Mission San Buenaventura

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Mission San Buenaventura

A view of the restored chapel at Mission San Buenaventura in July, 2005.
Location	Ventura, California
Name as Founded	La Misión San Buenaventura [1]
Translation	The Mission of Saint Bonaventure
Namesake	Saint Bonaventure
Nickname(s)	"The Mission by the Sea"
Founding Date	March 31, 1782 [2]
Founding Priest(s)	Father Presidente Junípero Serra
Founding Order	Ninth
Military District	Second
Native Tribe(s) Spanish Name(s)	Ventureño
Owner	Roman Catholic Church
Current Use	Parish Church / Museum
National Historic Landmark	#NPS–75000496
California Historical Landmark	#310
Web Site	http://www.sanbuenaventuramission.org

Mission San Buenaventura (originally ), the was founded on Easter Sunday, 1782. Named for a Franciscan theologian, it was the last of the missions founded by Father Serra. In 1793, the first church burned down. It took the neophyte workers 16 years to build the new church, which still stands today. A system of aqueducts was built by Chumash Indians between 1805–1815 to meet the needs of the Mission population and consisted of both ditches and elevated stone masonry. The watercourse ran from a point on the Ventura River about ½ mile north of the remaining ruins and carried the water to holding tanks behind the San Buenaventura Mission, a total of about 7 miles.The entire water distributiom system was destroyed by floods and abandoned in 1862. In 1893, Father Cyprian Rubio "modernized" the interior of the church, painting over the original artwork; when he finished, almost nothing remained of the old church. New priests restored the church to its original style in 1957.

Today all that remains of the original Mission is the church and its garden. Services are still held in the parish church. A small museum sits at the Mission with displays of Chumash Indian artifacts and mission-era items.

[edit] Other historic designations

• National Register of Historic Places #NPS–75000497 — Mission San Buenaventura Aqueduct
• California Historical Landmark #113 — Site of "Junípero Serra's Cross" (the first cross on the hill known as La Loma de la Cruz, or the "Hill of the Cross") can be found in Grant Park, and was erected by Junípero Serra upon the Mission's founding
• California Historical Landmark #114 — Old Mission Reservoir, part of the water system for Mission San Buenaventura (the settling tank or receiving reservoir; the site can be found in Eastwood Park)
• California Historical Landmark #114–1 — Mission San Buenaventura Aqueduct (at Canada Larga Road) consists of two surviving sections of viaduct about 100 feet long, made of cobblestone and mortar

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Leffingwell, p. 55
2. ^ Yenne, p. 88

[edit] References

Mission San Buenaventura circa 1900. Note the thickness of the chapel side wall and the massive buttresses supporting it.

• Leffingwell, Randy (2005). California Missions and Presidios: The History & Beauty of the Spanish Missions. Voyageur Press, Inc., Stillwater, MN. ISBN 0-89658-492-5.
• Yenne, Bill (2004). The Missions of California. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, CA. ISBN 1-59223-319-8.

[edit] See also

• Spanish missions in California
• USNS Mission Buenaventura (AO-111) — the lead ship in a Class of fleet oilers built during World War II.

[edit] External links

• Elevation & Site Layout sketches of the Mission proper