Santana Gallery

Painting by Manuel Santana (1927 - 2008)

Santana Gallery, at 115 3rd Street, is one of several art galleries in San Juan Bautista. It opened last summer with an exhibit of the late Manuel Santana's paintings. Mr. Santana was known not only for his art work, but also for his community activism and for his popular restaurant next door to the gallery -- Jardines de San Juan.

If you're like me, your first visit to Santana Gallery will make you think you've been there before. You have. The building was once the home to Galeria Tonantzin, which featured workds of contemporary women artists. I finally remembered when I saw the trap door in the floor that leads to a tunnel system which runs under the city.

My Sources:
Santana Gallery
Manny Santana: Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year
Jardines de San Juan

The open door between Santana Gallery 
and Jardines de San Juan

Ferry-Morse Seed Company

Who else remembers the fields upon fields of beautiful flowers about halfway between Hollister and San Juan Bautista on the south side of San Juan-Hollister Road (aka Highway 156)? As a kid sitting in the back seat, I looked forward to that stretch of the drive. And, today, those brilliant splashes of color come to mind when I first see the buildings of the old Ferry-Morse Seed Company in the distance.

One of the old Ferry-Morse buildings

Ferry-Morse grew the flowers for seeds. I have no idea whether the seeds were directly sold in stores or if the horticulturists were experimenting to find the best seeds to eventually sell. Anyone know?

Originally, the C.C. Morse Company bought about 900 acres of the San Justo Ranch, in 1910. Twenty years later, it merged with D.M. Ferry Company to become the infamous Ferry-Morse Seed Company. I don't know when Ferry Morse sold its San Juan Bautista branch. Today, Ag-Biotech, a company that offers plant genetic analysis services, has facilities there.

My Sources:
Gilroy's Early Seed Companies
Ferry Morse Seed Company
Ag-Biotech 

FYI: Since this past Sunday, I've been blogging about San Juan Bautista and the San Juan Valley.

Apple Orchard Down

In the 1960s and 1970s, driving the back roads of San Juan Valley for me meant going by apple orchard after apple orchard after apple orchard. Today, many of the orchards have been replaced by vegetable fields. I wonder what will be going in place of the apple trees that were recently pulled out around Lucy Brown and Duncan Roads.

FYI: I'm blogging about San Juan Bautista this week. Here are yesterday's post and Sunday's.

San Juan Bautista

Have you taken more than a glance at the cool sign in front of Windmill Market in San Juan Bautista? It most definitely tells the truth.  

San Juan Bautista is about 7 miles west of Hollister. If you're driving south on Highway 25 from the 101 exit, you would turn right at the traffic light where 25 intersects with Highway 156. It's a nice drive through San Juan Valley to the second largest city in San Benito County. In 2012, its population was about 1,900. If you love very small cities, then take a stop in San Juan Bautista.

Some Websites to Check Out
City of San Juan Bautista: History
Old Mission San Juan Bautista
San Juan Bautista, California, USA
City-Data.com: San Juan Bautista

FYI: I'll be blogging about San Juan Bautista this week. Here's yesterday's post about The Cross on Pagan Hill.

The Cross on Pagan Hill

Many years ago, when I was in third grade at Pacheco School, one of our assignments was to draw the landmarks in San Benito County. One was a cross on a hill, which I drew not paying attention to what Mrs. Apsley said it was all about and where it was. For many years I thought the cross was some where on Pacheco Pass. Even though I now know the landmark refers to the cross on top of Pagan Hill above San Juan Bautista, I still find myself scanning the mountains for a cross whenever I drive up Highway 156. Perhaps there is one up on Lover's Leap.

So, what about the cross? Pagan Hill, also known as Mount Holy Cross, was a sacred place for the Mutsun tribe. When the missionaries found that the natives went up to the spot to do their own religious practice, they, the friars, decided to erect a wooden cross as a way to convert the Mutsuns to Catholicism. This was around 1803. A farmer took down the cross about 50 years later. Flash forward about another 50 years when someone or some group put up at wooden cross in the same spot. In 1929, that was replaced with the concrete cross that we see today.

My Sources:
Mission San Juan Bautista by Historic American Landscapes Survey, National Park Service
California: A Guide to the Golden Golden State by Federal Writers' Project