The Carmel Mission… When the Spaniards agreed to establish the second mission of the chain on Vizcaino’s Monterey Bay, Governor Gaspar de Portolá went by land, but Father Serra went by sea. After both parties met at the evergreen-scented harbor, Portolá realized he had failed to recognize the place on his land expedition of the year before while searching for that same harbor.
Two days after his arrival, on June 3, 1770, Father Serra founded Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo at the site of the present Presidio Chapel in Monterey. Only a year later, the eager Padre again separated his Indian charges from the Spanish soldiers, moving the mission five miles away to Carmel Valley, on the other side of the Monterey Peninsula. At that lovely place, Father Serra established his headquarters. Monterey became an important port, and Presidio, the northernmost in those early years, and the Capital City of the Californias.
Father Serra did not live to see the period of greatest prosperity of the California missions nor the building of the impressive monuments we see along El Camino Real today. Most of the churches, even so, were built only of adobe with thick, plastered walls. Only at Carmel Mission and three other locations were enough skilled artisans to design and build with stone.
The stone church at Carmel is different from all others in the chain in that the walls taper inward, forming a catenary arch rather than the usual flat ceiling. From the exterior, the unique and impressive bell tower, with its outside stairway, shows a definite Moorish influence. The great church was four years in the building when the Franciscan Missionaries dedicated it in 1797. Father Junípero Serra now lies buried under the altar.
The Indian population had dwindled by the 1820s. By 1836, two years after the secularization of Mission Carmel, the destruction of mission life was completed. The church and quadrangle were essentially in ruins when the first efforts at restoration began in 1884. Then in 1931, a layman, Harry Downie, came to Carmel as curator in charge of restoring the mission. From that time until he died in 1980, Harry dedicated his life to the California missions, working on numerous restorations other than that at his beloved Carmel Mission.
Carmel Mission was Father Serra’s favorite, and he lies buried under the altar in its beautiful church, the second founded in the California chain. On its splendid site at the mouth of the Carmel Valley and overlooking the sea, the old mission has survived years of neglect and is now one of the outstanding historic landmarks in California. Much of the stateliness of its early days has been recaptured in the careful restoration of the buildings, while the beauty of its gardens is unsurpassed. The Moorish influence in the architecture of the church is unique.