Spurred by a phone call during a rainstorm on Christmas Eve, the Rev. Tom Elewaut stepped outside Mission Basilica San Buenaventura to discover parts of the mission were spread everywhere.
Plaster had started chipping years earlier from the Ventura mission founded in 1782. The rain accelerated it.
“There were plaster chips all over Main Street,” he said.
Leaders of the California Missions Foundation and Elewaut, mission emeritus pastor, announced Oct. 1 that a $750,000 grant from the National Park Service will be used to preserve the Catholic church by replastering it in a three-year project.
“If we want a historic building standing, it is extraordinarily important,” Elewaut said later.
The grant means the mission will undergo a replastering process
that has helped preserve other missions, said David Bolton, executive director of the missions foundation. He noted the nonprofit had tried unsuccessfully to secure federal grant money earlier for the Ventura project.
The new money is part of nearly $12 million in National Park Service grants linked to the country’s 250th anniversary. The funding program is aimed at preserving cultural resources associated with the nation’s founding. It's designed to honor the people, events and culture that shaped the nation, said Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Services.
“These grants empower communities to tell their stories, celebrate their heritage and ensure that future generations can connect with the past in meaningful ways,” she said in a news release.
A scaffolding currently covers the front of the mission as part of exploratory work aimed at assessing the plaster needs and the extent of damage, Elewaut said. Officials are also trying to determine how heavy winter rain could impact the replastering.
At the news conference, the emeritus pastor who is also director of historic sites for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, talked of the role of the Chumash in building the mission. The Chumash inhabited the land for more than 15,000 years before colonization.
Historians note the Native Americans were urged to come to the California missions and then told told they couldn't leave. Thousands died from small pox and other diseases.
Bolton said the preservation efforts protect more than the structures, noting the missions represent stories from history – some positive, some negative.
“They are our history,” he said.
The missions foundation also announced a $750,000 grant from the National Park Service to preserve Mission Dolores in San Francisco, founded 250 years ago.
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: To see more stories like this, subscribe.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Mission San Buenaventura has suffered major damage. Here's what's next
