Serra Cross (San Buenaventura Mission Cross) - Ventura, California
Posted by: 
Rose Red
N 34° 17.076 W 119° 17.774
11S E 288636 N 3796099
Quick Description: The Serra Cross (San Buenaventura Mission Cross) is a large wooden cross, about 20 feet high, set in a circular stone pedestal, on the brow of a hill about ¼ mile NE of the San Buenaventura Mission located on Main Street in Ventura, California.
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 5/10/2008 10:24:13 AM
Waymark Code: WM3RB9
Views: 123
Long Description:The Serra Cross (San Buenaventura Mission Cross) is a large wooden
cross, about 20 feet high, set in a circular stone pedestal, on the
brow of a hill about ¼ mile northeast of the San Buenaventura
Mission located on Main Street in Ventura, California.
On Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782, Spanish missionary, Father
Junipero Serra, founded Mission San Buenaventura. On the beach
south of the present-day mission church, he blessed an area of land
and planted a wooden cross. Shortly after the Mission’s founding, a
large wooden cross was planted on top of a hill overlooking the
Mission church. The land on which the cross was erected did not
become a city park until 1918 when Kenneth and Tonie Grant donated
107 hillside acres to the City of San Buenaventura. In 1941, the
city replaced the former cross with the one that stands here
today.
In the spring of 2003, the wooden cross located in Grant Park
was threatened by a potential constitutional lawsuit charging that
the principle of separation of church and state was being violated
by the City of San Buenaventura’s ownership and maintenance of a
cross. Similar lawsuits in other communities had resulted in those
cities being forced by the courts to divest themselves of their
crosses. The City of San Buenaventura City Council voted on July
31, 2003, to sell the cross and an acre of land surrounding it to
the highest bidder. On September 22, 2003, the Serra Cross Park was
sold to San Buenaventura Heritage, Inc., the highest bidder, for
$104,216.87.