An Incorporation Before Incorporation

From historian Pamela Hallan-Gibson's esteemed perspective, San Juan Capistrano was incorporated long before its official cityhood in April 1961.

"It all began with ," she said Tuesday night during a lecture that was part of a yearlong series of events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the town's official incorporation.

With the founding of Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1775, the seventh in a chain of 21 along California's coast, the town and Orange County were born, albeit not as most know it today. Precedents, however, were set for historic preservation and the retention of a semirural, equestrian lifestyle.

Once Gibson was driving down Camino Capistrano when she noticed somebody riding a horse on the sidewalk in front of the escalator that goes up to Ruby's and, she said, she thought to herself: "Where else are you going to see people riding horses in downtown?"

In 1775, "religion was the common purpose ... self-sufficiency was the goal," Gibson contended. There was also governance by Franciscan priests and an economy based on agriculture and a barter system—key ingredients to establishing a self-governing municipality, she explained.

While the mission's facade decayed and its economic vitality crumbled at the onset of the Mexican period—when Indians were emancipated and the mission system desecularized of Catholicism—the mission's founding years laid the groundwork for another unofficial incorporation in 1841, Gibson said.

In that year, the land enveloping the mission grounds was divided into lots for farms and homes; rancheros learned blacksmithing, cattle-ranching and other skills while cultivating large, fertile plots; businesses began occupying nearby adobes; and proceeds from shared crops were used to pay for amenities.

Although that attempt at "incorporation" also left a legacy for residents to build upon in 1961, by the time the American period began in 1848 with the succession of California, not enough people had occupied the land, and administration at the mission—which governed the Indian pueblo—was shaky, Gibson said.

It wouldn't be until the mid-20th century that the thousand or so residents who lived in San Juan were compelled to file with the county of Orange for incorporation. The platform: the 5 freeway opened in 1959, bypassing downtown and San Juan's high school was closed, reopening in neighboring San Clemente.

Residents wanted local control.

Gibson's account of the town's incorporation is well-documented in a book she wrote in the 1990s, Two Hundred Years in San Juan Capistrano. Although a master historian of this mission town, she told the approximately 30 people in attendance that it had been years since she peeled back its white cover.

On a flight into town from her home in Sonoma, she reacquainted herself with its 192 pages, "I haven’t read the book in so many years, [I feared] if someone asked me a question, I may not be able to answer it," she joked.

That didn't happen.

She was asked about the conversion of street names from Anglo words to Spanish ones, which she explained was a decision made in 1865 when township maps were filed.

There were "people in town in the 1920s who really thought it was important to return to the town's Spanish heritage ... they actually petitioned the county to change the names to some of the names we have today," she responded.

Del Obispo Street was once named McKinley Avenue, Broadway was the name for the strip of road in front of the mission, and what is known as Ortega Highway today was actually Spring Street, which took travelers all the way to Lake Elsinore.

"It was done to focus on the wonderful heritage that we have," she said.

Capistrano Dispatch editor Jonathan Volzke asked Gibson her thoughts on things that she believed should or shouldn’t have happened in more recent times. He referred to a black and white photo of downtown that she had shown, depicting a large hotel, post office and city hall in downtown—all institutions that have either been relocated a few blocks from the town's center, or torn down.

"You're asking that question of someone who owns a T-shirt that has a picture of the current City Hall that says, 'Outta here!' " she said, making a reference to modern attempts to build a new city hall closer to downtown. Gibson went on to tell of historic buildings that were moved around, using horses and buggies.

When the San Juan Hot Springs in what is now Caspers Wilderness Park closed in the 1930s, it wasn't just the that was brought into town. "They also brought quite a lot of cottages to Mission Flats; they actually loaded them onto the backs of wagons."

She concluded her brief but sweeping lecture with a nod toward the future.

"If you continue to build on core values and preserve things unique to this community, I contend the city’s centennial celebration is going to be a very happy and successful one," she said.