Santa Barbara-Based California Missions Foundation Secures $1.5 Million in Federal Funds to Preserve Two Historic Missions

Semi quincentennial Grant to Repair Mission Basilica San Buenaventura Plaster, Save America’s Treasures Grant to Stabilize Mission San Francisco Sanctuary

Latest Awards Bring CMF’s Federal Preservation Funding to $3.5 Million Through Five Grants Secured Over the Past Four Years

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The Santa Barbara-based California Missions Foundation (CMF) has been awarded two major federal grants totaling $1.5 million from the National Park Service for critical preservation projects at two of California’s most historic missions: Mission Basilica San Buenaventura in Ventura and Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) in San Francisco.

The two $750,000 awards continue an extraordinary period of preservation funding secured by the California Missions Foundation. Over the past four years, CMF has received five federal grants totaling $3.5 million for the preservation of California’s historic treasures.

The latest awards will allow CMF, working in partnership with the respective missions, to undertake significant preservation projects designed to protect these historic structures and ensure that important elements of California’s early history remain accessible to future generations. The California Missions Foundation is the recipient of both federal grants and will serve as grant administrator for the two projects.

“On behalf of the California Missions Foundation, we are honored to have helped secure these two important federal grants for critical preservation work at Mission San Buenaventura and Mission San Francisco de Asís,” said CMF Chairman Michael H. Imwalle. “Both missions keep alive important chapters of California’s history and the remarkable stories of the California missions and the Native American communities connected to them. These historic buildings and landmarks are irreplaceable, and CMF remains committed to doing everything possible to help preserve and protect them so that their history can continue to be shared with generations to come.”

“It is rewarding to see federal funds combining with local support to make important preservation projects possible,” said CMF Executive Director David Bolton. “Collaboration is at the heart of CMF as we continue to work on major projects at these California landmarks and historic treasures.”

$750,000 for Mission Basilica San Buenaventura

Mission Basilica San Buenaventura has received a $750,000 National Park Service Semi quincentennial Grant for urgently needed exterior plaster repairs to the historic mission church.

For more than a year, sections of exterior plaster have been falling from the church because of moisture and water-related deterioration. The problem became serious enough that the mission’s historic main entrance has been closed to protect parishioners and visitors from falling plaster.

The federally funded project will address the deteriorated exterior plaster throughout the historic church. Existing plaster will be removed and replaced with a historically appropriate, breathable plaster system designed to allow moisture trapped within the walls to escape rather than remain behind the exterior surface. The work is intended both to correct the current deterioration and to provide a more sustainable preservation solution for the historic structure.

“On behalf of our pastor, Fr. Harrigan, the parishioners of the Mission Basilica San Buenaventura, the citizens of Ventura, school children who come to learn: the history of the Mission, the Chumash, and early California, as well as pilgrims and tourists alike…I thank the California Missions Foundation and the National Parks Service for helping to preserve this historic site,” said Father Tom Elewaut, pastor emeritus at Mission Basilica San Buenaventura. “The phrase ‘it takes a village’ is apropos today as we announce this National Parks Service award of the Semi Quincentennial Grant to preserve this historic Mission.”

Founded in 1782, Mission San Buenaventura also has a direct connection to the era of the American Revolution. Residents of the Spanish settlements of Alta California, including the Santa Barbara Presidio District, participated in the Donativo, a monetary contribution collected in Spain’s American territories to help support Spain’s involvement in the war against Great Britain during the struggle for American independence. This historic connection helped make the mission preservation project particularly appropriate for funding through the National Park Service’s Semi quincentennial Grant Program commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States.

$750,000 for Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)

A second $750,000 National Park Service Save America’s Treasures Grant has been awarded to the California Missions Foundation for a major preservation project at Mission San Francisco de Asís, commonly known as Mission Dolores, as San Francisco commemorates the 250th anniversary of its founding.

The project centers on one of the mission’s most important historic features: the monumental wooden reredos located behind the altar of the 1791 mission church.

The project will allow for the carefully engineered movement and retrofit of the historic reredos, creating access to the space behind it and making possible the long-awaited conservation and eventual public interpretation of the extraordinary 1791 Native Ohlone mural located on the wall behind the reredos.

The mural was painted by Native Ohlone artists under the direction of the Franciscans in 1791, as mission officials awaited the arrival of the elaborate wooden reredos commissioned for the church. The reredos, created in Mexico City by renowned craftsman José María Uriarte, did not arrive at Mission San Francisco de Asís until 1797, six years after completion of the church and the mural.

For more than two centuries, the reredos has largely concealed the mural. The new preservation project represents an important step toward providing appropriate access behind the reredos for conservation, environmental monitoring and interpretation of the mural while simultaneously protecting and seismically securing the historic reredos itself.

The project will bring increased attention to an extraordinary surviving expression of Native Ohlone artistry and the complex history of the mission period at the oldest intact building in San Francisco.

$3.5 Million in Federal Preservation Funding

The two new awards continue a significant period of federal preservation investment secured by the California Missions Foundation. During the past four years, CMF has received five federal grants totaling $3.5 million for preservation projects benefiting California’s historic missions and related treasures.

The federal awards have allowed CMF to undertake preservation projects that would otherwise be difficult to accomplish solely through private fundraising and demonstrate the importance of partnerships among federal agencies, the California Missions Foundation, individual missions, preservation professionals, donors and local communities.

Founded in 1998, the California Missions Foundation is dedicated to preserving and protecting California’s 21 historic Franciscan missions and related historic sites and to supporting educational programs that help students, and the public better understand the diverse people, cultures and experiences that shaped the mission era and early California.

The California Missions Foundation will administer both new federal awards and work with mission officials, preservation architects, conservators and other specialists as the projects move through the required planning, review and implementation process.