Mission San Juan Capistrano - Gallery

Gallery

• The "Alemany Plat" prepared by the U.S. Land Surveyor's Office to define the property restored to the Catholic Church by the Public Land Commission, later confirmed by presidential proclamation on March 18, 1865.

• President Abraham Lincoln's signature as it appeared on the United States Patent that restored the Mission property to the Catholic Church in 1865. This is one of the few documents that the President signed as "A. Lincoln" instead of his customary "Abraham Lincoln".

• An 1894 painting by Frederick Behre features a wildly improbable steeple over the entrance of San Juan Capistrano's "Great Stone Church" (it was incorrectly believed to portray the way the church looked before the 1812 earthquake; archaeological excavations in 1938 revealed that the steeple placement as shown in the painting was impossible). The landscape in the background of this painting was later modified by John Gutzon Borglum. Watercolor and gouache.

• An overall view of the "Mission of the Swallow" around the time of Father St. John O'Sullivan's arrival in 1910. The Mission's once-renowned California pepper tree can be seen just to the left of the adobe church's espadaña.

• Clerical historian Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M. visited Mission San Juan Capistrano numerous times, beginning in 1915.

• This 1921 view of the Mission San Juan Capistrano complex documents the restoration work that was already well underway by that time. The perimeter garden wall (including the ornate entranceway) and adjacent outbuilding are 1917 additions.

• A Moorish-style fountain inside Mission San Juan Capistrano's central courtyard, built in the 1920s through the efforts of Father St. John O'Sullivan.

• Mary Astor and Gilbert Roland starred in George Fitzmaurice's 1927 motion picture Rose of the Golden West, shot on location on the Mission grounds. The film's penultimate scene (shown here) is set amidst the ruins of "The Great Stone Church."

• A plot plan and perspective view of Mission San Juan Capistrano as prepared by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1937.

• Two of the original bells (San Vicente and San Juan) sit on display within the footprint of the original bell tower at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Damage to the smaller bell (San Juan), sustained during the 1812 earthquake, is readily apparent in this view.