“A landmark in peril:” Push to preserve Mission San Juan Bautista

UPDATE 10/14/15 10:20 PM:

A historic house of worship is at risk of falling into ruin. The Old Mission San Juan Bautista needs millions of dollars in repairs. The 218-year-old mission faces two major threats – earthquakes and El Nio.

There’s more than 200 years’ worth of history within the walls of the Old Mission San Juan Bautista.

“This was the stopping point between San Francisco and Monterey in the old days,” volunteer Dave Jones said.

It also played a part during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Several scenes of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” were filmed there. However the reality is, the church is starting to crumble.

Mary Edge and other parishioners are creating a nonprofit to repair the mission.

“You can see where it (the wall) is just swelling,” Edge said. “The adobe doesn’t have any breathing room so it’s starting to buckle. And the buttress that I showed you in the cemetery, that is starting to lean and buckle also.”

Rain has taken its toll, not to mention, it’s mere feet from the unpredictable San Andreas Fault line. Restoration isn’t cheap, initial costs are coming in at $14 million.

“They’ll have to remove the entire roof and they’ll have to put in scaffolding,” said Lauren Kehoe-Ross said. “They’ll redo the roof. They’ll sink huge beams down into the walls and they’re going to repair and protect what they can because foremost is to keep the historical nature of this building because it’s so important historically.”

But it’s a different story for the Carmel Mission, which recently secured funding for preservation. In the meantime, San Juan Bautista is scrambling.

“Our community is a small one,” Kehoe-Ross said. “And our demographic is such that we do not have people that can come in and give us a million dollars. We are really desperately seeking and begging people to help us.”

And because each parish is responsible for maintenance and repair of its buildings, they can’t turn to the Diocese of Monterey for funding.

“It’s a dire situation,” Kehoe-Ross said. “It really is immediate. This is really a landmark in peril and it’s one that is not going to make it if we don’t do something quickly and definitely to save this church. We don’t have time to put it off, it needs to be done immediately.”

Right now, the Mission San Juan Bautista Prevention Fund is working on a website, but has a Facebook and Twitter page.

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Mission San Juan Bautista said it’s trying to protect its historic building from damage in case of a major earthquake or rain damage from an El Nio. But the cost to repair and retrofit the building is about $14 million.

Parishioners said it’s up to them to come up with the money to make sure the mission safe.

NewsChannel 5 will take a look at what needs to be done and why funding isn’t available from the Catholic Church.