Renewal Begins at Stone Church : Crews Start Work at Mission San Juan Capistrano

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — After nearly 200 years of destruction and decay, the Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano is finally getting a face-lift.

Construction crews Tuesday poured concrete beams into the east wall of the crumbling church, signaling a major step forward in the mission’s $7-million project to preserve and retrofit the stone structure.

“This is a real landmark event for us,” mission administrator Jerry Miller said. “This is not just a pile of rubble. . . . It deserves to be saved.”

Dubbed the “American Acropolis” for its classical Greco-Roman style, the Great Stone Church was built in 1806 by Spanish padres and Juaneno Indians. It was the only California mission church made of stone rather than adobe and is the largest stone church in the United States.

Built from volcanic rock found in the Dana Point area and sandstone from the region of Mission Viejo, the grand church was originally 180 feet long, 85 feet wide and nearly four stories high, with curved domes and a 125-foot bell tower.

In 1812, the church roof, exterior structures and bell tower collapsed during an earthquake, killing 40 Juaneno Indians. The church walls and arches were left in ruins, exposed to the ravages of time.

Until now.

“This is the first thing that’s been done substantially in 100 years,” project architect John Loomis said. “It really is an amazing structure. It’s the most important building on the site.”

The mission put scaffolding around the ruins in 1989 to prevent further deterioration and to comply with state earthquake regulations.

Loomis, of Newport Beach-based 30th Street Architects Inc., said that treated steel rods placed inside the church wall will bind with the concrete beams to form an internal support structure.

He said the engineering efforts to preserve and protect the church are revolutionary because the east wall is being built to allow movement or a slight sway during an earthquake.

“It’s been a very unique process,” he said.

Once the retrofit and external preservation is finished this summer, scaffolding will be removed from the east wall and attention will be focused on the church’s west wall, Loomis said.

The mission’s goal is to retrofit church walls and then partially restore the remains so visitors can walk through the open church and see some of the intricate artwork and arched walkways saved by preservation.

To finance the restoration, Miller said the mission, which is self-supporting and does not receive funds from the government, any churches or the city of San Juan Capistrano, has launched a campaign to raise funds through membership tiles, gate ticket sales, events and private donations. About $500,000 has been raised so far, he said.

Last week, it was announced that Joan Irvine Smith donated $150,000 to help preserve the Great Stone Church. Miller hopes her donation will spark more private and corporate contributions to the project.

“We can take a giant step forward with her contribution,” Miller said.

Wearing a hard hat and touring the ruins, San Juan Capistrano Mayor David M. Swerdlin said the restoration efforts are exciting for both the city and the mission.

The mission brings many visitors to the community as the third largest tourist attraction in Orange County behind Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, attracting 450,000 visitors a year, 80,000 of whom are schoolchildren.

“This is the first small step in a very historic mission,” Swerdlin said.

Students visiting the mission from Terrace Elementary School in Riverside watched as crews crawled atop the tall church wall, smoothing out the newly poured concrete. First-time mission visitor Abel Soria, 9, thought it was a good idea to save the church wall because it is a part of history.

“I’ll come back and see it when it’s done,” the fourth-grader said.