Mission Santa Clara

These two photographs actually show the same mission, Mission Santa Clara de Asis. Founded in 1777, Mission Santa Clara featured several different churches over the years. The bottom photograph shows the mission church as it appeared from roughly 1861 to 1926. In the 1860s, Santa Clara College President Burchard Villager, S.J., decided to rebuild many of the buildings on the campus. In the process, the mission church was renovated in the Italianate style, with a second bell tower. This Italianate-style church burned in 1926. The church was then rebuilt in its current form, as shown in the upper photograph. This church is a modern reconstruction of the fifth church on the site, the original of which was destroyed by fire in 1825.

Identification Information:

Upper Photograph: Photographer unknown, circa 1986. Inserted into pages of "The Old Spanish Missions of California: An Historical and Descriptive Sketch by Paul Elder -- Illustrated Chiefly from Photographs by Western Artists (New York: Paul Elder and Company, 1913), Roger Larson Collection, 97-01-17(543).

Lower Photograph by William M. McCarthy, circa 1910. William M. McCarthy Photograph Collection, 96-07-08.5.109.