ENDANGERED MISSIONS

The preservation spotlight is currently on California's historic missions - many of which are more than 200 years old, and crumbling. Earthquakes, termites and watersheds have added to the natural stress of age and use. And the state's budget deficit has prevented any meaningful commitment of funds. Mission San Miguel alone needs as much as $15 million for earthquake retrofitting and cracks in the adobe foundation. To see what needs to be done in each of the 22 missions, go to the California Missions Foundation website.

 
 
See a map and take a virtual tour of the California missions with Thomas E. Simonetti.

For a detailed, illustrated walk through Mission San Antonio, San Javier's Reredos, Mission Santa Ines, El Presidio de Santa Barbara, and the Royal Presideo Chapel (San Carlos Cathedral of Monterey), visit the California Mission Studies Association site.

Private funding has supported much needed emergency repairs and planning over the past decade, but work on a much larger scale is required if the missions are to meet 21st century demands as educational and heritage tourism sites in addition to serving their original religious purpose. California's Congressional representatives have introduced legislation to undertake these repairs. (There was some question of whether public funds should be directed to restore buildings owned and used by religious institutions, but according to Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who introduced the Senate bill, great care has been taken to allocate the funds for archaeological and historic preservation only.)

The California Missions Preservations Act (HR 1446), authorizing $10 million in matching funds, was recently signed into law by President Bush. However, there is still some question regarding First Amendment issues. Stay tuned.

PRESERVATION SUCCESS STORIES

  • Arkansas Preservation Success Stories
    Starr Street in New London, CT was an early preservation success.
  • The Staten Island Historical Society has guaranteed the preservation of New York City's last working farm.
  • The Village of Waterford, VA rallied to save the historic Phillips Farm
  • Pennsylvania Preservation Success Stories
  • See the Peter Burr House Restoration in West Virginia

    • KIDS ACT

  • Young people are also saving old buildings, ships, and battle fields.

  • Samuel Huntington House
    • See how and why this Connecticut fifth grade class
    helped save the home of the "real" first President of the U.S.!

  • Warren, Rhode Island Student Ambassadors lobby for funding to restore their historical buildings.
  • Jacksonville 5th and 6th graders raised money for the children's section of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
  • Community Heritage by the fourth grade class at Battle Ground Elementery School, Battle Ground, IN.
  • Maumee, Ohio fifth graders campaign to make the Fallen Timbers Battle Site and Fort Miamis a National Historic Site.

    PRESERVATION ARCHIVES:

    NEW YORK IN THE AFTERMATH
    From our location on Washington Square, 25 blocks to the north of Ground Zero, we will periodically report on the affected historic landmark structures, the scenes of community and commemoration, and the plans for rebuilding lower Manhattan.

    		Two of the three churches closest to Ground Zero survived; one fell with the towers.
    See and read about St. Nicholas, St. Paul's, and St. Joseph's. At the end of this article, we have added new resources on the planning for a memorial, collections of oral histories, and how to visit the World Trade Center site.
    In the weeks after 9/11, Union Square became the city's center of grieving and remembrance. Look back through the history of this most "public" of public spaces and forward to completion of its latest redesign.


    NATIONAL PRESERVATION RESOURCES:

  • Architecture & Historic Preservation Links - Compiled by Digital Librarian Margaret Vail Anderson, Cortland, New York
  • Historic Preservation Services Links - from the National Park Service

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