The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Summer 1992, Volume 38, Number 3
Richard W. Crawford, Editor

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Journal cover

Journal front cover: Articles from the San Diego Union, September 13 and 14, 1931.

Journal cover  
Journal back cover: Articles from the San Diego Union, July 2, 1919, and July 13, 1930.

San Diego Union ad  
Page 138. Newspaper advertisements carried in the San Diego Union in 1919, pleaded for public donations to the restoration project.

Ruins of the Mission  
Page 140. Ruins of the Mission in the 1890s showed the abysmal condition of the church nave.

Ruins of the nave  
Page 141. Ruins of the nave, ca. 1900.

 
Page 142. Charles F. Lummis in March 1917.

 
Page 144.

Albert V. Mayrhofer  
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.

H.M.T. Powell sketch  
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.

Construction crews  
Page 151. Construction crews laying the foundation and walls of the mission nave and adjacent rooms, July 16, 1930.

Wooden beams

Page 152. Wooden beams destined to serve as ceiling beams, roof tresses, and rafters, are “aged” by workman covering the wood with wet adobe.

Carpenter  
Page 152. Carpenter wire-brushes the massive redwood doors of the church’s main entry.

high mass  
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.

Mission San Diego de Alcala  
Page 154. Mission San Diego de Alcalá was rededicated on September 13, 1931.