closed to the public from 2003 to 2009 due to severe damage from the [[2003 San Simeon earthquake|San Simeon earthquake]]. Many missions have preserved (or in some cases reconstructed) historic features in addition to chapel buildings.

The missions have earned a prominent place in California's historic consciousness, and a steady stream of tourists from all over the world visit them. In recognition of that fact, on November 30, 2004, President [[George W. Bush]] signed HR 1446, the ''California Mission Preservation Act'', into law. The measure provided $10&nbsp;million over a five-year period to the California Missions Foundation for projects related to the physical preservation of the missions, including structural rehabilitation, stabilization, and conservation of mission art and artifacts. The California Missions Foundation, a volunteer, tax-exempt organization, was founded in 1998 by Richard Ameil, an eighth generation Californian.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ420.108.pdf|title=California Missions Preservation Act|website=gpo.gov|access-date=27 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050226204116/http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ420.108.pdf|archive-date=26 February 2005}}</ref> A change to the [[California Constitution]] has also been proposed that would allow the use of State funds in restoration efforts.<ref>Coronado and Ignatin</ref>