La Purisima’s Mysterious Warehouse (almacen) - UPDATE: By Tim Waag

UPDATE AFTER 10/19/2019 MISSION WAREHOUSE PRESENTATION GIVEN BY DR. FARRIS AT LA PURISIMA STATE HISTORIC PARK: 

The complete article (including these updates) can be found at:
https://timwaagblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/la-purisimas-mysterious-warehouse.html

You can find Dr. Farris' 28-page paper in PDF format here:
http://pcas.org/Vol33N4/334farrs.pdf

Dr. Farris gave a 1 hour presentation based on his 1965 - 1966 excavation of the Warehouse at La Purisima State Historic Park. I was able to ask many questions and get facts confirmed and questions answered. Here is my "shopping list" of information acquired or confirmed from that date. In addition, Dr. Farris sent me an email afterwards with 2 additional corrections, which are below. Many thanks to Dr. Farris for his tolerance of my many questions to him.
- (DR. FARRIS directed correction). Esteemed archaeologist Professor James Deetz of UCSB Archaeology / Anthropology was responsible for the 1960's excavation of the Warehouse, and Dr. Farris was involved in the 1965 - 1966 work.
- (DR. FARRIS directed correction). The warehouse structure was approximately 200 feet long and 58 feet wide - in contrast wit the larger La Purisimax Chapel and Residence adobe buildings, which were about the same width, but 300 feet long. The warehouse footprint was roughly 2/3 the length and the same width as the Chapel and Residence.
- There are no mission era records of Los Berros Canyon Warehouse construction. However, given the vagueness of communication back in that era, there is mention of a "Rancho San Antonio" Warehouse that was not far from the Purisima warehouse location. Dr. Farris believes it was possible that the Los Berros warehouse was misidentified as the Rancho San Antonio warehouse, though that seems unlikely. He showed a map of the Purisimax mission holdings that showed the Rancho San Antonio.
- Fr. Mariano Payeras, OFM did mention the warehouse in his correspondence during 1816.
- Fortunately for us that an 1850's surveyor actually took measurements of the Warehouse Foundation, so we have superbly accurate dimensions of the footprint of the building.
- The CCC may not have restored the warehouse along with the other major buildings at La Purisima because the warehouse was located on a different piece of property that was not retained for reconstruction by the CCC.
- A few other good Mission Warehouse examples survived long enough to be photographed or sketched. Buildings of similar functions at nearby missions often did not differ in design and execution. Examples of warehouse include: Temecula (Mission San Diego Assistencia), Mission San Francisco (William Dougal 1949 - Off For California: The letters, log and sketches of William H. Dougal, Gold Rush Artist. Edited by Frank M. Stanger with a forword by Joseph A. Sullivan)
- Confirmed that warehouse likely "stepped down" as there is a 9' foot drop from North to South along the long side of the warehouse.
- Warehouse rock foundation is 4.2 feet deep and much wider than the adobe walls at 4.5 - 5 feet wide.
- Few artifacts found at the warehouse during the various digs. For instance, only "one trade bead" found.
- "Cannon Bone" of a horse found at warehouse. Below the knee of a horse is the cannon bone which is also known as the 3rd metacarpal.
- "Matanza" (threshing floor?) found adjacent to the warehouse (see "Artist rendition" drawing which shows a threshing floor ). La era means "threshing floor" today. Today, Matanza means "slaughtering".
- Mission San Antonio and Santa Ines has a large circular stone "threshing floor" extant. 160 horses ran around threshing the flour! Indian's called out "yegua" (mares), "cambia" (turn) - it has been reported (somewhere in the historic record).
- Confirmed: There were no "cross walls" in the warehouse, which is unusual. Other warehouses had them, and it contributed to the stability of such a large adobe structure.
- Three infirmaries at La Purisima (many sick). 10 sets of rooms. Open rooms like a "field hospital". Should we know more about these structures.
- "Underreported structures" at La Purisima: Married Indian Housing, Warehouse, Infirmaries.
- Discussed leaving sites untouched for future exploration with "better methods" and perhaps (hopefully) "better funding". La Purisima has many such sites in these "under-reported structures".
END OF UPDATES. These updates have been incorporated into the article below.

ORIGINAL "LAS NOTICAS" (DOCENT NEWSLETTER) ARTICLE: After the massive earthquakes and flooding in 1812 destroyed the original La Purisima Concepcion site, the new mission across the Santa Ines river received a massive amount of building and growth under the dynamic leadership of Fr. Payeras. One of the first structures built at a new mission site is typically a storage building, as there is immediate need for securing food and property. Plus, in the early days, such a mission building often doubled as the church and shelter.

Historical mission records indicate that farming was already occurring at the Los Berros Canyon site before the damaging December 1812 earthquake. Given the difficulty of crossing the often raging Santa Ines river during winter and spring, it is likely that a storage building was already at the site, though there are no records to affirm this. It was not unusual for such "minor" or "unglamorous" building to go unreported.

Such was certainly the case for La Purisima in 1813 when “informes” records indicate 12,609 fanegas of grains were produced – 50% more than the next highest year at the new Los Berros site.  Mission building activity was noted in the “informes” reports under the heading “fabricas” (building activities), though mention of Purisima warehouse construction is entirely absent.

Many of us have seen the historic La Purisima site maps showing the mysterious building labeled only as “warehouse” (see Figure 1). Located at the extreme south end of the long string of Purisima’s adobe buildings, the warehouse site was originally examined by archaeologist Dr. James Deetz in the early 1960's. It was examined in more detail by senior state archaeologist Dr. Glenn Farris in 1995 - 1996. Farris subsequently wrote a 28-page article on his work which ran in the Fall 1997 edition of the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly.

Although much work was done, Farris’ paper admits that the building(s) have only received “limited examination”, and there is much more to learn. Though the report appears to be the most definitive source of information on the building, it creates as many questions as it answers!

First question: Is this large 206’ x 58’ building a “warehouse” (almacen) or a “granary” (troj)? On maps it is labeled as a “warehouse”, but is it really? Is there a difference? The storage building does not appear on any mission era map (prior to secularization), and only shows up starting in the 1854 Englehardt map. A granary stores produce from the field, whereas a warehouse is more generic storage site, and is a repository for produce and a large variety of mission supplies, such as tools and farm implements. Since it is labeled on the historic maps as a “warehouse”, let’s stick with that term, and acknowledge that as the only storage building of its type at La Purisima, it likely served as both warehouse and granary.

Second Question: Is it one building or two buildings? The maps clearly show one single solitary rectangle for the warehouse. Yet the archaeologists believe it may have been 2 buildings - this is NOT definitive, so let's stick with what we know: for now, there was only 1 building, plus some structural evidence that remains to be explored. In fact, the “artists rendition” of the warehouse identifies 2 buildings (see Figure 2) and is wildly speculative, though pretty! Initially, Figure 2 confused me, until I saw the La Purisima church on the distant horizon (for directional reference - the re-creation is looking North). Farris’ article provides archaeological evidence for 2 buildings, mainly in the variation in the width of the foundations, but NO definitive proof.

Third Question: Where is the warehouse really located? While armed with a historic map (and little else), I paced off the length of the church and cemetery, then used the relative distances on the map to locate the site of the warehouse. Apparently, I came up short. The warehouse rock foundation actually crosses Purisima Road! See Figure 3 “photograph of 1964 excavation” and Figure 4 “Warehouse Site Map”. Oops! I thought I had found the site (see Figure 5 photo), but I did not go far enough. I thought that there was nothing left but foliage where the warehouse had been, but the foundation is still there.

There are so many fascinating details in the 28-page Farris paper that I highly recommend that you read it. You can always email me at TimWaag@gmail.com if you want a PDF copy of Farris’ paper. There are so many fascinating details about this little-known building, but not enough space to include them all.