My Social Studies project was to build a model of a California mission and write about it. I decided to build and write about the Santa Cruz mission. Out of 32 students in my class my model was chosen as the best and was picked to be exhibited in the library. I have attached a picture of my model, hope you like it !!!!!
Santa Cruz was founded on September 25th, 1791. Father Fermin Lasuen founded the mission and it is located at the Santa Cruz State Historic Park in Santa Cruz, California. It is the twelfth mission among the twenty-one founded along California coast. This mission was named after the Holy Cross.
The church has a stone foundation and the walls are made of adobe bricks. It is built in New England style.There is one bell-tower located on the left side of the church with the living quarters on the right. One pueblo (Mexican village) is situated across the mission. The neophytes farmed grain, corn, beans, orchards, and vegetables and raised cattle, oxen, sheep, chickens, and horses.
The rainy season in 1791 caused the San Loreno River to flood, thus the fathers moved the church up the hill. In 1812 father Andres Quintana ordered that two natives should be beat with a wire tipped with whip. In 1818 a pirate was heading towards Santa Cruz, so the fathers and the new settlers in the pueblo were planning to go to mission Santa Clara for safety. The pirates did not arrive but the new settlers stole the valuables from the mission instead of the pirates. An earthquake in 1857 destroyed the church, so the fathers rebuilt the church. Santa Cruz is no longer used as a church. It is now used as a museum and is also the headquarters of the Santa Cruz State Historic Park. It was opened as a museum in 1991, exactly 200 years after it was founded.
In conclusion the founding, design, early history and what the mission is used as today are some of the facts about the Santa Cruz Mission.
How would you have felt as a neophyte in a mission?