Mission San Buenaventura & Some Stone Work Created
from Locally-quarried Stone (Ventura, California)
Stone was used in the construction at the 21 California Spanish missions locally for walls, foundations, lintels, walkways, fountains, ditches, aqueducts, etc. Some of the photographs below demonstrate some of the uses of stone at Mission San Buenaventura and on what were once mission lands. Mission San Buenaventura suffered neglect after secularization in 1836. By 1875, some of the mission properties had been returned by the U.S. courts to the church. (Photographs taken January 2011. Peggy B. Perazzo)
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Side door to Mission San Buenaventura church with Moorish decoration |
Side door to Mission San Buenaventura church with Moorish decoration |
Closeup photo of Moorish decoration above side door to Mission San Buenaventura church |
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One of the mission’s two original wooden bells at Mission San Buenaventura |
Mortars, pestles, metates, etc., at Mission San Buenaventura |
Display of baskets at Mission San Buenaventura. The local Chumash Indians were known for their reed basketry. |
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Memorial to the Rancho Cañada Larga and piece of the old stone aqueduct |
Memorial to the Rancho Cañada Larga and the stone aqueduct built by the Indians to bring water from San Antonio Creek to Mission San Buenaventura |
Memorial of Rancho Cañada Larga and the stone and mortar aqueduct |
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Piece of old stone aqueduct made of cobblestones and mortar at the Memorial of Rancho Cañada Larga |
Another view of the piece of the old stone aqueduct (left) at the Memorial of Rancho Cañada Larga |
Small portion of the old stone aqueduct that once brought water from San Antonio Creek to Mission San Buenaventura |
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Small portion of old stone aqueduct that once brought water from San Antonio Creek to Mission San Buenaventura |
Closeup photo of small portion of the old Mission San Buenaventura stone aqueduct |
Closeup photo of small portion of the old Mission San Buenaventura stone aqueduct |
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Closeup photo of small portion of the old Mission San Buenaventura stone aqueduct |
Mission Ventura Aqueduct plaque
Ranch Cañada Larga
“Ranch Canada Larga O Verde, as it was originally known, came out of lands of the San Buenaventura Mission following Mexican Independence from Spain, Joaquina Alvarado de Moraga, whose late husband, Gabriel Moraga, was a distinguished soldier of Spanish California, petitioned and on January 30, 1841, was granted this 6,659 acres Mexican Land grant by then Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. Miss Alvarado received possession in November 1847, one year after California became part of the United States. Her claim for a land patent was denied by the U.S. Board of Land Commissioners, but later reversed by the District Court. Remnants of the mission aqueduct at Ranch Cañada Larga, a registered historic site, which carried water from San Antonio Creek to the San Buenaventura Mission can be seen across the road and at this monument.
“De La Guerra Y Pacheco Chapter 1.5, E Clampus Vitus, October 2009”
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