La Iglesia San Jose

By Jim Campos, June 25, 2020

The Raya, Molina and Saragosa families gather around Padre Francisco Escobar, left, and El Cura Elizondo, right, after a church service on 7th Street at the home of one of these families.  Alice Saragosa Vasquez

The first Catholic Church in Carpinteria was established in 1894. It was named “La Iglesia San Jose” and was a used building purchase. It had been built in 1872 by the Methodists on Upson Road, a road that still exists today, but looks more like a long driveway off the west side of Santa Monica Road as one drives towards Foothill Road. 

The Methodists sold the church to the Catholics who had no church structure of their own. The Methodists relocated to the corner of 8th Street and Maple Avenue with a used purchase of their own, buying and moving, piece by piece, one of the Santa Barbara Methodist churches that was relatively new, but had become expendible. Presumably, the Carpinteria Methodists removed the church bell and tower off the structure on Upson Road, because the Catholics were left with a church without a bell, something considered indispensible to the parishioners. 

Most of the Carpinteria Catholics were Spanish-speaking Californios, that is, Europeans originating from Spain whose predessessors had settled here. They were mostly the descendents of early Spanish expedition explorers, having Santa Barbara Presidio surnames like Rodriguez, Lobero and Hernandez. Mary Lopez, who attended the church, is quoted by Jayne Cravens Caldwell in “Carpinteria As It Was” as follows, “…there weren’t too many Catholics. Most of the people in Carpinteria in those early days were Protestants.” Indeed, there were churches in Carpinteria for Methodists, Episcopals, Baptists and Presbyterians.

A Communion celebration and the blessing of the new church bell at Iglesia San Jose, ca. 1920. Mary Raya Molina

La Iglesia San Jose did not have a bell to ring in services for at least a couple of decades. Eventually, the Catholics raised enough money to add a belfry. Caldwell quotes Mary Raya Molina, “Our little church had no bell, so they bought the bell and that day they put it on the table with a big roll of golden yellow ribbon that was about five inches wide. It had little bells painted on the ribbon. So that when they blessed that big bell, they sold little pieces of ribbon for 50 cents. They would just cut little pieces with scissors. And, then they put the bell up.”

In its history, La Iglesia San Jose never had a parish rector. Rotating priests from Mt. Carmel in Montecito visited monthly to conduct services. When the picture of the priest that accompanies this article was shown to Carpinteria native Josie Manriquez Villegas this year, just before her 100th birthday, her eyes grew wide, “That’s Father Escobar! I’ll never forget his face. He terrified me!”

In 1929, the Catholic congregation abandoned the church on Upson Road after 35 years of service. Instead, they used a hall for church services on 7th Street, near the homes of the Raya, Molina and Saragosa families. The church on Upson had become too old and small for the growing Catholic population. By 1934, the parishioners were ready for a new church. Trinidad Raya made a trade of his 7th Street and Ash Avenue corner lot in exchange for the Upson property where La Iglesia San Jose stood. He also donated an adjacent lot so that the new church would have room to expand.

The new church, now using its English name, St. Joseph’s Church, was built from the floor and framing of a tin shed from a Palm Avenue packinghouse for walnuts, and various parts that were saved from La Iglesia San Jose. 

Youngster Sal Campos, seen here on W. 9th Street, assisted his father, Santiago, in removing
La Iglesia San Jose from Upson Road. Sal is the father of the author of this column. Mary Loza

Santiago Campos, known to Spanish-speaking Carpinterians as “Chago” and to the English-speaking community as “Jim”—yes, this is my grandfather and namesake—came to Carpinteria in 1928, settling initially in Old Town. The family rented a house from the Manriquez family near Pear Street along the Coast Highway (Carpinteria Avenue). Campos was looking to build the family home when he purchased a plot of land on W. 9th Street in the cul-de-sac nicknamed “Hollywood” in 1934. He needed lumber to build on it, and he was in luck. The Catholic Church was in the process of relocating from its abandoned church, La Iglesia San Jose on Upson Road, to a new church on 7th Street. Campos paid $50 for the right to tear down the church and claim the lumber.

Borrowing a large hay wagon pulled by two horses from his neighbor, Eugene McCafferty (Father of John McCafferty, author of “Aliso School ‘for the Mexican children’”), Campos gathered a work crew—his sons Luis, David and Sal (Chava), plus neighbors Rodolfo Jimenez, and Lolo and Pablo Marquez. Sal, an eight-year-old at the time, remembers his dad wanting to roll a cigarette, so he handed him the reins of the horses on the way to Upson Road. The horses had a mind of their own, however, and did not heed Sal’s prodding, much to the youngster’s chagrin.

Santiago’s crew tore down La Iglesia San Jose, carefully gathering up the lumber, arched Gothic windows and bell. When asked about the bell, Sal, now 93 years old, shot back, “The bell wasn’t in the contract!”  How Sal recalled this detail—remember, he was eight years old at the time—is anybody’s guess.

The bell was a special memory to Sal, but not in the way parishioners of La Iglesia San Jose had celebrated it. When lowered to the ground, it contained a honeycomb. Enterprising bees had converted it into a hive, and they swarmed around it.  The honeycomb was removed and packed into an empty large box, a square, five-gallon tin for lard.  Sal, his family, and the neighbors, scooped out honeycomb chunks by hand and ate to their heart’s delight.

St. Joseph’s Chapel as it looks today. During its final days on Upson Road, the bell was used as a beehive.
Note the arched Gothic windows. Valerie Reyes Campos

The end result of this story is that in 1934, Santiago Campos constructed the family home on W. 9th Street, and the Catholic congregation built St. Joseph’s Church on 7th Street, incorporating the bell and the tall, arched Gothic windows into the design. Both structures stand to this day.

In June of 1934, after the Church was built, St. Joseph’s was assigned its first parish priest, Monsignor Jose Gutierrez. He was succeeded by Father David Ramirez, the following year.  The congenial Ramirez was remembered fondly for youth group activities like card game socials. According to author Jayne Craven Caldwell in “Carpinteria As It Was,” both of these priests had fled to California from Mexico. The Mexican “Cristero War” (1927 – 29), a conflict between church and state, was raging at the time and many priests were executed, as a result.  “The Power and the Glory” (1940), an award-winning novel by British author Graham Greene, gives a riveting account of this conflict, and its ramifications.
 

St. Joseph Church: A history 

By Hermine Lees 

Founded: 1933

Location: 5048 El Carro Lane, Carpinteria, CA

Santa Barbara Region: Deanery 2

Although there are seven parishes in the Los Angeles Archdiocese named for the patron of the universal church, this one established in Carpinteria -- a name that means "carpenter shop" -- appropriately fits the carpenter from Nazareth.

Old historical records recount an incident from around 1790 when the Spanish soldier and explorer, Gaspar de Portola, witnessed the Chumash Indians constructing wooden canoes, and chose the Spanish term for carpentry to describe the area. The Indians at that time used the gentle slope in the nearby waters and the mild waves to launch their boats along the coast that today comprises the town of Carpinteria.

Was the parish named for St. Joseph because of this connection? That history remains a mystery. Records show that the first American families came to the area in the 1840s, but the townsite was not laid out until 1887. Almost 50 years later the first parishioners struggled to construct a chapel so that a Catholic presence could grow. Parish records do not record the founding pastor; the first pastor listed is Father Leo Lambrick who served from 1938 to 1940 and died in 1972.

During World War II four pastors headed the parish: Father Bernard Butler, 1940-41; Father William O'Shea from Ireland, 1940-42; Father Thomas Lahart from Ireland, 1943-44; and Father John Rengers from Switzerland, 1944-47. They were followed by Father Thomas Tannyane who served as administrator and pastor until he died in 1951.

In 1951 Father James Dessert, from Kansas City, Missouri, assumed his first pastorate at St. Joseph's that lasted to 1955, followed by 23 years as pastor at three other parishes. Named a monsignor just before his retirement in 1978, he died in 2001 at age 96. Following him Father John McNamara of Worcester, Mass., served the parish for three years before founding the new church of St. Martha in La Puente and continued in ministry there for 23 years. He was also named a monsignor and died in 1991 at age 85.

The new parish property purchased in 1961 was first used as the site for the first school and was situated about two miles from the old church built by the pioneer parishioners. The Immaculate Heart Sisters staffed the school and within two years the classrooms doubled. Construction of a new church followed and Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Manning dedicated the striking brick and stucco structure in 1957. The interior of the church was fan-shaped with the pews oriented toward the circular sanctuary. A new rectory was also erected at the same time.

During those years of change and building, Msgr. Francis Roughan, a native Angeleno and a member of the first ordination class of St. John's Seminary, was the pastor, serving the parish for 17 years. At his funeral in 1992, Orange Bishop Norman McFarland said of him: "Msgr. Roughan was a warm and sensitive priest who dared to express his deep faith in words and deeds."

For 12 years, Msgr. Joseph Kearney of Spokane, Wash. - the former band manager for the Bob Crosby "Bob Cats" - instilled a sense of joy and enthusiasm as St. Joseph's pastor. He had also worked for 19 years with the Catholic Labor Institute and six years with Maryknoll missionaries in Peru. He retired in 1988 and died in 2004 at age 92.

Father Francis Seymour of New York was assigned to the parish in 1988; ill health limited his term to one year. Msgr. Michael Jennett, a graduate of St. Finbar School in Burbank and St. John's, headed St. Joseph's for eight years. Having served with the Trappist Monks of Utah, he is currently the pastor at San Roque, Santa Barbara.

Los Angeles native and St. John's ordinand Father David Herrera came to Carpinteria after 12 years as pastor of Nativity in South Los Angeles where he helped in the rebuilding after the Northridge quake. Ordained in 1969, he served just three years at St. Joseph before his death from cancer in 2000 at age 55.

His successor, assigned in 2000, is Father Jose (Berto) Blanco of Michoacan, Mexico, who is also fluent in Ethopian. He is the second pastor bearing the name of the parish patron saint, whose feast day of March 19 started in the early fourth century.