Santa Rosa Catholic Church - Cambria, CA - Roman Catholic Churches on Waymarking.com

"The newly founded and independent parish of Santa Rosa celebrated its first Mass on Sunday, September 11, 1960. Between September and December of 1960, Fr. Morgan continued to also serve the Cayucos parish and lived in its rectory. In December of 1960, Fr. Laurence O’Sullivan assumed full-time service of the Cayucos parish, and Fr. Morgan moved into a rented stucco house on Bridge Street in Cambria. For the first time in 50 years, the Cambria and Cayucos Catholic churches were completely independent of one another. Through his homilies, home visits, and answers to parishioners, many questions about Fr. Morgan’s unexpected arrival and intentions for the new parish soon became clear: he was sent to raise funds for a new church at a new location.

In 1961, He instituted a church building program. He set out a schedule for 156 weeks. He appointed a site selection and building committee that included: Constant Fiscalini, Peter Negranti, Sr. Ray Ross, Leo Nock, Pico Soto, and Johnny Fiscalini. He also enlisted 20 men (including the six previously mentioned) to visit each family of the parish at their homes to obtain monetary pledges for the three-year building program.

Lucy M. Fiscalini, a Cambria native and member of the Green Valley Fiscalinis, generously donated a site for the new church on part of her town ranch, which at that time included what is now the CCSD yard on Rodeo Grounds Road, the Rabobank located next to us, and her ocean pasture now known as the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. (A few years before this generous act, Miss Fiscalini donated nearby land to the Cambria Lion’s Club for the Cambria Youth Center. Her best-laid plans for the town’s young people did not come to be; the land and its building were later transferred to San Luis Obispo County and renamed the Veteran’s Memorial Building.) Father Morgan engaged John R. Ross, a San Luis Obispo architect, to design the new church. Mr. Ross stated in numerous newspaper interviews that his design for the church had “absolutely nothing traditional about it.” One interview continued, “I looked at the pine trees on the town’s surrounding hills and the water tanks on local ranches and tried to fit the structure to the terrain.” His controversial hexagonal design or six concrete buttresses supporting laminated wood beams rising to gather at the top contained 4,750 square feet with a seating capacity of 400...." (visit link)

Type of Church: Church Status of Building: Actively in use for worship Archdiocese: Los Angeles Diocese: Monterey Address/Location: 1174 Main Street Cambria, CA USA Relvant Web Site: [Web Link] Date of organization: Not listed Date of building construction: Not listed Dominant Architectural Style: Not listed Associated Shrines, Art, etc.: Not listed

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