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| Santa Fe Railroad Depot, San Juan Capistrano, circa 1890s. |
Q: I hear Abe Lincoln gave Mission San Juan Capistrano back to the Church. Did he visit Orange County?
A: Definitely not. The Mexican government ended the Mission system in the 1830s and put the land in private hands. But soon after California became a state, petitions were made to the government to return the Missions to the Catholic Church. In 1863, while embroiled in a few other historic events you may have heard about, Lincoln signed documents (in Washington D.C.) returning California’s missions to the Church.
The way some folks around here carry on, you'd swear Abe had stopped for a beer at the Swallows Inn on his way down to ring the bells. There are stories that Lincoln planned to finally visit California after leaving office. Sadly, he never had the opportunity.
Q: Is there a connection between Zorro and San Juan Capistrano?
A: San Juan Capistrano was where this masked hero first swashed and buckled. New York pulp writer Johnston McCulley set the first Zorro story there: The Curse of Capistrano (1919). Unfortunately, McCulley seems to have gained all his knowledge of Spanish-Era California from encyclopedias, and his descriptions of Capistrano are decidedly vague.
When that same story was turned into the first Zorro movie – Douglas Fairbank’s “The Mark of Zorro” (1920) – portions of it were shot in San Juan Capistrano. The town also appeared in many of Zorro’s later on-screen adventures, including Disney’s popular 1950s TV version.
Zorro doesn’t return to Capistrano quite as often as the swallows, but it’s still worth watching for the mark of the Z.
Q: How did Capistrano end up with a huge Swallows Day festival but no swallows?
A: In the 1920s, the Mission's Fr. St. John O'Sullivan helped spin the story of the cliff swallows' 6,000-mile, clockwork-like annual migration into a romantic legend. In 1930, O'Sullivan's version of the tale was published in the book, Capistrano Nights, becoming a P.R. juggernaut. In the book, he credited his dear friend (and the last full-blooded Juaneño/Acjachemen) José de Gracia Cruz -- better known as Acú -- as the source of the story.
The swallows' habit of returning around March 19th each year was readily apparent to all. But Acú shared a local folktale about it with O'Sullivan: The swallows supposedly wintered in Jerusalem each winter, carrying twigs as flotation devices on which they occasionally rested during their long flight across the Atlantic. They returned each year, timing their arrival to St. Joseph's Day.
(We now know that the Swallows migrate to and from Argentina, not Jerusalem. And even at the time it was doubtful whether birds were interested in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. But their migration is remarkable nonetheless.)
After the publication of Capistrano Nights, media coverage of the swallows' return brought increasing crowds to town each March 19th. The hit song, "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano," further fed the flames.
In 1937, Capistrano High School principal Paul Richards launched what's now Fiesta de las Golondrinas to entertain the visitors. Originally featuring contests, games, and dancing, the event grew to include a trail ride and, beginning in the late 1950s, the equestrian Swallows Day Parade.
The swallows themselves still migrate but they skedaddled to the suburbs when downtown congestion and development drove them out.
Q: What’s special about San Juan Capistrano’s Hidden House Coffee building?
A: The spare, single-wall construction of the Olivares House, at 31791 Los Rios Street, reflects the scarcity of lumber before the railroad arrived in 1888. The cottage’s past ownership included San Juan pioneer names such as Forster, Rios, and Yorba. But Delfina Manriquez de Olivares (1896-1976) was its best-remembered owner.
Known for her hospitality, Olivares’ home was a neighborhood gathering place. She didn’t buy the house until 1947, but her local roots ran deep: She was a descendant of mason Isidro Aguilar, who’d overseen the construction of the Mission’s stone church in 1797. In 1970, the city’s historical society dubbed her the town Matriarch—a title she held until her death.
Thanks to legendary historical preservationist Ilse Byrnes, the Olivares House, along with the rest of California’s oldest neighborhood—the Los Rios District—is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
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