A Thought or 2 - Work at [not on] a Mission

Supposing that my current employment will continue on through the end of next month, (not a given), my gig as Associate Archivist for the Archdiocesan Archives will reach the four-year mark.  Like most others, this endeavor has had its pluses and minuses, its ups and downs, as well as its advantages and disadvantages. However, one aspect of this work has certainly high-lighted my time here at Mission San Fernando.  Abutting the northern slopes of the Valley is this especial site where our Archival Center is located, and it has become the most historic place at which I’ve participated in more than just casual visiting or working experiences.

Originally, the vicinity was home to local Native Americans who were drawn and tied to this particular neighborhood by comparatively abundant natural springs that surfaced the landscape of an otherwise very arid region. The ancient civilizations of the Tataviam and others that included Chumash, Kitanemuk, and Tongva speakers eventually succumbed to the dominance of the Euro-white ethnic groups that had first staggered around this place during the second-half of the 1700s A.D.  The great Carleton E. Watkins produced the first photograph of Mission San Fernando after railroads had connected the region to a larger world.  This image can  likely be dated to 1880, but can be confidently placed within the period from 1875 to 1881.

Ex-Mission San Fernando by Carleton E. Watkins c.1880

These days, the site of Mission San Fernando isn't just the locale of the Archdiocesan Archival Center and office building that was opened in 1981. It's also the setting for the 1970s church that is a replica of the c.1806 structure it replaced, and the iconic, two-story, long building known as the 'Convento' that was completed c.1820 and has retained much of its original design.

The 'Convento' at Mission San Fernando -- April 22, 1934

(Library of Congress photo)

The 'Convento' at Mission San Fernando -- Sept. 20, 2013

(Jim A. Beardsley photo)

Within the confines of this built environment that dates back to late-summer, 1797, the site of Mission San Fernando has been visited by a variety of historical figures and has been connected to an array of historic events.  Fr. Francisco Dumetz, (a native Mallorcan who arrived with the region’s first wave of Euro-missionaries), was among those whom initially established the outpost as he roamed over Southern California for roughly forty years prior to his death and burial at Mission San Gabriel in 1811.

The son of Sacagawea, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who was born in early 1805 at Fort Mandan during the Lewis and Clark Expedition probably visited in the 1840s.  Long before his likeness as an infant was ever reproduced on a series of U.S. dollar coins he was listed as the father of record of Maria Cantarina Charguana who was baptized at the Mission on May 28, 1848. 

At various times following secularization of the Mission and leading into the period of California statehood, a Californio of mixed-race ancestry was overlord around the Mission site.  It’s been fairly well documented that Gen. Andrés Pico relished his role as a committed bachelor (among many other adventures) who fancied entertaining  guests at San Fernando as they enjoyed the celebrated local wine and brandy that were still being produced from the old padres' vineyards.

For a few years around 1860 the west end of the Convento building was likely used as a supplemental station or alternative stop on the segment of the short-lived but well-known Butterfield Overland Mail Trail that ran between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  And it can be argued that the modern history of Mission San Fernando began on May 31, 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation that returned the land upon which the original buildings were sited back to Catholic ownership and administration.

Subsequent to the romanticized ‘Days of The Dons’ and coincident with another era of large-scale ranching in the Valley that peaked about 1900, the history of the 17th mission established by the Franciscans in Alta California entered into an ongoing period and process of repairing, remodeling, rebuilding, and renewal that has resulted in the Mission and site we see today.  A long list of modern-day dignitaries and celebrities that have signed the Mission guest registers includes Pope Saint John Paul II who dropped in on the third Wednesday of September during an extended papal visit (his fourth of seven) to the U.S. in 1987.

The Archival Center at Mission San Fernando - Aug. 8, 2010

(Jim A. Beardsley photo)

So, while I've not relished or been enthused by all [aspects] of the four years of time spent at San Fernando it has given me the ways and means for a continuing study of local history that I've come to value greatly.  Perhaps it is a mission after all, and not just a Mission.