Historical Marker · No. 250
Old Sites of Mission Santa Clara de Asis and Old Spanish Bridge
Santa Clara, Santa Clara County · California
Erected by Santa Clara Lions Club, in conjunction with Rev. Harry Walsh, S.J., 1953
No state plaque marks the mission's first sites. The register puts the first mission at the village it spells So-co-is-u-ka, among the people it calls Costanoan, now Ohlone. The Guadalupe flooded that site in 1779, and the mission moved to a second one, marked here, until 1784. The only marker was a carved granite cross, fourteen feet tall, that the Santa Clara Lions Club gave the city in 1953. After the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued over a cross on public land, the city gave it to Santa Clara University, and it left the park in January 2017.
What the plaque says
Second site 1779-1784 Mission Santa Clara de Asis Original site January 12 1777 Founded by the Franciscan Fathers 967 yards north, 334 yards south of Bayshore Highway Bridge No. 37-64 Erected by Santa Clara Lions Club January 12 1953 In conjunction with Rev. Harry Walsh. S. J
Where it stands
37.36650, -121.94148 · Directions
More markers nearby
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- Santa Clara Women's Club Adobe — 1.0 mi
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- Mission Santa Clara — 1.2 mi