Help preserve ~ Ventura St. Junipero Serra Statue

Become a part of history and preservation of the famed Junipero Serra statue. We need to raise $30,000.00 for construction, relocation, installation, and landscape to create a new home for the historic 1988 bronze statue.

The bronze statue of St. Junipero Serra, previously located in front of the San Buenaventura City Hall, will be installed at the Mission Basilica San Buenaventura (211 E Main St, Ventura, California 93001) later this month.

“We welcome back home the bronze image of St. Junipero Serra. On the ancestral land of the Chumash, Junipero Serra sought to be a spiritual father to the indigenous people in Alta California. He defended their dignity and rights before the Spanish magistrate,” says Fr. Tom Elewaut, pastor of the Mission Basilica. “It is fitting that his image will continue to invoke peaceful and open dialogue regarding the history of the indigenous people, the Mission era and Spanish conquest, the Mexican occupation, the Gold Rush, and finally California statehood in the United States of America, all of which have impacted and influenced the history of this land.”

Bryan Cooke, Cookes Crating, will spearhead the delivery and installation. The bronze cast replaced the original 1936 concrete statue in 1989 in the small park at the top of California Street overlooking downtown Ventura and the Pacific Ocean. In 1988, a group of student artists at the California Sculpture Center at College of the Desert in Palm Desert created a bronze cast of the sculpture using the wood replica. The bronze cast was unveiled in front of Ventura City Hall at a ceremony on October 20, 1989.

In July 2020, the Ventura City Council voted to remove and relocate two statues at a special public meeting. The decision allowed the 9'3" bronze statue, located on public property in front of City Hall, to be put in storage with the goal of moving it to Mission Basilica San Buenaventura.

St. Junípero Serra was a Roman Catholic Spanish priest and friar of the Franciscan Order who founded nine Spanish missions in Alta California and was canonized by Pope Francis on September 23, 2015. On March 31, 1782, Easter Sunday, he founded Mission San Buenaventura, his ninth and final mission, on a site that became downtown Ventura.