The place is in Gilroy. We parker our vehicle near a sign that read the Plaza Hotel. Walked in and the best sight was above the cash counter, we could see a map on history of California. A wonderful pictorial illustration. Mental note - Some day if we have a home in California, I would like to have this in my history room...where I will have all my crazy historical artifacts like my sword, maps etc.
We walked into the hotel to see wonderful historic stuff. This place was built in 1858 by Angelo Zanetta. As you walks around you can see the history of the place, There are maps around which show all the Missions in Old California. As we walked on, we could see the restaurant part with its original menu. Talk went on to the inflation level in India and US. From there we moved on to the bar area where there were some board games played by men during the 1800s. There was a reference to Tiburcio Vasquez who was an infamous outlaw during late 1800s, and a little bit of history about him. A creaky staircase led us to the Womens room and the guest room. It still gave a fine view of the creek, and I could see some water out there. From there we walked on to the courtyard. On one side was the millet which horses used to turn. My wonderful wife had a bright idea to try and turn it herself...Very amusing! Thereon we walked to the outside kitchen area. Huge cauldrons all around and a lot of other stuff. Then I walked on to the garden area while others walked back. It had a lot of fruits listed out there. Wonder, how many of them were recent adaptations...and wonder how many genetic mutants this one would have as compared to the one planted by Zanetta.
Then we walked back to the car. I could see a huge Plaza stabe right across the street. Think it has been converted to some fire engine station. The little one was getting hungry, so walked around the town. Few bars and few restaurants, but most of them were closed. Found a Mexican place for lunch...perfect choice in Spanish neighborhood.
The next pit stop was the Mission itself. Founded in 1797 is the 15th and largest Church in the Mission chain. The mission is situated adjacent to the San Andreas Fault, and has suffered damage from numerous earthquakes. However, the mission was never entirely destroyed at once. It was restored initially in 1884, and then again in 1949. You will definitely recognize it as the spot of Hitchcock's Vertigo...
There was the library area where there lots of Spanish inscriptions, and probably a Latin or Spanish Bible. The living room was a magnificient area. Historical facts that I read along the way...In 1797, Father Junipero Serra led a Roman Catholic pilgrimage to bring Christianity to the wilderness in California. For the location, he and the Franciscans chose a site at the foot of the Gavilan Mountains near the El Camino Real, which they named San Juan Bautista Mission after Saint John the Baptist.Since it was on top of the San Andreas fault it faced a lot many earthquakes. The population increased during the wearly 1800s. Two priests, Father Arroyo de la Cuesta and Father Tapis were largely responsible as per the notes for building a church and developing this site. The population increased during their times. In 1833 Mexico took over this area, once it won independence from Spain. Since they could not afford to keep the missions running as Spain had done, Mexico decided to end the system and sell all of the lands.After 1834 the town of San Juan, close beside the old mission, became known temporarily as San Juan de Castro. Jose Tiburcio Castro became the civil or secular administrator of the mission. Castro House was built in 1840-41 at the request of his son Jose Maria Castro to be the administrative headquarters. He took charge of this place in 1843 and became commanding general of Mexican military forces in California. During this time, the Breens came here as part of the Gold Rush movement. Patrick and Margaret Breen along with their seven children had been stranded in the Sierra Nevada for 111 days without supplies during the extraordinary snows of 1846. They were given free shelter in the mission, and also part of the Castro house. In March 1846 John C Fremont who had come to this area for survey had a few skirmishes with Castro, and had to leave the area. In July 1846 during the Mexico-US war, Californa was claimed by US. In December 1848 the Breens purchased the Castro adobe and 400 acres of prime agricultural land in the San Juan Valley. There was more story out there of the Mexican kids of Castro playing with the American kids of Breen. And then how could I forget the story where they mentioned that it was afavorite pastime in those days to have dueling wars between bisons and grizzlys (their legs tied together), which led to a decline in grizzlies eventually...
Also came across a cemetery with a wonderful poem by John P Harrington. Next to the old stone wall below the cemetery, the location of a short section of El Camino Real, The King's Highway, can still be seen. This is the highway that connected all of the California missions, and
later served as one of California's major stage and wagon roads. Even today we follow parts of this route. After a walk across this route to the end of the Mission, we got back into our vehicle.A fine day with a great historic value. I do plan to come back here a few more times and go through it in detail. Attached is a little walking tour map that I found off the internet for this area.
