Mission Santa Clara

Santa Clara was the second of the missions  to be founded in obedience of the Viceroy's order to establish two settlements near the great port of San Francisco to hold it against any enemy attack.  It was named after Saint Clare of Assisi, born in 1194 to noble parents.   She refused to marry a wealthy suitor and entered the Franciscan Order, however, St.Francis placed her in a convent.  She eventually founded her own order, the Poor Clares.

Once one of the most prosperous of the missions, it had a famed agricultural reputation.  In 1781, Father Murguia laid the cornerstone for the new chapel.   Although the mission prospered, it had an uncomfortable relationship with the pueblo of San Jose which was founded the same year as Santa Clara.  The Father officiate at the time helped to alleviate this by linking the two communities with a four-mile Alameda, or "Beautiful Way" by planting three rows of black willows which provided the residents of the pueblo a direct route to the mission.

In 1812, an earthquake destroyed much of the mission. After secularization and American occupation, part of the lands which had been confiscated were returned to the Catholic Church, which turned them over to the Jesuit Order for use as a college.  Classes began in 1851 and the college was chartered four years later; the first college in California: the University of Santa Clara.