The Journal of San Diego History
Summer 1992, Volume 38, Number 3
Contents of This Issue
The Sacred and the Profane:
The Restoration of Mission San Diego de Alcala 1866-1931
Journal front cover: Articles from the San Diego Union, September 13 and 14, 1931.
Journal back cover: Articles from the San Diego Union, July 2, 1919, and July 13, 1930.
Page 138. Newspaper advertisements carried in the San Diego Union in 1919, pleaded for public donations to the restoration project.
Page 140. Ruins of the Mission in the 1890s showed the abysmal condition of the church nave.
Page 141. Ruins of the nave, ca. 1900.
Page 142. Charles F. Lummis in March 1917.
Page 144.
Page 145. Albert V. Mayrhofer, chairman and treasurer of the Mission San Diego de Alcalá Restoration Committee.
Page 147. A ground-breaking ceremony on July 16, 1930, began the Mission restoration project. Msgr. Haggarty is shoveling the first spadeful of dirt with Albert Mayrhofer standing to his left.
Page 148. By the 1920s only a few architectural features remained from the original church structure.
Page 149. H.M.T. Powell provided the earliest depictions of the Mission in 1850. This drawing was purchased by Cave J. Couts, who added a false date and his own signature.
Page 151. Construction crews laying the foundation and walls of the mission nave and adjacent rooms, July 16, 1930.
Page 152. Wooden beams destined to serve as ceiling beams, roof tresses, and rafters, are "aged" by workman covering the wood with wet adobe.
Page 152. Carpenter wire-brushes the massive redwood doors of the church's main entry.
Page 153. Thousands of visitors witnessed a solumn pontifical high mass held in the newly restored mission church. A special radio hookup allowed the service to be heard throughout the western United States.
Page 154. Mission San Diego de Alcalá was rededicated on September 13, 1931.
